'Big, hilarious, intricate, furious, moving' - Guardian Telling the stories of the wealthy Winshaw family, WHAT A CARVE UP! is a riveting social satire on the chattering and all-powerful upper classes.
What a Carve Up!
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Review
Big, hilarious, intricate, furious, moving (Guardian)
Probably the best English novelist of his generation (Nick Hornby)
Everything a novel ought to be: courageous, challenging, funny, sad - and peopled with a fine troupe of characters (The Times)
A sustained feat of humour, suspense and polemic, full of twists and ironies (Hilary Mantel Sunday Times) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Probably the best English novelist of his generation (Nick Hornby)
Everything a novel ought to be: courageous, challenging, funny, sad - and peopled with a fine troupe of characters (The Times)
A sustained feat of humour, suspense and polemic, full of twists and ironies (Hilary Mantel Sunday Times) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
About the Author
Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His other novels include A TOUCH OF LOVE and THE HOUSE OF SLEEP. THE ROTTER'S CLUB is forthcoming from Viking.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
You simply HAVE to read it. It re-affirms that the novel is not dead as an art form (the structure is simply astounding), it proves that you can write a novel that is both politically astute and personally relevant - and it is further proof that an intelligent, sophisticated book can be funny enough to make you cry with laughter. It is an absolute masterpiece that I have bought for more than ten people, each one of whom has agreed that it is one of the best novels of the last ten years. Buy it and see why - you will not be disappointed
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful
By Backdrifter
Format:Paperback
A real broad canvas of a novel that examines life under the Thatcher government in 1980s Britain, but it's not just a piece of political tub-thumping. The story plants its roots in the 1940s and uses the shenanigans of a particular influential family to illustrate the gradual dismantling and restructuring of British society and, above all, how the whims of this one group of people have far-reaching and devastating consequences for the average person on the street.
But I don't want to make it sound like a grim sociopolitical tract. At times, it's incredibly funny, and occasionally very touching. It's bookended by World War II and the Gulf War, but its examination of society probes like a laser beam into the minutiae of everyday things that affect us all, like public transport, healthcare, what we eat, how we think. Ultimately, it's a very human novel, superbly constructed and deserving of high praise.
And while I kind of see what previous reviewers mean about it not appealing to Tories or illustrating a class war, I should try to look beyond those issues because this isn't just a book about politics, it's about people - it's about us, and what we have allowed to happen to our society.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Sunfish
Format:Paperback
Jonathon Coe lives and works outside the London media scene - as such he is free to write his own stories, to his own agenda, without having to concern himself with the petty struggles that often upset the London publishing circles. With 'What a Carve Up!' he has managed to avoid the contemporary pitfalls that so engage Martin Amis and Julian Barnes and has instead created one of the most fascinatingly constructed books I have ever read. Coe has not agonised in print over his love of great writers, or publicised his literary angst over the direction literature should be taking. Instead he has got on with the craftsmanship of writing a truly great novel.
With a Dickensian approach to morality and integrity Coe sends up the perverse class system and corrupt establishment that he sees controlling Britain. He is never po-faced, and instead manages to suit the weapon to the danger, and unlike other passionate writers he never over-reacts, which means that the reader will appreciate his points without ever questioning their motives. With elements of Magical Realism as well as clear British canonical influences Coe has quite possibly written the best novel of the last ten years.
I look forward to his next.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A. Ross
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
The shifting fortunes of England between WWII and the early 1990s is the subject of this broad, complex, genre-blending, scathing, and hilarious satire from one of Britain's best contemporary writers. The framework for this is a fictitious Yorkshire family, whose tentacles extend deeply into politics, media, and the corporate world. The Winshaws include: Arms dealer Mark, MP Henry, widely-read columnist Hilary, investment banker Thomas, art dealer Roddy, industrial poultry executive Dorothy, and institutionalized Tabitha. Struggling novelist Michael Owen is commissioned by Tabitha to write the family history, and in the course of his research, Owen comes to realize that the Winshaws are "wretched, lying, thieving, self-advancing" elites whose actions embody the decline of the country.
