What A Carve Up - Book Group discussion thread
7 watchers
Sep 2016
8:14pm, 14 Sep 2016
25,695 posts
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McGoohan
Bout time I lobbed this one up here. This is the Sept 2016 offering. WACU by one Little Johnny Coe. Whatcha think? Beware of reading ahead if you haven't finished it yet. Spoilers Ahoy, me hearties! |
Sep 2016
12:05pm, 20 Sep 2016
1,104 posts
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westmoors
Sorry McGoo but I didn't enjoy this one. Thought there were too many characters introduced at the beginning. I often got confused with the order in which things happened as the book seemed to jump from past to present to past... It seemed to take forever to bring the interconnectedness of the stories and characters together. But once it did, it all became very predictable. I was relieved when I finally got to the end.
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Sep 2016
12:14pm, 20 Sep 2016
11,302 posts
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Columba
Goodness - no-one else finished it yet? Anyone else even reading it? I finished it last night. Clever story, all interwoven and intertwined and turning back on itself with links and cross-references here and there. The "horror" was so tongue-in-cheek as to be plan silly (but was probably meant to be). I couldn't manage to feel involved with any of the characters. Suspect it's trying to be too many different genres at once: fierce criticism of the direction society has been taking for the last few decades; redemption-by-love of the nerdy and obsessive protagonist; comic horror; Nasty People finally getting their come-uppance. Shan't want to re-read it, and can't think of anyone I want to pass it on to so it will go to a charity shop. |
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Sep 2016
12:15pm, 20 Sep 2016
11,303 posts
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Columba
Well, look at that. The posts on this thread are like London buses.
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Sep 2016
12:20pm, 20 Sep 2016
25,818 posts
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McGoohan
I'm still reading it - it was the first J. Coe book I read a few years ago and I loved it so much I went out and started trawling through his back catalogue. I must confess, I am finding it a *bit* of a slog as a re-read. Any thoughts on your score Columba? - if I recall, you were wondering whether to alter it. |
Sep 2016
12:23pm, 20 Sep 2016
17,265 posts
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Diogenes
As per McG, it was the first Coe I ever read and I absolutely loved it. I thought it clever, funny, and well-crafted. I am resisting re-reading it as I have too many unread books in the pile, but mainly becuase I don't want to be disappointed.
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Sep 2016
5:42pm, 20 Sep 2016
11,306 posts
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Columba
Certainly it was clever. And certainly funny in places. Can't remember what score I gave it, McG. I'll take a look and maybe change it. |
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Sep 2016
5:44pm, 20 Sep 2016
25,831 posts
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McGoohan
Just finished it on the bus
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Sep 2016
11:03pm, 21 Sep 2016
25,855 posts
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McGoohan
Time for me to review then. As I said before, this is a re-read for me. It was the first Jonathan Coe book I ever read and I loved it so much that I went out and read everything else he had then written. I remembered it being very funny but very relevant and political. I was fully expecting a 10 out of 10. The re-read was a slightly sad experience for me as I found it doesn't hold up as well as I expected. First, what I liked. Coe does good comic set pieces. The bit where Michael is stuck on the tube train and faints is very funny and recognisable. It also a very polemical book. Though it was an attack on the Thatcherite legacy of the time, I think a lot of the standards the Winshaws represent are still prevalent. In fact, time has normalised them such that their money-grabbing ways are the default in politics. A big thumbs up from me on the satire then. Second, what I didn't like. Long, innit? Having asked on the main Book Group thread 'if we could maybe keep the books a bit shorter this time round?' I was left slightly embarrassed that I'd picked a book that was close on 500 pages long. I would have guessed about half that. Maybe 300. And it seems longer because we have that structure: a chapter on a Winshaw and a chapter on Michael. That does go on a bit, doesn't it? Even with the family tree at the beginning - which was a blessing - I soon forgot who was Uncle to who or mother of whoever. Of course, each one embodies one aspect of the worst parts of capitalism so there's quite a lot to critique. It does regather in quite a fun way towards the end but... did it earn that tragic ending? I'm not against miserable endings, but if the book's really a veiled criticism of Conservative politics, why does Michael have to die? To make the book a circle? A final odd thought that only occurred to me this time round - it reminded me of another book we've had in the Book Group: Complicity by Iain Banks. Both books have a mystery assassin picking off the hypocritical and criminal elements of the ruling classes. I gave What A Carve Up! 6/10 in the end. There is a 10/10 in there. |
Sep 2016
8:32am, 22 Sep 2016
10,055 posts
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Sharkie
When you (or someone) picked Complicity I mentioned on the book club thread that near the time of publication of both I'd read another very similar book. I didn't say what it was for fear of giving something away. I read What a Carve Up first so Complicity seemed strangely predictable. It works the other way round of course.
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