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tummidge 's review for:
Bournville
by Jonathan Coe
This is less a state of the nation novel from Coe and rather a personal ode to his mother and the years of change she would have witnessed. It is not without allusions to real life figures and events that have marred and scarred the British landscape as Coe uses the most important keystones of recent British history to furnish us with a further story or narrative about Mary, the fictive stand in for Coe’s mother, and her close family.
From VE Day 1945 to the 75th Anniversary of the same in 2020, we view episodes of these lives and how they are touched or even defined by the events of British history. The family dynamics and the background upon which they play out are immensely recognisable with grudges and irritations building over the years. The trauma of Lockdown is revisited in the latter stages of the book and the nightmare came back pretty vividly topped off with snippets of speeches from The Queen and Boris Johnson showing the way Britain lives in thrall to its past and traditions even with the transparency of how much Monarchy and Government truly mean.
On the whole, it isn’t a gripping or stirring book, but hugely readable in the style that Coe has honed over the years with realistic characters therein. Maybe one more for the Coe completists among us.
From VE Day 1945 to the 75th Anniversary of the same in 2020, we view episodes of these lives and how they are touched or even defined by the events of British history. The family dynamics and the background upon which they play out are immensely recognisable with grudges and irritations building over the years. The trauma of Lockdown is revisited in the latter stages of the book and the nightmare came back pretty vividly topped off with snippets of speeches from The Queen and Boris Johnson showing the way Britain lives in thrall to its past and traditions even with the transparency of how much Monarchy and Government truly mean.
On the whole, it isn’t a gripping or stirring book, but hugely readable in the style that Coe has honed over the years with realistic characters therein. Maybe one more for the Coe completists among us.