Middle England, Jonathan Coe
Middle England, Jonathan Coe
1 Rating(s)
List: $22.50 | Sale: $15.75
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Middle England
A Novel (Costa Novel Award)

Author: Jonathan Coe

Narrator: Rory Kinnear

Unabridged: 14 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/20/2019


Synopsis

A comedy for our times” (The Guardian), Middle England is a piercing and provocative novel about a country in crisis. From the frenzy of the 2012 Olympics to the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, here Jonathan Coe chronicles the story of modern Britain by way of a cast of characters whose world is being upended.

There are newlyweds who disagree about the country’s future and, possibly, their relationship; a political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his lavish town house while his radical teenage daughter undertakes a relentless quest for universal justice; and Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father, whose last wish is to vote to leave the European Union. A sequel to The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle that stands entirely alone, Middle England is a darkly comic look at our strange new world.

About Jonathan Coe

Jonathan Coe was born in 1961 in Lickey, a suburb of south-west Birmingham. His first novel, The Accidental Woman, was published in 1987. His bestselling novels include What a Carve Up! and The Rotters' Club. He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including both Costa Novel of the Year and Prix du Livre Europeen. He won France's Prix Medicis for The House of Sleep and Italy's Premio Flaiano and Premio Bauer-Ca' Foscari.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Blair on October 25, 2018

Middle England revisits characters from Coe’s earlier novels The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle – I suppose the three books could be said to form a loose trilogy – and follows them from 2010 to the present day. Their experiences are juxtaposed with a wealth of political developments and......more

Goodreads review by Andy on February 10, 2021

Too long. Far, far, far too long. Also, the enormous amount of time that Coe spent describing the major British political and social events of the past ten years frequently left me wondering whether this was a novel or a short history of modern Britain. Altogether a deeply frustrating read.......more

Goodreads review by Sam on April 06, 2020

First off, Middle England is the third book in Jonathan Coe’s Rotter’s Club series but I’ve not read either The Rotter’s Club or The Closed Circle and you don’t need to either if you’re thinking of picking this one up; it works fine as a standalone piece but maybe if you’ve read the previous two boo......more

Goodreads review by Barry on January 14, 2020

Documenting the past decade through a fairly large cast of characters, Middle England is a hugely enjoyable chronicle but has slightly too many plots for its own good.......more


Quotes

“In the three years since the E.U. referendum the only piece of writing I have found to really get under the skin of the mess that Britain is now has been Jonathan Coe’s Brexit novel Middle England. It’s funny, compassionate and completely clearsighted. Sometimes you want to thank an author for writing a certain book, and this is one of those times.” —Nina Stibbe, The New York Times

“The book everyone is talking about.” —The Times (London)

“[A] wild jaunt. . . . An incisive and often scabrously funny satire and a compelling portrait of the way we live now.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Coe’s witty and knowing satire exposes the deepest feelings of a bunch of entertaining Brits facing an uncomfortable future—in a world very like our own.” —People
 
Middle England tracks a vivid cast of characters through the U.K.’s social and political transformation to its current troubled Brexit era, attuned to absurdity and suffused with compassion.” —USA Today
 
“Brilliant. Read it too fast, finished it too soon.” —Nigella Lawson
 
“Coe’s writing is as smoothly accomplished as ever. His comic set pieces—funerals, dinners, clown fights—are very funny.” —The Guardian
 
“A pertinent, entertaining study of a nation in crisis.” —Financial Times
 
“A sweeping and very funny state-of-the-nation novel . . . Coe—a writer of uncommon decency—reminds us that the way out of this mess is through moderation, through compromise.” —The Observer 

“[Coe] far outranks many Booker winners in his talent for characterization and captivating narrative.” —Literary Review
 
“Brilliantly funny. . . . A compelling state-of-the-nation novel, full of light and shade, which vividly charts modern Britain’s tragicomic slide.” —The Economist
 
“At times uproarious and always on-the-money, without ever feeling didactic.” —Evening Standard
 
“The first great Brexit novel.” —Sathnam Sanghera
 
“Timely and timeless. . . . Coe’s singular achievement is the dexterity with which he illustrates the generational conflicts and the nuanced experiences of aging. . . . This plaintive, clarion call is an acerbic, keenly observed satire peppered with the penetrating wit for which Coe is so justly admired.” Bill Kelly, Booklist (starred review)

“Sharply observed, bitingly witty yet emotionally generous. . . . Coe’s marvelous humor is still in evidence, but it’s got a decided edge. . . . With his usual acuity, [he] tells the story of a collective meltdown through its impact on individuals.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
 
“Excellent. . . . A neat pastiche of the cultural flash points of the past decade, done with humor and empathy. . . . A remarkable portrait of a country at an inflection point.” —Publishers Weekly

“As Brexit throws Britain into another protracted turmoil, Jonathan Coe once again turns his talents to documenting the state of the nation. . . . Middle England is a hilarious, nuanced and well-observed novel that keeps the pages turning while leaving a smile on readers’ faces.” —BookPage
 
“The Rotters are back. . . . With stories ranging from the heady days of the London Olympics to the unholy mess that is Brexit, this multistranded novel depict[s] the ever-widening gulf between the well-intentioned but misguided Left and the angry Right. Coe astutely blends political insight with assured storytelling.” —Library Journal


Awards

  • Costa Novel Award