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A social satire on Britain today. The narrator is a writer hired to do the biography of a prominent upper-class family. In the process, he finds the family represents everything that is wrong with the country, from Hilary, the yellow journalist, to Thomas, the inside trader, to Henry, the hypocritical medicare reformer, and so up and down the family tree.Tags
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I haven’t enjoyed a satire this much in ages. Never heard of Jonathan Coe, never heard of this book and so I was very surprised to find how much I enjoyed it. The book pretty much has everything. It’s funny, satirical, wise and very well put together.
The book follows the saga of the Winshaw family through the investigations of writer Michael Owen who finds himself bound up in the saga himself. The book jumps backwards and forwards in time and from different points of view as it relates the family saga. All in all, each member of this repugnant family represents something that has gone wrong with 1980s Britain from arms dealing to intensive farming to the insincerity of journalism.
To a certain extent, you’d need to be familiar with show more 1980s Britain to get the most out of the book (my usual gripe about satirical literature being only for those in the club) but even if you’re not, there’s plenty here to relate to. And it’s not just about satire either. Coe writes a wonderfully moving death bed scene which was a master class in writing perspective. It was so good, I had to go back and read it again.
The novel has the pace and feel of a detective thriller, with twists and turns and something of a Le Carre feel about it. It keeps you going despite it being quite long. There are a whole variety of writing styles from sections which are effectively non-fiction, to first person realism and simple stretches of whodunit narration. There’s something for everyone here.
I enjoyed the fact that it was focussed on the 80s, a period I remember particularly well as I was in my teens and, in this respect, it reminded me a lot of The Radiant Way which I also enjoyed because of this. There’s a lot more in it though for those who weren’t in the UK in the 80s so if you see this one, it’s well worth picking up, and if you like satire, it’s a must read. show less
The book follows the saga of the Winshaw family through the investigations of writer Michael Owen who finds himself bound up in the saga himself. The book jumps backwards and forwards in time and from different points of view as it relates the family saga. All in all, each member of this repugnant family represents something that has gone wrong with 1980s Britain from arms dealing to intensive farming to the insincerity of journalism.
To a certain extent, you’d need to be familiar with show more 1980s Britain to get the most out of the book (my usual gripe about satirical literature being only for those in the club) but even if you’re not, there’s plenty here to relate to. And it’s not just about satire either. Coe writes a wonderfully moving death bed scene which was a master class in writing perspective. It was so good, I had to go back and read it again.
The novel has the pace and feel of a detective thriller, with twists and turns and something of a Le Carre feel about it. It keeps you going despite it being quite long. There are a whole variety of writing styles from sections which are effectively non-fiction, to first person realism and simple stretches of whodunit narration. There’s something for everyone here.
I enjoyed the fact that it was focussed on the 80s, a period I remember particularly well as I was in my teens and, in this respect, it reminded me a lot of The Radiant Way which I also enjoyed because of this. There’s a lot more in it though for those who weren’t in the UK in the 80s so if you see this one, it’s well worth picking up, and if you like satire, it’s a must read. show less
Questo romanzo di Coe può risultare affascinante e pedante allo stesso tempo. E' sicuramente rivolto al pubblico britannico e soprattutto a coloro che hanno vissuto direttamente l'epoca tatcheriana e pertanto per il lettore italiano, anche a conoscienza della cronaca internazionale, può risultare di difficile comprensione, trattanto certi archetipi della società inglese degli anni '80 che sono difficilmente rammentabili per chi ha vissuto altrove.
Coe presenta una famiglia di arrivisti e speculatori che primariamente perseguono i propri interessi individuali disinteressandosi degli stessi famigliari o dei danni che provocano sulla società. Immagino che l'autore volesse dipingere e condensare in un'unica compagine tutto il marcio di show more un atteggiamento che durante il governo Tatcher ha minato seriamente la società inglese.
Il tutto è presentato come una ricerca condotta da uno scrittore, di cui possiamo seguire le vicende personali tra una biografia e l'altra dei Winshaw. In realtà costui è totalmente vittima della famiglia sin dall'infanzia, per via indiretta e infine nelle ultime inaspettate pagine per via assai diretta. Una personificazione sul danno provocato dal neoliberismo selvaggio.
La penna di Coe è come sempre elegante e salace, uno dei migliori narratori contemporanei che abbia avuto il privilegio di leggere. show less
Coe presenta una famiglia di arrivisti e speculatori che primariamente perseguono i propri interessi individuali disinteressandosi degli stessi famigliari o dei danni che provocano sulla società. Immagino che l'autore volesse dipingere e condensare in un'unica compagine tutto il marcio di show more un atteggiamento che durante il governo Tatcher ha minato seriamente la società inglese.