In a dizzying feat of narrative, we learn of the Winshaws' private and public lives, how they all intersect, and especially how intellectually and morally shallow they each are. For example, via Hilary, we see the rise of Murdoch-style tabloid journalism, via Thomas the insider trading scandals, and via Henry, the trainwreck of Tory/Thatcherite economic policies. But as if this wasn't enough to keep the reader's attention, the story also works in a mystery involving two mysterious deaths, and a strange running congruence to the 1961 comedy film What A Carve Up! The result is a whirlwind of genres, including old-fashioned Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, P.G. Wodehouse-style comic novel, Evelyn Waugh-style social satire, and Christopher Hitchens-style political polemic, all of which combine for a thoroughly entertaining read.
Some may find fault in Coe's ripe and vivid portrayal of this family of scoundrels, but it's entirely in keeping with the satiric and farcical tone of the work.... Read more ›
In a dizzying feat of narrative, we learn of the Winshaws' private and public lives, how they all intersect, and especially how intellectually and morally shallow they each are. For example, via Hilary, we see the rise of Murdoch-style tabloid journalism, via Thomas the insider trading scandals, and via Henry, the trainwreck of Tory/Thatcherite economic policies. But as if this wasn't enough to keep the reader's attention, the story also works in a mystery involving two mysterious deaths, and a strange running congruence to the 1961 comedy film What A Carve Up! The result is a whirlwind of genres, including old-fashioned Agatha Christie-style murder mystery, P.G. Wodehouse-style comic novel, Evelyn Waugh-style social satire, and Christopher Hitchens-style political polemic, all of which combine for a thoroughly entertaining read.
Some may find fault in Coe's ripe and vivid portrayal of this family of scoundrels, but it's entirely in keeping with the satiric and farcical tone of the work.... Read more ›
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Jonathan Coe is a genius - producing an extremely complex yet accurate dissection of an epoch - while at the same time writing a book which is dazzlingly entertaining. The Winshaws, whose tentacles reach into every aspect of life in Thatcher's Britain, are mesmerisingly awful. And though they are clearly comic figures, and therefore larger than life, at the same time they are all too recognisable and real. Coe's success is in marshalling this cast of characters into an enormously wide-reaching narrative and hingeing it together in the figure of Michael Owen, who is commissioned to write the family history by mad Aunt Tabitha. He uncovers a writhing can of worms, and finds his own life profoundly affected by the activities of the ruthlessly selfish Winshaws. Other attempts to satirise 80s Britain seem pathetic in comparison with this. This is REAL satire - excoriating, totally realistic and wickedly, bitingly, funny.
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Probably not
The set-up of What A Carve Up!, Jonathan Coe's novel of 1994, is that Michael Owen, a minor novelist, has been hired to write a biography of the Winshaws, a family which (in Coe's... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Metropolitan Critic
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant read
I can't wait to read more of this author's books .this one is funny ,sad, and and keeps you in suspense right to the end and what an ending! Fact or fiction ?
Published 1 month ago by kevin stannard
4.0 out of 5 stars
Things That Go Bump In The Night
This is a rambling country-house of a novel with lots of hidden corridors, secret passages, layers of history and things that go bump in the night. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Roger Risborough
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a Carve UP!
This is a clever book that makes a profound statement on the Thatcherite era that has (arguably) left us with many of the problems we face today. Read more
Published 1 month ago by N. L. Ellam
3.0 out of 5 stars
What a carry-on
This was the strangest Jonathon Coe novel i have read. The theme of life imitating a carry on film was unique. Read more
Published 4 months ago by John man!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Briliant!
So happy with the purchase. May as well have been brand new, speedy delivery, resonable price. And as a fellow animal lover, finding out my money was helping a worth while charity... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Abby Pallett-Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful and compulsively readable
Probably one of the most brilliant novels of this century. A failing novelist takes a commission to write a vanity published biography of one family, the Wishaws. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tigersuzy
3.0 out of 5 stars
What a mash up!
The main character in this book starts out trying to write a family history but it ends up as a novel. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Nicholas V. Dowling
5.0 out of 5 stars
It was like magic.
The layers that are so skillfully woven by the writer had me in a state of disbelief, for it consistently surprised me and at the end I was left with a feeling of utter rage. Read more
Published 13 months ago by B. Salavati
1.0 out of 5 stars
Kindle strikes again
Why should I pay more for the kindle version of this book than I would for the paperback?
I'm getting increasingly tired of this, Amazon. SORT IT OUT!
I'm getting increasingly tired of this, Amazon. SORT IT OUT!
Published 16 months ago by Gideon Pepys
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