Jonathan Coe – MostlyFiction Book Reviews We Love to Read! Sat, 28 Oct 2017 19:51:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.24 THE TERRIBLE PRIVACY OF MAXWELL SIM by Jonathan Coe /2011/the-terrible-privacy-of-maxwell-sim-by-jonathan-coe/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:18:50 +0000 /?p=16561 Book Quote:

“Mankind as you may have noticed, has become very inventive about devising new ways for people to avoid talking to each other, and I’d been taking full advantage of the recent ones. I would always send a text message rather than speak to someone on the phone. Instead of meeting with any of my friends, I would post cheerful, ironically worded status updates on Facebook, to show them all what a busy life I was leading. And presumably people had been enjoying them, because I’d got more than seventy friends on Facebook now, most of them complete strangers.”

Book Review:

Review by Guy Savage  (MAR 11, 2011)

A couple of weeks ago, I watched the film The Social Network. I expect most of us know what the film is about, but for those who don’t, it’s the fictionalized account of the creation of the social networking internet site: Facebook. I liked the film a lot, and one of the things that remained with me after the credits rolled is the changing idea of friendship. In the age of the internet, what does friendship mean? It used to be that we made friends in school, at work or at university, but now many of us have friendships with people online that we’ve never actually met in person. Are these relationships real? Are they substitutes, or are they a facsimile of the “real” thing.

The authenticity of relationships is just one of the many things that trouble the protagonist of Jonathan Coe’s latest novel, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim. Maxwell or Max is 48 years old, and while he struggles with many of the issues that have concerned people for decades (divorce, loneliness, and intimacy), Max seems downright confused by the additional element of social networking that’s reared its head thanks to the internet. Throughout the novel, Max confuses the real and the virtual to great comic results; he misinterprets the smallest gestures and at one point, his most significant relationship is with the female voice of his GPS navigator.

When the novel begins, Max, who’s suffering from depression and is on leave from his job, is on holiday in Australia to visit his father. Since both men have problems with intimacy, it’s a drab lonely visit. The trip is a gift from Max’s ex-wife, Caroline, and while her intentions are murky, nothing seems to come from the trip except an emphasis on Max’s isolation. Max’s return to Britain underscores this isolation. In spite of having 70 friends on Facebook, there are no messages indicating that he’s been missed, and while the junk e-mails pile in, only one appears to have been written from friendship; it’s a request from an old workmate, Trevor, to join him for a drink when he’s in town. The irony here is that the evening with Trevor is based on a job offer and is not extended from friendship at all.

As the novel continues, Max begins a journey–both literal and figurative–a journey to solve his relationship issues and a journey to the Hebrides on a mission to sell toothbrushes. On his journey north, he makes stops at various locations that are connected to his past, and the assumptions he made about his past undergo renovation. As he goes father north, Max begins to unravel as he compares his journey to the notorious and bogus around-the-world yacht trip of Donald Crowhurst, but whereas Crowhurst’s story is tragic, Max’s journey is comic.

The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is great fun to read, and it’s stuffed full of lively, fascinating characters who all seem to slot into Max’s problems in one way or another. He meets Poppy, a professional “adultery facilitator” –a young girl who finds plenty of work cooking up alibis for adulterers who need help covering their tracks, and Miss Erith, an elderly socialist who loathes the capitalist face of the New Britain. This is a novel that deals lightly with a number of big issues: the changing landscape of Britain, the Americanization of British society, outsourcing, and the growing isolation of the individual as many aspects of everyday life become replaced by virtual alternatives.

There are many, many hilarious scenes here as clueless Max misinterprets actions–reading romance into text messages and reading friendship into work meetings, for example. He even, at one point, assumes a female identity in order to maintain an online correspondence with his ex-wife. Lest it should seem that forty-eight-year-old Max is just “past it” when it comes to social etiquette of the internet age, as the plot continues, it’s clear that Max also misinterpreted childhood events. Max’s very real childhood experiences seem as confused and as open to interpretation as Max’s 21st century virtual encounters, and indeed this is the premise that author Jonathan Coe toys with right up to the very last pages. Max seems cartoonish at times, a sad sack at forty-eight, and while we root for Max’s epiphany, the novel’s disappointing conclusion instead pulls the novel into another direction entirely.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 8 readers
PUBLISHER: Knopf (March 8, 2011)
REVIEWER: Guy Savage
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Jonathan Coe
EXTRAS: Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

