A Spot of Bother

This book makes me think of an episode of this american life that I once listened to which was about fiascos. I recall the episode describing a small-town production of Peter Pan which quickly snowballed from funny, to ridiculous, to a full blown fiasco over the period of one act. The narrator described the change in the audience as the play quickly fell apart—transitioning from a group of sympathetic and encouraging patrons, to slight discomfort for the feelings of the actors, to full out hysteria as the humour of the situation could no longer be denied. This book is a story about one family's fiasco. And towards the end, when the ball is really rolling, it takes on a life of its own. Unfortunately, the build is too slow and puts the reader in the position of discomfort for far too long. I'm not at all surprised by the number of people who stopped me while I was reading this book just to tell me that they had started it but never got into it and put it down without finishing. While I did enjoy the dark comedy of this ultimate fiasco, I don't know if the payout ultimately balances out the initial investment.