Political and personal events contrive to make a young student retreat from his normal lifestyle causing consternation among his friends although it is another recluse who attempts to help him through his problems. The author has also written "The Accidental Woman".
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Review
Witty and intelligent Guardian A very funny novel The Times Literary Supplement Unusual and intriguing Sunday Times
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His most recent novel is The Rain Before It Falls. He is also the author of The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death, What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, The House of Sleep, which won the 1998 Prix Medicis Etranger, The Rotter's Club, winner of the Everyman Wodehouse Prize and The Closed Circle. He has also published a biography of the novelist B.S. Johnson, which won the Orwell prize in 2005. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Amazon.com:
2.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent and intriguing but failed to captivate me
Jan 13 2005
By maria1971
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Robin, the book's [anti-] hero, is an eternal student, making no progress on his thesis, but making a mess of his life in the meantime.
Almost as if it was written as the events occurred, one chapter at a time, with no sense of what would follow, the book flips back and forth from the narrative to Robin's short stories. Although well-written, it is almost self-consciously so, so that it doesn't let you flow with it, and although witty (in an ironic / sarcastic way) and funny in parts, it doesn't really allow you to laugh with it, as the overall feeling is rather sad.
This is not a book you'll regret reading, but it was a bit too melancholy for my liking, and definitely not up to the expectations I'd built up based on his previous boks.
Almost as if it was written as the events occurred, one chapter at a time, with no sense of what would follow, the book flips back and forth from the narrative to Robin's short stories. Although well-written, it is almost self-consciously so, so that it doesn't let you flow with it, and although witty (in an ironic / sarcastic way) and funny in parts, it doesn't really allow you to laugh with it, as the overall feeling is rather sad.
This is not a book you'll regret reading, but it was a bit too melancholy for my liking, and definitely not up to the expectations I'd built up based on his previous boks.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Friendship needs more fertile soil than is provided by the merely social occasion...
Feb 11 2013
By Katia
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Apart from this quote, I can't figure out the meaning of this story. I know it has a lot to do with friendship, love and life, but really: The only positive thing of this book is that even the most depressed reader realizes that their lives are not as bad as they think. There's this Robin guy. He lives in his flat and rarely goes out. He's been prosecuted for a sexual crime he hasn't committed. His closest friend is this woman Aparna, an Indian woman, once a "star" in the neighbourhood and now a bitter lonely woman, who accuses everybody of being selfish, when she is only thinking of herself. There's Hugh. He's unemployed waiting for some teacher to retire so that maybe he can find an academic job. Then there's Emma, the lawyer, whose marriage is dying.
Ted, whom we meet only briefly, and only at the beginning seems to be the happiest man among all of these people.
Though I loved the other two books by this author I found this one pointless and depressing. I hope "The House of Sleep" and "The Rain Before It Falls" aren't the only two books worth reading (though they're really amazing stories!)
I won't write an Italian review for this one, as I am not going to suggest reading this story.
Ted, whom we meet only briefly, and only at the beginning seems to be the happiest man among all of these people.
Though I loved the other two books by this author I found this one pointless and depressing. I hope "The House of Sleep" and "The Rain Before It Falls" aren't the only two books worth reading (though they're really amazing stories!)
I won't write an Italian review for this one, as I am not going to suggest reading this story.
›
Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews
2.5 out of 5 stars
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