The Ice Age

What an incredible read! This Dickensian 1977 novel is as 'awake' as anything being written today. True, its characters, a group of affuent, educated white people bear little resemblance to the "new" Britain of today, but their story actually serves as a 'prequel' of sorts as to why that is. Everything -- terrorism, economic calamity, divorce and marriage, love affairs, imprisonment, family life, urban/rural divide -- is covered herein in such an adroit fashion that the ride at times seems breathtaking, especially an ending so full of black humor that the reader could almost be excused for missing its redemptive quality. WARNING: four dogs were killed off in the narrative of this novel!

Anthony Keating is a middle-aged property developer in Yorkshire in the mid-seventies. Having escaped London's hustle-bustle and survived a heart attack aged just thirty eight, he awaits the return of his lover Alison, who is trying to help her daughter incarcerated in a draconian Eastern bloc country. With debts spiralling out of control, Anthony realises that he and his friends are bound to the engine driving the society in which they live and that should it falter, so will they. The Ice Age is a portrait of a Britain of boom and bust, and greed - and uncannily predicts the Thatcher years.

This book was written in the 1970s but the political and social outlook is remarkably relevant to us in 2009. It's basically a story about a man who is seeking to understand his identity in a situation where he has lost connection with the things that normally define a man. Good concept, but doesn't get more stars from me because it doesn't quite reach enough depth.