Il tutto è presentato come una ricerca condotta da uno scrittore, di cui possiamo seguire le vicende personali tra una biografia e l'altra dei Winshaw. In realtà costui è totalmente vittima della famiglia sin dall'infanzia, per via indiretta e infine nelle ultime inaspettate pagine per via assai diretta. Una personificazione sul danno provocato dal neoliberismo selvaggio.
La penna di Coe è come sempre elegante e salace, uno dei migliori narratori contemporanei che abbia avuto il privilegio di leggere. show less
Spanning 50 years of history from the Second World War to the first Gulf War, What a Carve Up! is novel writing on an epic scale. It’s often described as a satire on the Thatcherite era, but although published in 1994, this book could have been written yesterday. Corrupt, greedy and mendacious politicians, the undermining of public service broadcasting, the deregulation of television resulting in wall to wall mind rot, right-wing hacks churning out populist rubbish, an overstretched, underfunded and collapsing National Health Service. Sound familiar?
The monstrous Winshaw family represent the British ruling class, and the various strands of British society (banking, the arms trade, food production, journalism and the arts) and their show more hapless biographer Michael Owen, is the long suffering everyman.
The narrative is something of a carve up itself proceeding through diaries, newspaper articles, letters, first person and third person narrative. It takes its title, and part of its plot, from an early 60s lowbrow British comedy horror film and also draws on classic detective fiction (Christie, Conan Doyle) and the myth of Orpheus.
This playing around with form and foregrounding of the fictive might suggest the influence of an experimental novelist such as BS Johnson, about whom Coe wrote the spellbinding biography Like a Fiery Elephant, but there is a crucial difference. Johnson, believing that telling stories was telling lies, wrote autobiographical novels. Coe, in stark contrast, seamlessly weaves together the factual and the fictional, creating a rich, intricately plotted landscape, and triumphantly demonstrating that fiction can be a vessel for telling the truth.
Unlike the giggling celebrity comedians, mindlessly churning out toothless topical jokes to order on allegedly satirical TV and radio panel shows, Coe is a true satirist because he attacks society from a definite moral and philosophical viewpoint. At his best, and What a Carve Up! is certainly Coe at his best, he is as funny as any writer I have ever read, but his humour never betrays the seriousness of his subject matter. He never suggests that the inequities of society are just a laughing matter. The humour, some of it so hilariously broad it could have come from one of the 1970s sitcoms so loved by Coe (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin or The Likely Lads) is equally weighted with pain and tragedy. You’re crying with laughter one minute, and the next, just crying.
Coe is an admirer of Lindsay Anderson (If…. and O Lucky Man! remain two of the best films ever made about British society) and this novel has something of the anarchic energy, surreal comedy, righteous anger and necessary brio of that outstanding filmmaker.
In a well ordered society Jonathan Coe would have won the Booker Prize at least twice by now (for this novel and The Rotters Club). Astonishingly, he’s never even been nominated for it. Too political? Or perhaps he’s just too entertaining. show less
The monstrous Winshaw family represent the British ruling class, and the various strands of British society (banking, the arms trade, food production, journalism and the arts) and their show more hapless biographer Michael Owen, is the long suffering everyman.
The narrative is something of a carve up itself proceeding through diaries, newspaper articles, letters, first person and third person narrative. It takes its title, and part of its plot, from an early 60s lowbrow British comedy horror film and also draws on classic detective fiction (Christie, Conan Doyle) and the myth of Orpheus.
This playing around with form and foregrounding of the fictive might suggest the influence of an experimental novelist such as BS Johnson, about whom Coe wrote the spellbinding biography Like a Fiery Elephant, but there is a crucial difference. Johnson, believing that telling stories was telling lies, wrote autobiographical novels. Coe, in stark contrast, seamlessly weaves together the factual and the fictional, creating a rich, intricately plotted landscape, and triumphantly demonstrating that fiction can be a vessel for telling the truth.
Unlike the giggling celebrity comedians, mindlessly churning out toothless topical jokes to order on allegedly satirical TV and radio panel shows, Coe is a true satirist because he attacks society from a definite moral and philosophical viewpoint. At his best, and What a Carve Up! is certainly Coe at his best, he is as funny as any writer I have ever read, but his humour never betrays the seriousness of his subject matter. He never suggests that the inequities of society are just a laughing matter. The humour, some of it so hilariously broad it could have come from one of the 1970s sitcoms so loved by Coe (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin or The Likely Lads) is equally weighted with pain and tragedy. You’re crying with laughter one minute, and the next, just crying.
