This is dry, thoughtful and very witty English humor, all packed into 107 pages where the author has treated what could easily be a very dulling subject (capitalism) into paranoia and fun; weave into that what you may.

The tube stops on the Jubilee line. The speaker announces that while you shouldn't fret, capitalism has stopped working and while things sort themselves out, yes, you're stuck underground.

So people actually start talking to each other, and what commences is a whirl through modern day, people like Thatcher, Marx and Chomsky, ideas and fracas. Commendable book, I say, tut-tut. ( )

The great thing about the Penguin Lines series is that it encourages me to read stories that are generally outside my comfort zone. I confess that I wouldn’t normally have picked up A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line. On reading it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was clever, with more than a little bit of snark about our modern ways.

The author starts by mentioning the strangest dream he had about the Jubilee Line. It is a normal day on the Tube, with nobody speaking to each other and everyone fixed on their own thoughts. The everyday journey is disrupted by an announcement over the loudspeaker that there is a problem with the train, which is all due to capitalism. England is now in an economic downwards spiral and it directly affects these passengers. A tunnel under the Thames is collapsing and to escape the passengers have a choice to go left or right. Which is the correct way? The passengers begin to talk, then argue about the reason for the collapse and which way will be safest. It tests their ideologies, with a little help with some notable figures in history.

A History of Capitalism According to the Jubilee Line is slightly surreal, bizarre and overall good fun. I loved the economic and political concepts that made their way into the text and the inner turmoil as the narrator pondered whether he had been wrong all along in these political choices. It gives the reader something to ponder too. But luckily, it was all a dream…right? Or is it symbolism of what was to come?

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

Having read a couple of John O'Farrell's previous books I was confident that I would enjoy his contribution to the Penguin series of short observations on the London Underground. O'Farrell was commissioned to write about the Jubilee Line (the "silver one") which runs from Stanmore, out in North West London through the West End before extending out through Docklands before terminating at Stratford in the East End.

Unlike John Lanchester, who gave considerable detail in his history of the District Line (the "green one"), O'Farrell devotes most of his book to recounting a nightmare he had about a journey along the Jubilee Line which was truncated owing to the collapse of western capitalism and floods driven by the melting polar caps. This pain of this dreadful journey is exacerbated by the unexpected appearance of the politically diametrically opposed philosophers Roger Scriuton and Noam Chomsky, who end up resolving their differences through the medium of their fists. Shortly after this O'Farrell is joined by his own particular bete noir, Margaret Thatcher herself, though bizarrely she is in an unwontedly remorseful mood.

O'Farrell is well known for his own left-of-centre views but he offers a surprisingly even-handed exegesis of the arguments for and against private enterprise running national infrastructure.

All in all this was very amusing and entertaining. ( )

http://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/recent-reads-a-pair-of-b... ( )