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nealo72's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
wileyacez's review against another edition
5.0
Okay--this book was so much more than expected. It's an homage to a certain type of movie (and even an actual movie, "What a Carve Up!"), but it's also like Coe decided to use as many writing styles as possible to create the book. He even manages to have a section that is purportedly written in childhood--it's a cornucopia of fictional writing techniques. On top of it all, Coe seems to be having a grand time of it. The plot made me think of Snakes & Ladders--characters popped up here as mere names, and then later their story blends into the bigger picture; you really had to keep sharp.
The book was published in the 1980's and dealt with British politics and culture, but it's completely relevant to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%. Very ironic to be reading this book while the news is covering the very same subject matter.
The book was published in the 1980's and dealt with British politics and culture, but it's completely relevant to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99%. Very ironic to be reading this book while the news is covering the very same subject matter.
casthedragon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
rakka_y0k0's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
aiffix's review against another edition
A couple of years ago I started writing a series of satirical poems under the title Third World Britain. These poems were to talk about the selling off of the country to private interests. Starting with transports (railway and roads) they would go on to cover communication, health, education, security, justice to finish with administration and politics itself. They were to be my 2p effort to denounce our own laziness. We need to stop getting abused by the people in power and their sophistic arguments: the logic of profit, the balance-sheeting of life, the quantification of everything, mathematics, statistics, arithmetic.
My own laziness caught up with me mid-way through the third poem.
This week, looking for documentation about England in the eighties (for another project of mine, bigger, stronger, even more vulnerable to laziness aggressions) I opened What A Carve Up, Jonathan Coe's fourth novel, written twenty years ago and denouncing, among other things, the selling off of the country to private interests. Coe's satirical novel starts with politics then turns to journalism, art, finance, health, arms and food. The caricature sounds forced at times (but such is the nature of satire), it still remains a sharp, clever and funny attack against the world built by Thatcher and her bed buddy Tony Blair. It also puts an interesting perspective on how much has changed twenty years down the line: processed food is now an organised crime, art is a whore, finance has bankrupted the country, arms are free-wheeling, journalism has been starved and politics has promoted health into the list of luxury items.
The plot walks us through the life of Michael Owen, a failed novelist who spent his last three years locked in his flat watching the same movie video over and over again. Michael has been commissioned by a mysterious Mecene to write the story of the Winshaw, a family who is less a family than a collection of the capital sins. His investigations unveil manipulation, corruption, scorn, greed and murder to an international scale and, circling onto themselves in a typical "Angel Heart" way, reveal the reason of his own involvement in the life of the Winshaw.
Under the conventional aspect of the plot thus summarised and the classicism of the style (which, at times, rings with Wodehousian accents), Coe's novel is a weird object. The very marked and unbalanced architecture is more akin to poetry collections than of novels, while the alternating voices (from first to third persons, from narrator to characters) and the shifting topics would range it along Diderot's Jacques Le Fataliste or Sterne's Tristram Shamby (both of which are referenced in Coe’s novel). A satire it is, but a satire of the old style, from before it got formatted by the modern publishing industry.
But what makes it most enjoyable to read to my French eyes is the use Coe makes of the whole cultural spectrum, with a freedom that is still difficult to find in France. Even though today’s industry tends to change on the other side of the Channel, twenty years ago the divide between the classic and the popular was still an iron curtain. It was impossible for a writer to tap into both cultural sources at the same time. English writers are not hampered by such stupid artificial lines. Coe’s title itself, What A Carve Up, is copied from a 1961 comic movie. All of Part II chapter titles are taken from fifties and sixties popular movies. In spite of all these popular references, it is on a quite different piece of work that Coe has based his novel. As hinted by one of the opening dedications, the model to which it constantly refers, in its overall structure as well as in its foreboding theme, is the story of Orpheus and more particularly to Cocteau’s adaptation of the myth. The whole ending is a bittersweet twist on Orpheus's taboo (Never Look Behind!) and on its eventual transgression.
And as Orpheus / Michael, having transgressed, falls to his fate, the novel leaves us exactly where such a baroque piece of work is expected to leave us: suspended between an explosive climax and its inescapable albeit non-described consequence. The world has been sold off, the crash is unavoidable, only a miracle could save us now. But we are not dead yet.
My own laziness caught up with me mid-way through the third poem.
This week, looking for documentation about England in the eighties (for another project of mine, bigger, stronger, even more vulnerable to laziness aggressions) I opened What A Carve Up, Jonathan Coe's fourth novel, written twenty years ago and denouncing, among other things, the selling off of the country to private interests. Coe's satirical novel starts with politics then turns to journalism, art, finance, health, arms and food. The caricature sounds forced at times (but such is the nature of satire), it still remains a sharp, clever and funny attack against the world built by Thatcher and her bed buddy Tony Blair. It also puts an interesting perspective on how much has changed twenty years down the line: processed food is now an organised crime, art is a whore, finance has bankrupted the country, arms are free-wheeling, journalism has been starved and politics has promoted health into the list of luxury items.
The plot walks us through the life of Michael Owen, a failed novelist who spent his last three years locked in his flat watching the same movie video over and over again. Michael has been commissioned by a mysterious Mecene to write the story of the Winshaw, a family who is less a family than a collection of the capital sins. His investigations unveil manipulation, corruption, scorn, greed and murder to an international scale and, circling onto themselves in a typical "Angel Heart" way, reveal the reason of his own involvement in the life of the Winshaw.
Under the conventional aspect of the plot thus summarised and the classicism of the style (which, at times, rings with Wodehousian accents), Coe's novel is a weird object. The very marked and unbalanced architecture is more akin to poetry collections than of novels, while the alternating voices (from first to third persons, from narrator to characters) and the shifting topics would range it along Diderot's Jacques Le Fataliste or Sterne's Tristram Shamby (both of which are referenced in Coe’s novel). A satire it is, but a satire of the old style, from before it got formatted by the modern publishing industry.
But what makes it most enjoyable to read to my French eyes is the use Coe makes of the whole cultural spectrum, with a freedom that is still difficult to find in France. Even though today’s industry tends to change on the other side of the Channel, twenty years ago the divide between the classic and the popular was still an iron curtain. It was impossible for a writer to tap into both cultural sources at the same time. English writers are not hampered by such stupid artificial lines. Coe’s title itself, What A Carve Up, is copied from a 1961 comic movie. All of Part II chapter titles are taken from fifties and sixties popular movies. In spite of all these popular references, it is on a quite different piece of work that Coe has based his novel. As hinted by one of the opening dedications, the model to which it constantly refers, in its overall structure as well as in its foreboding theme, is the story of Orpheus and more particularly to Cocteau’s adaptation of the myth. The whole ending is a bittersweet twist on Orpheus's taboo (Never Look Behind!) and on its eventual transgression.
And as Orpheus / Michael, having transgressed, falls to his fate, the novel leaves us exactly where such a baroque piece of work is expected to leave us: suspended between an explosive climax and its inescapable albeit non-described consequence. The world has been sold off, the crash is unavoidable, only a miracle could save us now. But we are not dead yet.
jonfaith's review against another edition
4.0
This one proved to be a treat. I laughed aloud and found myself exposed, so much of my insecurity was stitched into our broader tale of oligarchy and eroding standards imposed upon those who can't afford anything else.
This is a horror novel and not in the sense that a gruesome revenge is exacted. What remains terrifying is how conservative forces render and corrupt matters in the name of freedom and choice: underfunded schools populated with ill fed children only serves one agenda. What does Voldemort think about taxation?
This is a horror novel and not in the sense that a gruesome revenge is exacted. What remains terrifying is how conservative forces render and corrupt matters in the name of freedom and choice: underfunded schools populated with ill fed children only serves one agenda. What does Voldemort think about taxation?
_dilliam_william's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Overall, this book was such a fun read. I don’t think I’ve quite absorbed anything like it yet somehow I find it similar in some ways to some of my other favourite books.
Once I got into the style and structure I just couldn’t get enough of this book. It was very dense and you definitely feel the 500 pages as you go through them but I quite liked slowly making my way through the world and the mystery that Coe lays out.
I liked the mix of overarching plot and short-story-like vignettes about the horrible members of the Winshaw family. The book is also a great fictional exploration of 80s Britain which is also just a period that I’m super interested in.
You could go into this book looking for commentary on everything and probably find it: politics, animal rights, reality and dreams, etc. Yet, despite this dizzying range of issues the book explores, the main character Michael is very sympathetic and he’s a very grounding protagonist to follow through this confusing and reality-bending story.
I’m not sure how I felt about the ending, it tied up the plot points and the book’s themes very well but I don’t know if it was satisfying emotionally. But it didn’t ruin my reading experience or anything!
I would highly recommend this book and I will definitely be coming back to it in the future!
duttelut's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0