Coe is an admirer of Lindsay Anderson (If…. and O Lucky Man! remain two of the best films ever made about British society) and this novel has something of the anarchic energy, surreal comedy, righteous anger and necessary brio of that outstanding filmmaker.
In a well ordered society Jonathan Coe would have won the Booker Prize at least twice by now (for this novel and The Rotters Club). Astonishingly, he’s never even been nominated for it. Too political? Or perhaps he’s just too entertaining. show less
It's not always funny, so it's easy to forget it's intended to be a satire. In those times, I found myself wondering why everyone was an evil cartoon and why the political analysis of the Thatcher government was so shallow. But as long as you remember what it's supposed to be and suspend any seriousness, it's hard to dislike. The writing is excellent, and the final part is especially satisfying.
I think that this may well prove to be Jonathan Coe's masterpiece. Through the device of describing the ignominious behaviour in different fields of various members of the ghastly Winshaw family, Coe paints a frighteningly acute picture of the downside of the latter third of the post-war years in general, and the 1980s in particular. The spectre of the 'First' Gulf War hangs over the whole book.
The Winshaws certainly extended their fingers into a number of diverse pies, with family members prominent in the fields of politics, merchant banking, journalism and broadcasting. There are, however, some vitriolic internal rifts, too.
Tabitha Winshaw has been immured in a succession of mental hospitals after she became convinced that her eldest show more brother Laurence had been responsible for the death of their brother Godfrey. Such was the depth of her conviction of Laurence's guilt that she had tried to kill him in turn. Godfrey Winshaw, had, in fact, been shot down while serving as a pilot in the RAF, so most of the family had dismissed Tabitha's claims without further consideration. As the rest of the family thrive during the 1960s. 1970s and 1980s, Tabitha spends long periods in seclusion in a series of institutions before being allowed to return to the family home following Laurence's eventual death (from natural causes).
Tabitha retains access to her sizeable portion of the seemingly inexhaustible family fortune, and commissions a vanity publishing house to hire an author to write a history of the Winshaw family. The publisher selects Michael Owen. Early in his career he had published a couple of well received novels but had sunk into prolong accidie. Now in his thirties the commission for the history of the Winshaws is almost his sole source of income apart from the occasional vindictive review.
The novel takes the form of accounts of he careers of various Winshaws (presumably drawn from Michael's book), interspersed with first person narrative from Michael recounting different periods of his own unorthodox past. One of these memoirs tells of his ninth birthday which involved a family trip to Weston Super Mare where, seeking refuge from dreadful weather, they all went to see the film 'What a Carve Up' starring Kenneth Connor and Shirley Eaton. One scene in particular is etched in the young Michael's mind, not least because, deeming the film unsuitable for a nine year old boy, his mother insists that the family leave immediately. This scene become a major obsession with Michael, and contributes in part to his aimless and listless approach to life as an adult.
The separate accounts of the careers of the individual Winshaws offer Coe an acute prism through which to dissect the paradoxes and shortcomings of modern life. Hilary Winshaw becomes a leading tabloid columnist, distilling hatred and spewing venom like Sybil Fawlty's 'Benzedrine puff adder', never happier than when seemingly contradicting an earlier column with a shameless, opportunistic volte-face. Henry Winshaw is a politician who, having started out as a Labour MP, becomes, upon his departure from The House, an ardent Thatcherite, overseeing the development of her programme of privatisation and with plans to dismantle, or at least privatise, the National Health Service. Thomas Winshaw becomes the director of Stewards merchant bank, benefiting from inside information passed on from Henry. Mark Winshaw, Godfrey's son, becomes an accomplished arms dealer, adept at sidestepping the regulatory obstacles to dealing with the likes of Saddam Hussein and other, similar despots. The Winshaws' world is a ghastly place, and Michael becomes increasingly appalled as he learns more about their respective enormities. show less
The Winshaws certainly extended their fingers into a number of diverse pies, with family members prominent in the fields of politics, merchant banking, journalism and broadcasting. There are, however, some vitriolic internal rifts, too.
Tabitha Winshaw has been immured in a succession of mental hospitals after she became convinced that her eldest show more brother Laurence had been responsible for the death of their brother Godfrey. Such was the depth of her conviction of Laurence's guilt that she had tried to kill him in turn. Godfrey Winshaw, had, in fact, been shot down while serving as a pilot in the RAF, so most of the family had dismissed Tabitha's claims without further consideration. As the rest of the family thrive during the 1960s. 1970s and 1980s, Tabitha spends long periods in seclusion in a series of institutions before being allowed to return to the family home following Laurence's eventual death (from natural causes).
