- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (19 Mar 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014029466X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140294668
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 254,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
At a time when people are looking back on the 1970s with nostalgia, Jonathan What a Carve Up Coe's The Rotters' Club is a timely reminder of quite how ghastly that benighted decade was in Britain. Set in the "industrial" heartland of the West Midlands, it chronicles the growing pains of four Brummie schoolboys--Philip, Sean, Doug and Benjamin--who must not only come to terms with the normal pangs of adolescence but with terrible knitwear, ludicrous pop-music, nightmarish food and insidious racism, all set against the awful, surreal and tragicomic reality of a post-imperial nation.
The book suffers in its programmatic attempts to make the four boys and their families symbolise, or represent, Something Important To Do With British Life. Doug, for instance, symbolises Industrial Decline, via his dad, a shop steward at the doomed British Leyland Longbridge plant. For Sean its Sexual Liberation--at least he's the one that looks most likely to get his rocks off. And young Ben Trotter would appear to represent A Young Jonathan Coe. But if this aspect of the novel seems contrived, then the author's capricious, deft, wryly comedic and touchingly empathetic style keeps things chugging along, as he knits together the troubles and tragedies of some fairly ordinary people living through fairly extraordinary years. --Sean Thomas --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Jonathan Coe's new novel is set in the 1970s against a distant backdrop of strikes, terrorist attacks and growing racial tension. A group of young friends inherit the editorship of their school magazine and begin to put their own distinctive spin on to events in the wider world. A zestful comedy of personal and social upheaval, The Rotters' Club captures a fateful moment in British politics - the collapse of 'Old Labour' - and imagines its impact on the topsy-turvy world of the bemused teenager: a world in which a lost pair of swimming trunks can be just as devastating as an IRA bomb.
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First Sentence
Imagine! November the 15th, 1973. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Imagine! November the 15th, 1973. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
TRC is like the rhyme of the little girl with the curl right in the middle of her forehead- when it is good it is very, very good but when it is bad it is horrid! TRC suffers from Coe not only trying to tackle head-on most of the dominant issues of the seventies through a quite ordinary group of characters but dabbles in short story territory (the tale of the Danish Jews) and annoying literary styles (Ben's inner turmoil near the end). Added to this is the sickeningly sweet and unfinished end that pretty well tricks the reader.
At the same time, however, it is perhaps premature to criticise TRC unduly until the sequel has been read with it- perhaps it will create a better sense of closure on the plot lines that are left open. To TRC's rescue Coe's humour in this book is spot on and he makes the most of the bizarre nature of teenage years whilst not skimping on the lows as well as the highs.
Nevertheless, the three or four main characters of the book- that of the boys- seem very similar to each other for the first ten or so chapters and it is easy to get them mixed up in your mind. If Coe had concentrated more on developing them earlier on it would have been far more entertaining to catch their antics earlier on than constantly having to flick back to see who's who. It is also badly managed to make Ben the main character near the end of the book- it lends the question- what about the others?
TRC suffers from an annoying future pro and epilogue that adds little to the ambience and story line and takes away the sense of placement that the focus on the seventies throughout the rest of the novel tries to create.
The worst aspect of the book though has got to be the character of Cicely and the whole relationship between her and Ben. We know she is an unpleasant person and is merely good looking from passages of the book so Ben's idolization of her and her sudden emergence as a "good" character is unrealistic and for her to share the "happy ending" just felt wrong. Coe is never very sensitive in his portrayal of female characters (except, perhaps, in The Accidental Woman) but to create such an empty space, as Cicely is very bad form. It feels very much as though Coe is trying to produce his fantasy woman and make her fall in love with the character that represents him.
TRC is a very misjudged novel- instead of the dark realism and surrealism of What A Carve Up! or the human insight of The Accidental Woman we are left with a very good look at the seventies with superfluous plot devices and characters thrown in. A shorter, purely nostalgic and political book with no sequel would have worked much better than attempting an epic like exercise on somewhat flimsy material. I would recommend, to someone who has not read any Coe books before, to start with his early work and work forwards.
At the same time, however, it is perhaps premature to criticise TRC unduly until the sequel has been read with it- perhaps it will create a better sense of closure on the plot lines that are left open. To TRC's rescue Coe's humour in this book is spot on and he makes the most of the bizarre nature of teenage years whilst not skimping on the lows as well as the highs.
Nevertheless, the three or four main characters of the book- that of the boys- seem very similar to each other for the first ten or so chapters and it is easy to get them mixed up in your mind. If Coe had concentrated more on developing them earlier on it would have been far more entertaining to catch their antics earlier on than constantly having to flick back to see who's who. It is also badly managed to make Ben the main character near the end of the book- it lends the question- what about the others?
TRC suffers from an annoying future pro and epilogue that adds little to the ambience and story line and takes away the sense of placement that the focus on the seventies throughout the rest of the novel tries to create.
The worst aspect of the book though has got to be the character of Cicely and the whole relationship between her and Ben. We know she is an unpleasant person and is merely good looking from passages of the book so Ben's idolization of her and her sudden emergence as a "good" character is unrealistic and for her to share the "happy ending" just felt wrong. Coe is never very sensitive in his portrayal of female characters (except, perhaps, in The Accidental Woman) but to create such an empty space, as Cicely is very bad form. It feels very much as though Coe is trying to produce his fantasy woman and make her fall in love with the character that represents him.
