Bourneville
Oct. 21st, 2022 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callmemadamEverything changes and everything stays the same
This is the fourth in a loosely-connected series, of which the first book was Expo 58, which I loved. Bourneville is the story of the Lamb family over five or six generations. When the book opens, Mary is a child during the war, living in Bourneville; by the end she’s eighty-six and trapped alone at home by the pandemic and lockdown rules, unable to see her three sons and their families. Many of the preoccupations of the book are similar to those of Middle England. The story is pinned to events of the period e.g. the Coronation in 1953, the 1966 World Cup, the death of Princess Diana. Significantly, almost all are televised and so shared by families all over the country. Here is my idea of Coe’s research list and all the cutting and pasting he put into the book.
Look up the King’s speech on the wireless at the end of the war.
Find a copy of The Radio Times for 1953 and see what viewers were offered.
When did The Mouse Trap open?
When was Casino Royale first published?
Find a transcript of Richard Dimbleby’s commentary on the Coronation.
What was the most popular television show at the time of the World Cup?
(The Man from Uncle; the Russians are obsessed with it and go to a local hairdressing saloon asking for Robert Vaughn haircuts.)
What were the biggest hits of 1966?
When did people start shopping at Habitat?
How did British Leyland advertise the Metro?
In 1981, how did people use the ZX81?
Which book won the Booker in 1997?
What were the precise instructions from the government on how to behave during the pandemic?
The results of some of these queries are printed verbatim; one way to fulfil your word count, I suppose. There is a story hiding in here but it’s mostly about social change and the helplessness of the liberal middle class watching social tensions, racism and eventually Boris and Brexit, their worst nightmare, until they hardly know what country they live in any more. Poor souls, they live in Guardian-land; a lonely place. I found this too much like what Coe wrote in Middle England, except that only one Trotter is mentioned. The book is really about an angry Jonathan Coe, as you realise when you read the Author’s Notes at the end. Not so much a novel as a collage. On the other hand, I do like reading about people’s daily lives and preoccupations.
I read this thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.
This is the fourth in a loosely-connected series, of which the first book was Expo 58, which I loved. Bourneville is the story of the Lamb family over five or six generations. When the book opens, Mary is a child during the war, living in Bourneville; by the end she’s eighty-six and trapped alone at home by the pandemic and lockdown rules, unable to see her three sons and their families. Many of the preoccupations of the book are similar to those of Middle England. The story is pinned to events of the period e.g. the Coronation in 1953, the 1966 World Cup, the death of Princess Diana. Significantly, almost all are televised and so shared by families all over the country. Here is my idea of Coe’s research list and all the cutting and pasting he put into the book.
Look up the King’s speech on the wireless at the end of the war.
Find a copy of The Radio Times for 1953 and see what viewers were offered.
When did The Mouse Trap open?
When was Casino Royale first published?
Find a transcript of Richard Dimbleby’s commentary on the Coronation.
What was the most popular television show at the time of the World Cup?
(The Man from Uncle; the Russians are obsessed with it and go to a local hairdressing saloon asking for Robert Vaughn haircuts.)
What were the biggest hits of 1966?
When did people start shopping at Habitat?
How did British Leyland advertise the Metro?
In 1981, how did people use the ZX81?
Which book won the Booker in 1997?
What were the precise instructions from the government on how to behave during the pandemic?
The results of some of these queries are printed verbatim; one way to fulfil your word count, I suppose. There is a story hiding in here but it’s mostly about social change and the helplessness of the liberal middle class watching social tensions, racism and eventually Boris and Brexit, their worst nightmare, until they hardly know what country they live in any more. Poor souls, they live in Guardian-land; a lonely place. I found this too much like what Coe wrote in Middle England, except that only one Trotter is mentioned. The book is really about an angry Jonathan Coe, as you realise when you read the Author’s Notes at the end. Not so much a novel as a collage. On the other hand, I do like reading about people’s daily lives and preoccupations.
I read this thanks to the publisher and NetGalley.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 11:23 am (UTC)Sounds like our politics at the moment!
Bourneville sounds an interesting read.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-21 01:32 pm (UTC)All Coe's books are interesting in their own way.