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Jonathan Coe
ISBN: 9780141033273
Format: Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
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On Millennium night, with Blair presiding over a superficially cool, sexed-up new version of the country, Benjamin Trotter finds himself watching the celebrations on his parents' TV in the same Birmingham house in which he grew up. He is watching his brother, Paul, now a young New Labour MP who has bought wholeheartedly into the Blairite dream.
Jonathan Coe's previous novel, "The Rotters' Club", was a novel of innocence: a nostalgic, humorous evocation of adolescent life in 1970s Britain. "The Closed Circle" is its mirror image: a novel of experience. On Millennium night, with Blair presiding over a superficially cool, sexed-up new version of the country, Benjamin Trotter finds himself watching the celebrations on his parents' TV in the same Birmingham house in which he grew up. He is watching, in fact, his younger brother, Paul, now a bright young New Labour MP who has bought wholeheartedly into the Blairite dream. Neither of them can know that their lives are about to implode.Set against the backdrop of Britain's racial and social tensions and the country's increasingly compromised role in America's 'war against terrorism', "The Closed Circle" shuttles between London and Birmingham, taking in fat cats, media advisers and political protestors. As its characters struggle to make sense of the perennial problems of love, vocation and family in a changing world, it offers a bitter-sweet conclusion to the unfinished business of "The Rotters' Club".
| ISBN | 0141033274 | | Pages | 448 | | ISBN13 | 9780141033273
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 297 | | Publisher | Penguin Books Ltd | | Published in | London | | Imprint | Penguin Books Ltd | | Previous ISBN | 9780140294675 | | Format | Paperback | | Height (mm) | 198 | | Publication date | 19 May 2008 | | Width (mm) | 129 | | DEWEY | 823.914 | | Spine width (mm) | 27 | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | | Academic level | General |
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Praise for The Closed Circle: 'Spectacular. Coe's finest achievement since What a Carve Up!' Time Out Wonderful, hilarious ... so appealing that the last cruel thing about it is the ending' Daily Telegraph 'Superbly funny, extremely readable, entertaining ... keeps the pages turning' Guardian 'As funny as anything Coe has written' The Times Literary Supplement 'Richly drawn. Coe has succeeded in accomplishing that rare feat: a pair of novels that combine the addictive quality of the best soap operas with a basic cultural integrity' Independent on Sunday  Be the first to write a customer review
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