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4.0étoiles sur 5
The Very Maws of Doom, Nov. 17 2007
"The Rotters' Club" was first published in 2001, and went on to win Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. It's set in 1970s Birmingham, and incorporates a number of real-life people, places and events into the back-story - including the Birmingham Pub Bombing (which led to the imprisonment of the Birmingham Six), the infamous British Leyland plant, the Unions and the inevitable strikes, Enoch Powell, the National Front and various other similar factions and the changes in musical fashion - most notably, from prog to punk rock.
The book tells the story of Ben Trotter's life at secondary achool, and opens in 1973. Ben has one older sister, Lois, and a younger brother, Paul and all three attend King Williams School - quite a prestigious establishment, though seen as a school for "toffs" by the city's working class. Of Ben's two siblings, Lois is much more likeable - and, as it turns out, a great deal more unfortunate. She starts dating Malcolm - generally just referred to as 'Hairy Guy' - shortly after the book opens. (Hairy Guy proves to be a big influence on Ben's musical taste). Paul, Ben's younger brother, generally tends to be a poisonous, spiteful brat. Among Ben's friends at school are Philip Chase, Duggie Anderton and Sean Harding. Like Ben's father, Duggie's father also works at British Leyland. However, where Ben's father is management, Duggie's father is a shop steward for the Union and a committed socialist. Ben, like every other boy at school, is hopelessly in love with Cicely Boyd. It's a pity, really, as he would have been much better off with the very likeable Claire Newman. (Meanwhile, Claire's sister - Miriam - is having an affair with Duggie's dad as the book opens).
The story is mostly told by Sophie - Ben's niece and Lois' daughter - looking back to the 1970s. Occasionally, some of the characters tell part of the story in their own words - a short story by Ben himself, a speech given by Duggie, sections of Lois' diary, the editorials of the school newspaper - even, at one point, a letter written to Ben by another character. On the whole it is a very readable, very enjoyable book - the only sections that didn't work for me were the introduction and the conclusion - featuring Sophie and Patrick. (In fact, the introduction was so bad I nearly didn't bother with the rest of the book). The book also, apparently holds the record for the longest sentence in English literature - Coe would've been better off just using punctuation, and forgetting about the record books, but it's not really that big a deal. Good enough for me to keep an eye out for its sequel - "The Closed Circle", which was released in 2004 and picks up the story in 1990s.
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1.0étoiles sur 5
Rubbish, Avril 10 2004
It may be unfair to review a book you didn't finish. I would certainly say so, in any case but this. I read half of it, and it would have had to undergo a pretty startling metamorphosis in the second half for me to feel even somewhat glad I'd read it, let alone recommend it.There are three principal things wrong here: 1) Any novel which focuses on a group of characters, each one of them as important as another, has to establish
each personality very quickly and disctinctly, so that they can be told apart. In this respect, Coe failed miserably. Even after several chapters, the main characters are indistinct, and sudden attempts to establish them as 'the musical one' or 'the political one' are by contrast unsubtle and destructive. Basically, I think, Coe isn't very good at imagining or developing characters, but he might have been able to do a little better if he had focused on one protagonist. 2) The tone, I guess, is supposed to be comical, but it ends up being simpering and smug and generally irritating. I found myself wanting to slap the author as often as I actually laughed (which, granted, I did sometimes). 3) The political overtones have the subtley of an artillery piece, and are presented as a matter of fact(...). I was entirely unsympathetic to the causes the book seems to champion, even ones which shouldn't be very difficult to arouse sympathy for, such as anti-racism. How can a book fail to make a good anti-racist point? It's like missing a brick wall at five yards, and it's certainly an achievement. This is a first novel, which explains a lot, but it's not quite a sufficient excuse. Somebody needs to take away his word processor.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
First review, Nov. 20 2003
I don't get much time to read books and when I do, If they don't grab me in the first few pages I put them down.
With the Rotters club I was hooked from the go.
This was a time and a place I recognised.
Growing up in london within walking distance of Grunwicks brought back memorys of events.
Some good laughs as well as some shocking moments.
Can't wait for the next book.
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