- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (7 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571195741
- ISBN-13: 978-0571195749
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.4 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,389,282 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Joseph Connolly's Summer Things is the ultimate clever English farce. Genteel Chanel-wearing Elizabeth loves nothing better than orchestrating the lives of her friends and neighbours and is given ample opportunity to do so when she goes on holiday to a smart English seaside resort with her man-mad sister Melody and her neighbours, Brian (DIY fanatic and obsessive collector of manhole covers) and clucky, baby- crazy Dotty. Estate-agent-husband Howard has his own private reasons for wanting to stay at home, while seventeen-year-old daughter Katie is off to Chicago on an illicit vacation with an older man.
In Summer Things Connolly blends to perfection that sort of smutty, innuendo-driven humour that the British are so good at with sharp social satire, exposing the lies frequently embedded in the very foundations of cosy middle-class married life and laying bare the secret tragedies hiding within the rib-cages of even the most ludicrous of his characters. Within this captivating web of deception, lie some truly unexpected twists. --Anna Davis --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
A hilariously deranged trip to the further shores of lust, snobbery and adultery, Summer Things is a comic novel by one of Britain's funniest novelists.
Elizabeth has her heart set on a traditional English seaside holiday (five-star - naturally), and her oh-so-well-to-do estate agent husband Howard agrees to pay, because that is largely what Howard is for. Except that he wants to stay in London with the object of his lust, Zoo-Zoo. Their neighbour Dotty, who envies like crazy Elizabeth's lifestyle (not to say all of her brand new summer things), determines on the very same holiday, but Dotty's impoverished husband comes up with an appalling alternative (don't even ask) while their fifteen year-old son Colin is yearning after a girl - any girl. Single parent Melody is going to the seaside too, and bringing her little baby Dawn, because there's nothing else to do with her. Whoever does eventually reach England's glittering coast is sure of meeting not only the very beautiful Lulu, but also John, her insanely jealous husband - or is that just insane? To say nothing of professional playboy and all round shit-of-the-year Miles McInerney: action is what he wants It really is one hell of a mix: will there be love, death - or just a string of good and bad summer things? What is certain, is that no-one's life will ever be exactly the same again.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very lightweight holiday read which rollercoasters from one misunderstanding to another. Peopled with caricatures more than characters, we dip in and out of everyone's thoughts and feelings at breakneck speed. This works well for a few chapters but it becomes quite wearing to read someone's internal rant, particularly when it is exactly the same sort of rant as the last one from that character. The story starts off well with some genuinely funny moments and the plot develops very naturally with different threads which are all linked and absolutely ripe for misunderstandings and comic happenings. Unfortunately, the story is way too long and with the author trying too hard to be funny at every turn, towards the end he degenerates into situations and double-entendres you would expect in a very bad Carry On film.
Format:Paperback
This was my fourth voyage into the beguiling world of Joseph Connolly, and it's been worth the trip. Again there is no-one that you really care about in this motley collection of the sex-starved and the self-obsessed. Admittedly some are a little bit tiresome, such as drippy Norman who moons after the awful Katie; but there are some terrifically funny scenes, particularly those involving Brian, who hides his inability to get on with people by his obsession with DIY. He even approaches sex in the same way as he would build a bookcase, positioning himself so that he is in easy reach of "all the gubbins".
Format:Paperback
joseph connolly writes very good books this is no exception ,his insight of the middle classes is spot on ,a good holiday read , allso read the follow up Winter Breaks, excellent.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Read it for yourself!
I picked this book up and could not get into it at all and gave up! I was stuck for something to read one day and thought I would persevere with it!
THANK GOD I DID! Read more
THANK GOD I DID! Read more
Published on 11 July 2003 by "jockanders"
A great easy read.
Am only ½ way though this excellent book, and am enjoying it immensely, although a little seedy at times but it wouldn't be so good if it wasn't. Read more
Published on 8 May 2001
The funniest book I've read for ages
I thoroughly enjoyed this book on several levels. Clever plotting sets up several hilarious situations which could come straight from an old-fashioned bedroom farce, such as the... Read more
Published on 5 April 2001
Very very disappointing
I bought this book in the local Oxfam shop on the strength of the favourable reviews (from fairly weighty and reputable sources) quoted on the back cover. I was very disappointed. Read more
Published on 16 Jan 2001
Cruel and Sordid
I was going to give this book two stars because I disliked it so much, but there was one episode in it which did make me laugh so much I had tears in my eyes and it is for that and... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2001 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
A great book, very funny...
This really is a good read. Some great characters and some very funny situations...A book for taking away on holiday definitely.
Published on 10 Feb 2000
Excellent observation of Brits and their idiosyncratic ways
Really a very good read - highly recommend it. A little obvious at times, but very funny and an accurate depiction of middle-class suburbia trying to keep up with the Joneses!
Published on 2 Aug 1999
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