Finally got around to reading this and it's an odd one. At times, Egan's verve is thrilling as she negotiates her way through the hipsters, hangers-on, hypocrites and has-beens who go to make up the music scene in the States. It reads like a mosaic of tales with loose threads linking them together and a time-scale which bounds around merrily across an entire lifetime.
Some of the chapters are superb : one describes what must've been a harrowing experience for the victim but Egan chooses to let us see it through the eyes of the perpetrator and the droll recollection is wickedly funny.
Other chapters are pretentious beyond belief : the 70-odd page one consisting of a… Read more
Jonathan Coe's novel takes us back to the 70s in a marvellously entertaining tale of adolescence, social change and family life. As in What A Carve Up, Coe's masterly eye gives us a perfect snapshot of the time. He creates an engaging and plausible range of characters and then thrusts them into a significant period of recent English history. The sights, sounds and smells of the era are evoked in an amusing and gripping story. He is also adept at describing the awkwardness of teenagers coming to terms with taking their first tentative steps into adulthood. Highly recommended.