The Rain Before It Falls

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]]> THE RAIN BEFORE IT FALLS by Jonathan Coe /2009/the-rain-before-it-falls-by-jonathan-coe/ Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:53:56 +0000 /?p=541 Book Quote:

“Beatrix could be a selfish person, at times, there was no doubt about that. . .But at the same time, she was quite capable of love.”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Danielle Bullen (APR 23, 2009)

The Rain Before it Falls is an elegant, multi-generational saga that draws the reader in with a unique narrative format. Before she died, Rosamund left behind a series of cassettes for her niece, Gil, who must pass them onto someone named Imogen. As Gil listens to the tapes, she and the reader learn of the complicated web that draws together her aunt and the mysterious Imogen.

Rosamund’s talk is inspired by pictures. She chose twenty photos that best captured her life story and describes each one–the subjects, the locale, but more than that, the history behind them. Her story begins at the start of World War Two, when she is six. Like many English children, Rosamund was sent away from the dangers of London to live in the country with her aunt Ivy, uncle Owen, and cousins, including Beatrix, three years older. The bond between Beatrix and Rosamund becomes a monumental force in their lives. Beatrix, desperate for the affection she didn’t get from her mother Ivy,  latches onto her cousin as a kindred spirit, someone similarly lost and lonely. Rosamund describes Beatrix’s relationship with her mother as harsh. “Beatrix’s duty was to remain invisible” and any demand for love was met with indifference.

It is no surprise then that Beatrix marries at age eighteen in what used to be termed a shotgun wedding. Beatrix sees the marriage and her pregnancy as a way to escape her mother. Even at age fifteen, Rosamund senses something is wrong. “It is very apparent. . .that Beatrix and Roger have no future.” She felt sad for her cousin for choosing this disappointing life and frustrated for not knowing how to help her. Beatrix doesn’t want help as she takes matters into her own hands, leaves her husband, and runs away with an Irish gypsy, baby daughter Thea in tow.

As they grow older, Rosamund and Beatrix’s lives remained tangled together. During university, Rosamund falls in love with Rebecca. The two share an apartment under the guise of roommates, trying to avoid gossip. Three years after they flee to Ireland, Beatrix and Thea reappear. Beatrix fell in love with another man and must go to Canada to follow him. Thea needs a place to live. Over Rebecca’s protestations, Rosamund agrees she could live with them. The three women form a little family, shown in the photo Rosamund dubs her favorite, evoking her most cherished memories. Two years later, Beatrix returns with her new husband to reclaim her daughter. Little Thea had become the glue that held the family together. Without her, the women become strangers in the same space. Rebecca writes a note.  “I don’t want to be in this place without her any longer,” and the door closed on that chapter of Rosamund’s life.

The story skips ahead as the photographs become more current. Rosamund visits Beatrix and her family.  She witnesses a horrible fight between mother and daughter, eerily reminiscent of the hatred Beatrix and Ivy had for each other. After the argument, Rosamund comforts Thea and falls asleep in her room. The next day, Beatrix falsely accuses her of something abhorrent and Rosamund leaves. It is the last time the cousins see each other, their once unshakeable bond ripped apart by Beatrix’s insecurity and selfishness.

Thea loses touch with her aunt as she grows up and eventually has her own daughter, Imogen, whom she gives up for adoption. Rosamund thinks, “I still believed reconciliation was possible. . .I could be the one to bring it about.” Her recordings are her attempt to bridge the past and the present, to connect Imogen to the mother and grandmother she never knew.

Author Jonathan Coe’s technique is the most compelling part of the novel. Anyone who has ever looked at old family photos knows the weight they carry.  Stringing together a story based on pictures is clever. Coe’s excellent descriptive skills are evident. It’s almost as if the reader has a copy of these images. They are painstakingly detailed but never overdone.  Effortless is the best way to describe Coe’s writing. It is easy to get drawn into the novel and not realize how much time has passed.

All of the characters are complex, especially Beatrix. While she does some dishonorable things, it is hard to dislike her. Coe creates four sympathetic female characters, where other writers struggle to create one. Any woman will find parts of her relationship with her own female relatives in this saga, which is what makes it compelling. The Rain Before it Falls has much to recommend it. This slim volume packs a deep emotional punch.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 9 reviewers
PUBLISHER: Vintage (March 10, 2009 in PB)
REVIEWER: Danielle Bullen
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Jonathan Coe
EXTRAS: Complete Review on Jonathan Coe
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: no

Bibliography:

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