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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Con questo romanzo Coe racconta l'Inghilterra e il suo rapporto con la politica, grosso modo tra il 2000 e il 2008. Diventa quasi un racconto di una società' spaccata, e meglio di altri libri riesce a spiegare (forse) il perché del voto sulla Brexit, attraverso il racconto di persone di tutti i giorni.
A story about friendship,love and hate how families and friends are torn apart by Brexit. The reasons how people can become diveded by
a lack of understanding and trust in people we elect to help us have a better life. Let down by greed and power, how we struggle to coup with these
life changes. Told with a true understanding how the UK was caught up in the madness that has become Brexit.
a lack of understanding and trust in people we elect to help us have a better life. Let down by greed and power, how we struggle to coup with these
life changes. Told with a true understanding how the UK was caught up in the madness that has become Brexit.
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good read that kind of shows us why we are where we are, but more importantly highlights the personal impact of Brexit and the fracturing of relationships caused by it.
I only learned that Jonathan Coe’s Middle England is the third book in a series that began in 2001 with The Rotters Club and continued in 2004 with The Closed Circle after I began reading it. In retrospect, I can see that not being familiar with the backgrounds, relationships, and past experiences of the main characters from the first two books made it considerably more difficult for me to keep all of them straight in Middle England. Although Coe makes a valiant effort to tie the past to the present in Middle England , those readers who have already read the first two Rotters Club books are likely to perceive some of the book’s episodes differently (as in better or more precisely) than those reading Middle England as a standalone. But even as a standalone, this book is brilliant.
Jonathan Coe has written what many in Britain are calling its “state-of-the-nation” novel. Middle England begins with the 2008 financial crash and ends in late 2018 with Britain still unable (or perhaps unwilling) to figure out how to make the Brexit vote a reality. Benjamin Trotter, one of the book’s main characters, is a somewhat failed family man who now finds himself living alone and hoping to get his excessively long manuscript published. Ben spends much of his time as caretaker of his elderly father, a man who constantly complains that the England he remembers so well is being ruined by the outrageously high number of newly arrived immigrants to his country. The book’s other main character is Ben’s niece Sophie, a university lecturer who falls in love with a young man who shares many of the views of Ben’s father – despite vigorously disagreeing with those views herself. Most of the book’s more secondary characters appear in the previous Rotters Club books, but their relationships are largely defined in Middle England by their approval or disapproval of the Brexit vote. The “Remainers” and the “Leavers” only communicate by shouting at each other – and neither side is at all interested in what the other has to say. Long-term friendships are ending; parents, children, and siblings are no longer speaking; and marriages are ending in loudly contested divorces. It’s as if Britain had morphed into two separate countries. Sound familiar, America?
The biggest surprise about Middle England, though, is how funny it is. Picture scenes like the one in which two children’s entertainers (one dressed as a clown, the other as a mad professor of sorts) come to blows and throw F-bombs and fists at each other during a little boy’s birthday party. Or what I consider to be the funniest sexual encounter scene I have ever read, during which two nearly-sixty-year-olds decide to recreate a sexual encounter from their high school days inside a cramped wardrobe. (Let’s just say that the results bear little resemblance to those of forty years earlier.)
Another striking thing about Middle England is that its author treats both sides of the Pro-Brexit, Anti-Brexit argument with a measure of respect rather than taking a hardline approach in favor of either. He does the same, in fact, with the issue of immigration and national boundaries. Some of Coe’s main characters feel strongly one way and others feel strongly the other way. Admittedly, the book’s more sympathetic characters all lean in the same liberal direction, but in the end most of them adopt a more moderate approach to those with opposing views than they started with.
Bottom Line: Middle England is a funny and thought-provoking novel in which American readers will see many parallels between life in today’s Britain and today’s America. The novel exposes the absurdity of politics in both countries (and the rest of the world, for that matter) while offering a little hope that more moderate voices will eventually return to some power and influence. Although it will help, an interest in politics is not a prerequisite for reading Middle England because it is an entertaining novel filled with interesting characters for whom the reader will come to care.
Jonathan Coe has written what many in Britain are calling its “state-of-the-nation” novel. Middle England begins with the 2008 financial crash and ends in late 2018 with Britain still unable (or perhaps unwilling) to figure out how to make the Brexit vote a reality. Benjamin Trotter, one of the book’s main characters, is a somewhat failed family man who now finds himself living alone and hoping to get his excessively long manuscript published. Ben spends much of his time as caretaker of his elderly father, a man who constantly complains that the England he remembers so well is being ruined by the outrageously high number of newly arrived immigrants to his country. The book’s other main character is Ben’s niece Sophie, a university lecturer who falls in love with a young man who shares many of the views of Ben’s father – despite vigorously disagreeing with those views herself. Most of the book’s more secondary characters appear in the previous Rotters Club books, but their relationships are largely defined in Middle England by their approval or disapproval of the Brexit vote. The “Remainers” and the “Leavers” only communicate by shouting at each other – and neither side is at all interested in what the other has to say. Long-term friendships are ending; parents, children, and siblings are no longer speaking; and marriages are ending in loudly contested divorces. It’s as if Britain had morphed into two separate countries. Sound familiar, America?
