Middle England

Middle England revisits characters from Coe’s earlier novels The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle – I suppose the three books could be said to form a loose trilogy – and follows them from 2010 to the present day. Their experiences are juxtaposed with a wealth of political developments and Leggi tutto

Too long. Far, far, far too long. Also, the enormous amount of time that Coe spent describing the major British political and social events of the past ten years frequently left me wondering whether this was a novel or a short history of modern Britain. Altogether a deeply frustrating read.

Επιτέλους ένα βιβλίο για το σήμερα, με όλες τις ανησυχίες, τις σκέψεις κ τα προβλήματα μιας κοινωνίας ανοιχτής, που μεταλλάσσεται σε κλειστοφοβική κ εχθρική στο διαφορετικό. Η Αγγλία του σήμερα που σταδιακά, όσο κυλά η ανάγνωση, γίνεται η Ευρώπη κ τελικά ο κόσμος, η ιστορία του οποίου κάνει κύκλους Leggi tutto

First off, Middle England is the third book in Jonathan Coe’s Rotter’s Club series but I’ve not read either The Rotter’s Club or The Closed Circle and you don’t need to either if you’re thinking of picking this one up; it works fine as a standalone piece but maybe if you’ve read the previous two boo Leggi tutto

Documenting the past decade through a fairly large cast of characters, Middle England is a hugely enjoyable chronicle but has slightly too many plots for its own good.