Tabitha retains access to her sizeable portion of the seemingly inexhaustible family fortune, and commissions a vanity publishing house to hire an author to write a history of the Winshaw family. The publisher selects Michael Owen. Early in his career he had published a couple of well received novels but had sunk into prolong accidie. Now in his thirties the commission for the history of the Winshaws is almost his sole source of income apart from the occasional vindictive review.
The novel takes the form of accounts of he careers of various Winshaws (presumably drawn from Michael's book), interspersed with first person narrative from Michael recounting different periods of his own unorthodox past. One of these memoirs tells of his ninth birthday which involved a family trip to Weston Super Mare where, seeking refuge from dreadful weather, they all went to see the film 'What a Carve Up' starring Kenneth Connor and Shirley Eaton. One scene in particular is etched in the young Michael's mind, not least because, deeming the film unsuitable for a nine year old boy, his mother insists that the family leave immediately. This scene become a major obsession with Michael, and contributes in part to his aimless and listless approach to life as an adult.
The separate accounts of the careers of the individual Winshaws offer Coe an acute prism through which to dissect the paradoxes and shortcomings of modern life. Hilary Winshaw becomes a leading tabloid columnist, distilling hatred and spewing venom like Sybil Fawlty's 'Benzedrine puff adder', never happier than when seemingly contradicting an earlier column with a shameless, opportunistic volte-face. Henry Winshaw is a politician who, having started out as a Labour MP, becomes, upon his departure from The House, an ardent Thatcherite, overseeing the development of her programme of privatisation and with plans to dismantle, or at least privatise, the National Health Service. Thomas Winshaw becomes the director of Stewards merchant bank, benefiting from inside information passed on from Henry. Mark Winshaw, Godfrey's son, becomes an accomplished arms dealer, adept at sidestepping the regulatory obstacles to dealing with the likes of Saddam Hussein and other, similar despots. The Winshaws' world is a ghastly place, and Michael becomes increasingly appalled as he learns more about their respective enormities. show less
That one book could be simultaneously so funny, so poignant, and so horrific. So well-written and assembled so beautifully, like the most intricate puzzle. I came across it in a random free library and wasn’t sure, but I thought maybe I had heard of it and thought I’d take a chance. What an absolute delight. Some have compared this to Infinite Jest, or a Pynchon novel, but for me it was somewhat reminiscent of Iris Murdoch (a favorite of mine). I can’t wait to read more of the author’s books.
What a marvel! The various Winshaws are a grotesque embodiment of the rich establishment that through corruption and manipulation will do whatever it takes to cultivate ever greater wealth in 1980s Thatcher Britain. This is a biting satire of how the elite has respectively carved up the media, banking, arts and culture, healthcare, food and arms industry. As such it is an insightful history lesson, not to mention a benchmark of how shit it was then and how much these trends have only gotten worse. To the great credit of the author though, the book is not just a cartoonish skewer of the rich. At times it is socially realist lament for how the protagonist/narrator and his family and close contacts are beset by difficulties due to the show more dismantling of society, and it is also a complex interwoven type of murder mystery, and furthermore a meta-narrative is which the author reviews his own lefty pretensions. Brilliant all round, I devoured the book over a week in Turkey. show less
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What a Carve Up! is strewn with surprises, not the least of them Coe's ability to meld private concerns with political catastrophe. He has written a book that counts the human cost of the self-help, screw-you philosophy currently at large, but the sound it makes is not of tubs being thumped or hands being wrung - it's the raucous and far more apposite sound of horrid laughter.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- What a Carve Up!
- Original title
- What a Carve Up !
- Alternate titles
- The Winshaw Legacy
- Original publication date
- 1994
- People/Characters
- Michael Owen; Aunt Tabitha Winshaw; Roderick Winshaw; Lawrence Winshaw; Mortimer Winshaw; Dorothy Winshaw (show all 7); Findlay Onyx
- Important places
- London, England, UK; Birmingham, England, UK
- Important events
- Britain under Thatcher
- Related movies*
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056285/ but emphatically not the movie of the book :-); Sette allegri cadaveri (1961 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- Orphee: Enfin, Madame . . . m'expliquerez-vous?
La Princesse: Rien. Si vous dormez, si vous revez, acceptez vos reves. C'est le role du dormeur.
- Cocteau's screenplay to Orphee
'Meet me,' he'd said and forgotten
'Love me': but of love we are frightened
We'd rather leave and fly for the moon
Than say the eight words to soon
- Louis Philippe, Yuri Gagarin - Dedication
- For 1994, Janine
- First words
- Tragedy had struck the Winshaws twice before, but never on such a terrible scale.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Tragedy had struck the Winshaws twice before, but never on such a terrible scale.
- Blurbers
- McInerney, Jay
- Original language
- English UK
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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