The biggest surprise about Middle England, though, is how funny it is. Picture scenes like the one in which two children’s entertainers (one dressed as a clown, the other as a mad professor of sorts) come to blows and throw F-bombs and fists at each other during a little boy’s birthday party. Or what I consider to be the funniest sexual encounter scene I have ever read, during which two nearly-sixty-year-olds decide to recreate a sexual encounter from their high school days inside a cramped wardrobe. (Let’s just say that the results bear little resemblance to those of forty years earlier.)
Another striking thing about Middle England is that its author treats both sides of the Pro-Brexit, Anti-Brexit argument with a measure of respect rather than taking a hardline approach in favor of either. He does the same, in fact, with the issue of immigration and national boundaries. Some of Coe’s main characters feel strongly one way and others feel strongly the other way. Admittedly, the book’s more sympathetic characters all lean in the same liberal direction, but in the end most of them adopt a more moderate approach to those with opposing views than they started with.
Bottom Line: Middle England is a funny and thought-provoking novel in which American readers will see many parallels between life in today’s Britain and today’s America. The novel exposes the absurdity of politics in both countries (and the rest of the world, for that matter) while offering a little hope that more moderate voices will eventually return to some power and influence. Although it will help, an interest in politics is not a prerequisite for reading Middle England because it is an entertaining novel filled with interesting characters for whom the reader will come to care.
I do love the Costa Prize. It regularly throws up a new-to-me author or a book that I come to adore. The Costa folk have a happy knack of selecting engaging stories, quirky ideas and immensely readable books. There was a lot to love about the 2019 Fiction winner, Middle England.
Set in Brexit England, with a cast of characters that made previous appearances in Coe's two earlier books, The Rotters’ Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004). Although I hadn't read the first two books, I was able to jump straight into Middle England thanks to the in context flashbacks and remembrances of the main characters. These main characters were obviously much loved by Coe. They were written with such affection, that it was hard not to like them as well.
I would suggest that Coe's political view of the world basically coincides with my own, so even though I learnt a lot about the Brexit process and gained some insight into how it happened, my views were not challenged. The Remain characters were drawn sympathetically, but were also portrayed as being racist, sexist and/or homophobic. The genuine fear (of change, of the 'other', of difference) that many Remain voters feel, was never really brought forward and the many issues with the EU body politic were only briefly touched on. Perhaps the least sympathetic character, was young Coriander (she was always going to be difficult with a name like that!), the extreme left-wing militant who took offence at pretty much everything.
This all might sound a bit heavy and boring, but let me assure you, it was far, far from that. I had some genuine laugh out loud moments and was entertained from start to finish.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/02/middle-england-jonathan-coe.html
Set in Brexit England, with a cast of characters that made previous appearances in Coe's two earlier books, The Rotters’ Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004). Although I hadn't read the first two books, I was able to jump straight into Middle England thanks to the in context flashbacks and remembrances of the main characters. These main characters were obviously much loved by Coe. They were written with such affection, that it was hard not to like them as well.
I would suggest that Coe's political view of the world basically coincides with my own, so even though I learnt a lot about the Brexit process and gained some insight into how it happened, my views were not challenged. The Remain characters were drawn sympathetically, but were also portrayed as being racist, sexist and/or homophobic. The genuine fear (of change, of the 'other', of difference) that many Remain voters feel, was never really brought forward and the many issues with the EU body politic were only briefly touched on. Perhaps the least sympathetic character, was young Coriander (she was always going to be difficult with a name like that!), the extreme left-wing militant who took offence at pretty much everything.
This all might sound a bit heavy and boring, but let me assure you, it was far, far from that. I had some genuine laugh out loud moments and was entertained from start to finish.
Full review here - http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/02/middle-england-jonathan-coe.html
Brexit is at the centre, both literally and metaphorically, of Jonathan Coe’s latest novel. The title hints at the territory it covers: geographical, since much of the action takes place in the English midlands; social, since many, but by no means all, of the characters are comfortably-off middle class; and psychological, since the sympathetic characters at least show some sense of being balanced and reasonable.
