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A review by lkedzie
A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin
2.0
They omit the concentration camps in the television series.
The book is about what we would call in 2024 terms 'the swamp' resisting a newly elected leader following their surprising entrance into politics and rise through their party, the distinction here being that it is a populist left of the Labour party in the late eighties.
The book is, in fact, science fiction, in its Next Sunday, A.D. setting, looking forward about eight years from when the book was written. Except there are parts of the background that feel like they ought to matter more, like the aforementioned concentration camps for political undesirables and the acknowledged passing of Peak Oil. They do not.
H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds looking to apply the logic of colonialism as turned on its head, where England was the one being colonized. This book is in that tradition, except as focused on U.S. foreign policy, specifically in the interventionist manner of holding U.S. interests dearer than any other nation's democratic process.
It does feel like it verges on satire. All the elites are foppish. All the Americans cannot get through a sentence without a curse word. All the bad guys are fat. The politics in general is curious from a modern point of view. The good guys here are against the EU and pro-fossil fuels. A major plot point is when the UK turns to I do wonder on that last point how it would have played at the time, but it seems pretty awful now. There is a fair amount of xenophobia and racism (or again, what tends to read about it now) pertaining to the ungovernable inner cities and the sting that plays whenever a Japanese company is mentioned.
Not since Jaws have I felt such dissonance between a book and its movie. I like the miniseries. It makes some bold choices and is memorable. The book is much more in the line of a hardboiled political thriller. Much rests on a, which at first I thought was going to be where the miniseries got some of its moments of espionage flair, but as far as I can tell it is actually just played straight, part of the book's message, which is unfortunate.
The book is interesting for showing how the past is another country. The writing itself is fine, and the plot moves along steadily. Ultimately, I am mostly surprised at how by-the-numbers it is.
The book is about what we would call in 2024 terms 'the swamp' resisting a newly elected leader following their surprising entrance into politics and rise through their party, the distinction here being that it is a populist left of the Labour party in the late eighties.
The book is, in fact, science fiction, in its Next Sunday, A.D. setting, looking forward about eight years from when the book was written. Except there are parts of the background that feel like they ought to matter more, like the aforementioned concentration camps for political undesirables and the acknowledged passing of Peak Oil. They do not.
H.G. Wells wrote War of the Worlds looking to apply the logic of colonialism as turned on its head, where England was the one being colonized. This book is in that tradition, except as focused on U.S. foreign policy, specifically in the interventionist manner of holding U.S. interests dearer than any other nation's democratic process.
It does feel like it verges on satire. All the elites are foppish. All the Americans cannot get through a sentence without a curse word. All the bad guys are fat. The politics in general is curious from a modern point of view. The good guys here are against the EU and pro-fossil fuels. A major plot point is when the UK turns to
Spoiler
certain petrostates: Algeria, Libya, and Iraq, for loans, a great victory over U.S. bankster pressure.Not since Jaws have I felt such dissonance between a book and its movie. I like the miniseries. It makes some bold choices and is memorable. The book is much more in the line of a hardboiled political thriller. Much rests on a
Spoiler
nuclear power accidentThe book is interesting for showing how the past is another country. The writing itself is fine, and the plot moves along steadily. Ultimately, I am mostly surprised at how by-the-numbers it is.