What a Carve Up!
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in What a Carve Up! for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A brilliant noir farce, a dystopian vision of Britain, a family history and the story of an obsession. Michael is a lonely, rather pathetic writer, obsessed by the film, 'What A Carve Up!' in which a mad knifeman cuts his way through the inhabitants of a decrepit stately pile as the thunder rages. Inexplicably he is commissioned to write the family history of the Winshaws, an upper class Yorkshire clan whose members have a finger in every establishment pie, from arms dealing to art dealing, from politics to banking to the popular press and factory farming. During his researches Michael realizes that the Winshaws have cast a blight on his life, as they have on Britain. His confidence, his sexual and personal identity begin to reform. In a climax set in the Winshaw's family seat the novel turns into the film, 'What A Carve Up!' as a murderous maniac stalks the family and Michael discovers the significance of Shirley Eaton's lingerie.
About the Author
Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. His most recent novel is The Rain Before It Falls. He is also the author of The Accidental Woman, A Touch of Love, The Dwarves of Death, What a Carve Up!, which won the 1995 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, The House of Sleep, which won the 1998 Prix Medicis Etranger, The Rotter's Club, winner of the Everyman Wodehouse Prize and The Closed Circle. He has also published a biography of the novelist B.S. Johnson, which won the Orwell prize in 2005. He lives in London with his wife and two children.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
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
55 of 57 people found the following review helpful
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.
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
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.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
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 3 days ago by Nicholas V. Dowling
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 17 days ago by B. Salavati
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 4 months ago by Gideon Pepys
A great book, I wish I had read this earlier
What a Carve Up is foremost a well written and structured novel. For me, what really made this stand out was the underlying political message. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Habeeb
An astonishing piece of work
I approached this book with Coe, in my mind, being given a second chance: I had earlier read his Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, and had been really rather unimpressed. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Adam Lewis
What a Carve Up
What a book! Compelling writing, seamless plot. Thoroughly enjoyable right to the very last page. Cynical, poignant, most probably true where the neo-liberalism of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. Koutoula
A wonderful book
This is a great big hunk of a read, and it's got just about everything: politics, humour (Coe can be very funny), tension, history, relationships, murder... Read more
Published 10 months ago by F. M. M. Stott
Everything a novel should be
One of my all-time favourite novels. I first read it years ago, not knowing what to expect, and continually return to it as my benchmark for all that has come since. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Starfield
One of my favourite novels of all time
I've read it many times but it never fails to move me and to amaze me with its intelligence and intricacy. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Fran Bury
Remarkably easy to read - but reflection shows how stunning and...
I've come to Coe late, and recently read this, as well as The House of Sleep and The Rotters' Club in quick succession. He's a fabulous writer. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Lady Fancifull
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