Coe goes back to the cast of characters first introduced in The Rotters’ Club, especially Benjamin Trotter, now living as a semi-recluse in a converted mill in Shropshire, and still working on the roman fleuve that he hopes to publish some day. We see him first after the funeral of his mother, listening to Shirley Collins’s evocative rendition of the old folk song “Adieu to old England.” Sophie, his niece, now an art historian, has a major presence in this novel, as does his friend Doug, now a hard-bitten member of the political commentariat.
The novel is structured around significant recent events in British life, beginning with the 2010 election, and taking in the 2011 riots, the London Olympics of 2012, the 2015 election, the killing of Jo Cox in the 2016 referendum campaign, and the rise of Trump and populism. There’s a specificity about it, not just in terms of the history, with particular dates and events in mind, but geographically, with the topography of the midlands frequently featuring. This is the England of garden centres and golf courses, but also of abandoned factories and foodbanks, homogenised high streets and hypermarkets.
The calamity of the referendum result lies at the novel’s heart, its implications rippling out to affect the lives of all the characters, usually for the worse, but sometimes, surprisingly, for the better. The novel, more so than the previous two in the series, seeks to anatomise England (not Britain) and finds a melancholy spiritual waste land at its core.
This is not to say that the narrative does not have its lighter moments. Coe shows once again what a master he is of the comic set piece scene, especially in the spats between two minor characters who are children’s entertainers. He is especially acerbic when presenting the vacuous doublespeak of Nigel, a spin-doctor working for David Cameron He is also capable of managing a large ensemble of characters, skilfully intertwining their stories, and producing a kind of contemporary Canterbury Tales, in which each participant – Benjamin’s bitter widowed father, Sophie’s blokey husband, his mother’s eastern European cleaner, Doug’s liberal Tory MP girlfriend amongst others – contributes to the overall portrait of a country in terminal decline, at war with itself.
This is truly a “condition of England” novel, which, despite the lightness of its touch, plumbs profound and disturbing depths. It should be required reading for every MP, and everyone who cares for this country.
Coe goes back to the cast of characters first introduced in The Rotters’ Club, especially Benjamin Trotter, now living as a semi-recluse in a converted mill in Shropshire, and still working on the roman fleuve that he hopes to publish some day. We see him first after the funeral of his mother, listening to Shirley Collins’s evocative rendition of the old folk song “Adieu to old England.” Sophie, his niece, now an art historian, has a major presence in this novel, as does his friend Doug, now a hard-bitten member of the political commentariat.
The novel is structured around significant recent events in British life, beginning with the 2010 election, and taking in the 2011 riots, the London Olympics of 2012, the 2015 election, the killing of Jo Cox in the 2016 referendum campaign, and the rise of Trump and populism. There’s a specificity about it, not just in terms of the history, with particular dates and events in mind, but geographically, with the topography of the midlands frequently featuring. This is the England of garden centres and golf courses, but also of abandoned factories and foodbanks, homogenised high streets and hypermarkets.
The calamity of the referendum result lies at the novel’s heart, its implications rippling out to affect the lives of all the characters, usually for the worse, but sometimes, surprisingly, for the better. The novel, more so than the previous two in the series, seeks to anatomise England (not Britain) and finds a melancholy spiritual waste land at its core.
This is not to say that the narrative does not have its lighter moments. Coe shows once again what a master he is of the comic set piece scene, especially in the spats between two minor characters who are children’s entertainers. He is especially acerbic when presenting the vacuous doublespeak of Nigel, a spin-doctor working for David Cameron He is also capable of managing a large ensemble of characters, skilfully intertwining their stories, and producing a kind of contemporary Canterbury Tales, in which each participant – Benjamin’s bitter widowed father, Sophie’s blokey husband, his mother’s eastern European cleaner, Doug’s liberal Tory MP girlfriend amongst others – contributes to the overall portrait of a country in terminal decline, at war with itself.
This is truly a “condition of England” novel, which, despite the lightness of its touch, plumbs profound and disturbing depths. It should be required reading for every MP, and everyone who cares for this country.
I’ve had mixed responses to Jonathan Coe novels over the years. I loved The Rotters’ Club and What a Carve Up!, I thought The Closed Circle (follow up to The Rotters’ Club) and House of Sleep were okay, and I’ve started one or two others that I couldn’t get through at all.
Middle England picks up the story of the protagonists of The Rotters’ Club in 2010 and follows their stories up to and after the Brexit referendum. It doesn’t have a conventional narrative arc, it’s more a series of vignettes showing how Benjamin, Doug and co react to current events and to changes in their personal lives. It’s a bit like a hearing a series of anecdotes about old friends, moderately entertaining if you know them (though I’m not sure you’d be interested if you don’t).