TRC is a very misjudged novel- instead of the dark realism and surrealism of What A Carve Up! or the human insight of The Accidental Woman we are left with a very good look at the seventies with superfluous plot devices and characters thrown in. A shorter, purely nostalgic and political book with no sequel would have worked much better than attempting an epic like exercise on somewhat flimsy material. I would recommend, to someone who has not read any Coe books before, to start with his early work and work forwards.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I enjoyed this book enormously. I suppose the world it describes - Britain in the mid 1970s - will be about as remote as that of Jane Austen to anyone under the age of thirty - but it captures my memories of the era perfectly.
Some reviewers have queried the handling of the political content, but personally I thought it was integrated well with the rest of the book.
Overall - an excellent attempt to capture the feeling of what it was like to be adolescent.
Most reviewers have either ignored the references to music of the period or just followed the usual cliches - "70s, era of flares, lava lamps and ludicrous music," etc. etc. I thought that Jonathan Coe dealt much more carefully with the music of the time - poking fun at Yes, enjoying The Clash, but quite happy to accept that, like most musical forms, Progressive Rock had plenty of good as well as bad.
Above all, it is clear that he has a great and lasting affection for the music of Hatfield & The North, whose second album gave the book its title. it would be nice if one result of this book's success was to make a few more people discover the Hatfield's music, whose merit was neglected even in the 1970s! Anyone who likes the music will certainly enjoy the book. I can't guarantee that anyone who liked the book will enjoy the music, but why not give it a try.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this novel of enormous reach, Coe attempts to give epic significance to the 1970's in Birmingham, England. Abandoning the extremely tight, limited focus he employed in The House of Sleep, Coe here employs a huge cast of characters, eight or ten of them teenagers (somewhat difficult to keep track of because they are not yet fully formed or unique), along with their parents and their parents' lovers, their brothers and sisters and the brothers' and sisters' lovers, and their teachers and some of their lovers.
Starting with a meeting in 2003 between the adult children of some of the characters from the 1970's, the novel switches back and forth in time through several different points of view, offering insights about what has happened in the interim. The teenagers' lives are depicted in minute detail as they work on school magazines, collect new rock albums, create their own bands, score with girlfriends, and do all the superficial things teenagers do the world over, told from the well-developed, if not particularly compelling, perspective of the '70's.
Coe can be very funny, and his view of teenage life is often amusing, but the teenagers also reveal their intolerance of differences, their casual cruelty, doubts about religion, ignorance of the political system, and general insulation from the forces which are shaping their world. Their parents' lives are completely separate from their children's, dealing with union vs. management issues, Labour vs. Tory political goals, a stagnant economy, resentment over immigration, IRA activity, some anti-semitism, and a belief that their dreams probably will not come true. These huge and important themes seem a bit jarring when juxtaposed against the superficial, day-to-day activities of the teenagers who are the main characters.
Coe has enormous, very obvious talents, but this book feels fragmented, with too many characters pursuing too many different ends, the ultimate goal seeming to be the recreation of the entire sociopolitical history of 1970's Birmingham. At the end of 400+ pages of this book, Coe himself states that a second volume will continue this story, perhaps the author's acknowledgment that his reach has exceeded his grasp with this one. Mary Whipple
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Just Falls Short
I really thought I was going to like this book after the first page which made me chuckle. It's 2003 in Berlin. Read more
Published on 21 May 2008 by Mr. Peter Steward
The Very Maws of Doom
"The Rotters' Club" was first published in 2001, and went on to win Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Read more
Published on 24 Sep 2007 by Craobh Rua
Funny and Charming
This was a good nostalgic read, with great characterisation. Funny, moving, very well written - Lois's story was particularly poignant. I would highly recommend this book. Read more
Published on 19 Aug 2007 by gerty guinea
The perfect holiday novel
The Rotters' Club is a charming and ambitious novel which chronicles four adolescent schoolboys growing up in 1970s Birmingham and trying to make sense of their lives. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2006 by Mr. A. P. Rose
I fail to see what all the fuss is about
This is a fairly undemanding read about which there seems to have been a great deal of fuss. It's a moderately engaging stroll through one boy's adolescence with a background of... Read more
Published on 17 July 2004 by Barton Keyes
A work in progress
Like many reviewers here, I also grew up in Birmingham - Coe and I are also the same age (within a few months). Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2004 by Keith D. Gumery
Where Did Brum Go?
Having only recently escaped to Cornwall to live, I began to read The Rotters club with the optimism of evoking memories of a Birmingham that I had all but forgotten. Read more
Published on 26 May 2004 by LPM
Needs Re-editing
I too,like Coe, went to school in Birmingham and subsequently away to university (albeit in the 50-60s). My father also worked for BMC. Read more
Published on 21 April 2004 by RJ Lane
Truly wonderful story of relationships, tragedy etc.
It appears that many people have read this book as a kind of nostalgic retrospective account of 70s adolescent life. Read more
Published on 12 Feb 2004 by "johnny_is_good"
EXCELLENT STUFF
I am about three-quarters of the way through this book and am enjoying immensely. Being a year older than the main characters (Benjamin, Doug, etc. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2004
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