What a Carve Up! – Jonathan Coe
Another book that was only read and discussed by the female members of the group! It’s a satirical novel following a wealthy (and mostly evil) family in 1980s Britain, and we all found it an enjoyable read, quite easygoing but clever and gripping.
The title is taken from a spoof horror film from the 1960s which is referenced throughout the book and also provides some of the plot structure. Ann pointed out that Coe often structures his work around another artwork. I thought that this film was an odd choice, particularly the focus on the nude scene, and wondered if the film had made as much as an impact on the author in his youth, as it had on Michael.
We all thought that the book was very funny, and spent most of the discussion talking about the most amusing bits (and trying to remember the extremely complicated plot). We liked the biro/brio confusion but found that we had probably left it too long to meet up as we kept forgetting which bits we had liked. Ann thought that it was slow to start and we all agreed. Ann felt that she could see the seams in the writing, with some sections having a different energy to the others.
I pointed out the the book was concerned with the rise of controversial industries, ranging from battery farming, to the arms industry -with members of the Winshaw family playing a key role in each. Ann wondered if making a larger than life family responsible for all the evils of the ’80s underplayed the seriousness of these issues, and let those really responsible off the hook. We thought this was a valid point but accepted that in a humorous, satirical novel these characters worked well, and that it wasn’t the place to analyse all the factors behind the greed of this era.
Ciara was interested in the references to Yuri Gagarin and we noted the similarities between his death and that of Michael’s. I haven’t many notes on what we though the significance of this was so would appreciate any comments that shed any light. We were quite shocked by Coe’s decision to kill off Michael and didn’t really understand why he had chosen to.
I think that we would all agree that we had left it too long to meet up as when we were discussing this book, we had all forgotten different key moments. I think this resulted in a lot of the discussion being about reminding each other of different episodes, and sharing moments that we had found funny, rather than analysing the book. However, I think that it is a definite recommendation. Ann and Ciara felt that they would read other books by Coe, whereas Nicky felt that she probably wouldn’t, even though she had enjoyed this one.