While What a Carve Up! took apart Tory rule with savagery and humour and heart, I found this examination of Brexit terribly condescending. If you’ve been following politics at all in recent years, I don’t think you’ll learn or experience anything new. If you’re not interested in politics, why would you read it at all?
The political points made in the novel, such as they are, are so crass and obvious that they make phone-ins seem erudite. Benjamin’s father and pretty much everyone of their generation is a cross between Victor Meldrew and Katie Hopkins, while it seems the true pain of Brexit for the protagonists is that they have to listen to dreadful people’s views over dinner.
I know that people actually do say the things that you think are only clichés (who hasn’t sat through an awkward family Christmas or a wedding trying to ward off comments about how ‘the neighbourhood has gone downhill since they moved in’, or ‘my best friend’s cousin’s brother is getting a fortune in disability and he plays golf three times a week’) but in a novel don’t we want something a bit more challenging? Something that tries to understand the lives and thoughts of people who disagree with us? Something to make us consider the bigger forces that led us to this point?
If Coe is on the side of progressives, why does he make all the characters so unsympathetic and out of touch? Sophie, Benjamin’s niece, doesn’t think racism is a thing in one chapter, then in the next thinks an Asian woman is ‘brave’ because she runs a class for speeding drivers(?!). Sophie’s beginning a career in higher education but instead of struggling to pay the rent on precarious short-term contracts, she drifts airily between teaching in Birmingham, research at the British Library and lucrative private lecture gigs. The people who are really suffering are at the periphery of the story. Doug’s privileged daughter, who invites herself to a riot on a kind of poverty safari, is at least self-aware.
I don’t think you can call it satire if it doesn’t make you laugh, or give you some insight, or motivate you to change. This just made me sad.
*
I received a copy of Middle England from the publisher via Netgalley.
Read more of my reviews at https://katevane.com/blog/
Middle England picks up the story of the protagonists of The Rotters’ Club in 2010 and follows their stories up to and after the Brexit referendum. It doesn’t have a conventional narrative arc, it’s more a series of vignettes showing how Benjamin, Doug and co react to current events and to changes in their personal lives. It’s a bit like a hearing a series of anecdotes about old friends, moderately entertaining if you know them (though I’m not sure you’d be interested if you don’t).
While What a Carve Up! took apart Tory rule with savagery and humour and heart, I found this examination of Brexit terribly condescending. If you’ve been following politics at all in recent years, I don’t think you’ll learn or experience anything new. If you’re not interested in politics, why would you read it at all?
The political points made in the novel, such as they are, are so crass and obvious that they make phone-ins seem erudite. Benjamin’s father and pretty much everyone of their generation is a cross between Victor Meldrew and Katie Hopkins, while it seems the true pain of Brexit for the protagonists is that they have to listen to dreadful people’s views over dinner.
I know that people actually do say the things that you think are only clichés (who hasn’t sat through an awkward family Christmas or a wedding trying to ward off comments about how ‘the neighbourhood has gone downhill since they moved in’, or ‘my best friend’s cousin’s brother is getting a fortune in disability and he plays golf three times a week’) but in a novel don’t we want something a bit more challenging? Something that tries to understand the lives and thoughts of people who disagree with us? Something to make us consider the bigger forces that led us to this point?
If Coe is on the side of progressives, why does he make all the characters so unsympathetic and out of touch? Sophie, Benjamin’s niece, doesn’t think racism is a thing in one chapter, then in the next thinks an Asian woman is ‘brave’ because she runs a class for speeding drivers(?!). Sophie’s beginning a career in higher education but instead of struggling to pay the rent on precarious short-term contracts, she drifts airily between teaching in Birmingham, research at the British Library and lucrative private lecture gigs. The people who are really suffering are at the periphery of the story. Doug’s privileged daughter, who invites herself to a riot on a kind of poverty safari, is at least self-aware.
I don’t think you can call it satire if it doesn’t make you laugh, or give you some insight, or motivate you to change. This just made me sad.
*
I received a copy of Middle England from the publisher via Netgalley.
Read more of my reviews at https://katevane.com/blog/
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I could not have picked up a better book to get back into reading again than Middle England, with its great cast of characters and their relatable experiences. Coe's candid style drew me in straight away and even though, in a book of roughly 450 pages, there's bound to be moments of irk and annoyance over some individuals, there was no character that I disliked (and that's saying something).
Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for an open and honest review.
This novel is mainly set in the western midlands and timescale is events leading up to the brexit vote and afterwards through different relationships. The author uses characters from both sides remain/leave and left/right. You can feel as though you are part of this even though its still fresh in the mind.
This novel is mainly set in the western midlands and timescale is events leading up to the brexit vote and afterwards through different relationships. The author uses characters from both sides remain/leave and left/right. You can feel as though you are part of this even though its still fresh in the mind.
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes