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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Perfectly readable and entertaining, but a cliched, shallow mess of a book. Paper-thin, stereotypical characters and lots of unnecessary retellings of famous historical events.
I love Jonathan Coe‘s writing especially for its subtlety. This was true for Bournville as well. The story weaves through the decades and the characters lives and never gets dull with the time jumps. There is a distinct way the little snippets always manage to connect to past ones. All of it is distinctly British, very subtle, very lovely, and a made for wonderful read on a rainy autumn day.
Coe's model is familiar to me by now: the story of a family resting on the events of the last 70-50 years of English history. Nothing new compared to Middle England, but perhaps boredom was predominant this time as far as I was concerned. The Lamb family seems to be a copy of some of the families in past books, and English history, as well known as it is, interests me as a non-Englishman to a certain extent. Maybe next time it will be better.
Il modello di Coe mi é ormai conosciuto: la storia di una famiglia che si appoggia sugli eventi degli ultimi 70-50 anni della storia inglese. Niente di nuovo rispetto a Middle England, ma forse stavolta la noia era predominante per quanto mi riguarda. La famiglia Lamb sembra una copia di alcune delle famiglie dei libri passati e la storia inglese, per quanto conosciuta, a me che non sono inglese interessa poi fino ad un certo punto. Magari la prossima volta andrá meglio.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Il modello di Coe mi é ormai conosciuto: la storia di una famiglia che si appoggia sugli eventi degli ultimi 70-50 anni della storia inglese. Niente di nuovo rispetto a Middle England, ma forse stavolta la noia era predominante per quanto mi riguarda. La famiglia Lamb sembra una copia di alcune delle famiglie dei libri passati e la storia inglese, per quanto conosciuta, a me che non sono inglese interessa poi fino ad un certo punto. Magari la prossima volta andrá meglio.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
This wasn’t my favourite. I didn’t like how all the sections had a different style of writing and felt it was more of a gimmick than an actual addition to the story. I felt like the author often felt very pleased with himself in terms of the foreshadowing he could do and it felt more wink wink rather than a story that was building with interesting themes. It felt also quite soap operatic to me. Based on my personal interest I would have rather read a book about Bournville and Cadbury as a town rather than it being used as a basis for the history of Britain in the 20th century. I generally didn’t find the characters particularly convincing particularly Bridget, dealing with the racism of her in-laws . Also, there were so many that I regularly forgot who they all were and their relation to each other. A character list at the start of each section would not have gone amiss. The ending made it clear that the author had his personal story (his mother dying alone during Covid) and that was very touching but I did feel like he kind of wrote the story to place that in it rather than had a full arc in mind. The themes I saw were national feelings, feelings about the monarchy, racism, the limits we place on ourselves and the different choices we take.
Jonathan Coe seems to have got a bit ... well, Middle English. Gone is the absurdity and angry satire of his earliest novels. But also gone is the complex world-building and character development of [b:The Rotters' Club|41038|The Rotters' Club|Jonathan Coe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320495527l/41038._SY75_.jpg|2951664] and [b:The Closed Circle|137630|The Closed Circle (Rotters' Club, #2)|Jonathan Coe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320511754l/137630._SY75_.jpg|881063]. He just seems to be going through the motions of writing big "state of the nation" novels now. This fell as flat as [b:Middle England|40175320|Middle England (Rotters' Club, #3)|Jonathan Coe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1534339874l/40175320._SY75_.jpg|62326935] for me. I think he wrote both of them too close to the events they cover.
There is some fun to be had -- the earliest parts of the novel are the best, and the scene of the family watching the Queen's coronation is genuinely funny. There are several family gatherings along the way and these ensembles work best. As for Princess Diana's funeral, the eye-popping episode near the end comes closest to his earliest outrageous black humour. But the chapter about the chocolate wars was dull (I suppose that's part of the point) and throughout the novel he bumps up the wordcount by including large verbatim chunks of speeches and television commentary.
You don't read Coe novels for the beautiful writing but for the social observation, and he's still good at that. That said, the chapter about Mary's death (based on his own mother's experience) was genuinely heartfelt -- and I think was probably what prompted him to write the novel as a tribute to her.
Note: I found out on Twitter that there's a family tree in the French edition, so I bookmarked the tweet for reference and it was useful. Don't know why there isn't one in the English version.
So, a mixed bag really. It took a long time to read because reading it at bedtime we'd get bored after a few pages and put it down.
There is some fun to be had -- the earliest parts of the novel are the best, and the scene of the family watching the Queen's coronation is genuinely funny. There are several family gatherings along the way and these ensembles work best. As for Princess Diana's funeral, the eye-popping episode near the end comes closest to his earliest outrageous black humour. But the chapter about the chocolate wars was dull (I suppose that's part of the point) and throughout the novel he bumps up the wordcount by including large verbatim chunks of speeches and television commentary.
You don't read Coe novels for the beautiful writing but for the social observation, and he's still good at that. That said, the chapter about Mary's death (based on his own mother's experience) was genuinely heartfelt -- and I think was probably what prompted him to write the novel as a tribute to her.
Note: I found out on Twitter that there's a family tree in the French edition, so I bookmarked the tweet for reference and it was useful. Don't know why there isn't one in the English version.
So, a mixed bag really. It took a long time to read because reading it at bedtime we'd get bored after a few pages and put it down.
This family saga has as its framework the national events of the last eighty years that have brought families together to listen or watch. One of the threads running through the novel is the idea of nationhood and belonging, so it is a good start. As the title suggests, its heart lies in the chocolate-producing village of Bournville, just outside Birmingham. In the 1970's I used to change trains at Bournville to get to Selly Oak, on the way to work at the university, and remember well the rich smell of chocolate when the wind was in the right direction.
The novel, especially the first few sections, really encapsulates how it felt to live in that model village and at a time of great social change. I had the eery feeling that I actually knew some of these people, and when I looked up the author I found he was born in Bromsgrove, my home town, so maybe I did!
All the characters are vivid, and I enjoyed how they were so different although from the same family. There was also a sense of the path not taken now and again, threads hanging as they actually do in life.
The only page I really did not enjoy was the scene during Diana's funeral where Peter has a sexual experience. It didn't seem right at all, and didn't add much to the narrative.
Overall, I enjoyed it very much, with that one proviso.
The novel, especially the first few sections, really encapsulates how it felt to live in that model village and at a time of great social change. I had the eery feeling that I actually knew some of these people, and when I looked up the author I found he was born in Bromsgrove, my home town, so maybe I did!
All the characters are vivid, and I enjoyed how they were so different although from the same family. There was also a sense of the path not taken now and again, threads hanging as they actually do in life.
The only page I really did not enjoy was the scene during Diana's funeral where Peter has a sexual experience. It didn't seem right at all, and didn't add much to the narrative.
Overall, I enjoyed it very much, with that one proviso.
Loosely based on the area lived in otherwise could be set anywhere. A series of episodes based on mildly interesting historical events, no special literary merit and some too detailed descriptions that were easily skipped without detracting from narrative.
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes