Confusing.

I came to a somewhat unsettling conclusion yesterday evening. For all intents and purposes, I am a 50 something British man.

Which is a bit disturbing to deal with, since ostensibly I am a 20 something South African chick, but hey.

I just finished reading Mark Haddon’s A spot of bother. This is the guy who wrote The curious incident of the dog in the night time.

I read this book in almost one sitting. It is so funny, and disturbing and random and so

(stereo?)typically English in that wry, self-deprecating way, that I could not put it down. It also reaffirmed why I will NEVER EVER get married. Dude.

Basically the book is about an average dysfunctional family, which proceeds to go through a spectacular meltdown to become united in the bizarre mayhem. This culminates in a wedding from hell, involving a religious dog and a headbutt.

The mom is having an affair, the son is gay, the daughter is marrying someone inappropriate who throws rubbish bins when he gets mad.

But of all the characters, I saw myself and my future in the father. He is reserved, distant, detached from his surroundings, disinterested in social interactions, an emotional coward who prefers to hide away rather than face up to uncomfortable situations, or else he just pretends they never happened. He forgets names, makes no effort to remember people or conversations.

He finds family and social life way too demanding. And that is me to a T. A retired Englishman.

If George is anything to go by, I should probably try to change quite soon, or else I will find myself lying in ditches, and doing things with scissors that I really do not think they were made for. This book is pretty gory and disturbing at times. Be warned. I had to take a break in one part just to settle my stomach.

I enjoyed the book and it is pretty light reading, but it does freak me out to identify so strongly with a pensioner with a dingle dangle. Perhaps I should start trying to engage with life a bit better, or at least pretend to until it becomes real?

Hmm. That sounds like too much hard work. Bring on the dentures and the Y-fronts.