ekisanouk's review against another edition
Super slow paced in the beginning. Couldn’t manage to make it past the first few pages.
soinavoice's review against another edition
4.0
I have to agree with several other reviewers that I found the introductory segment, which recounted the childhood of Martha Cochrane, who is the closest thing the book has to a protagonist, to be the strongest part. Vivid and insightful character portrait.
As for the rest of the book, it is frequently an extremely witty satire. As an American transplant to the UK, the list of quintessentially English qualities as compiled by tourists especially delighted me with its accuracy (30. Double-decker buses, 31. Hypocrisy, 32. Gardening, 33. Perfidy/untrustworthiness, 34. Half-timbering, 35. Homosexuality). I found it most successful on this lightest of levels, and then possibly the next most successful on a philosophical one. It seemed to me that Barnes was championing the idea that humanity thrives on a kind of willful disingenuousness. Martha, who is hired as a professional cynic, ultimately suffers from that cynicism--which the book seems to strongly equate with realism. She is perhaps the only character unable to really embrace delusion, and thus markedly the most adrift. It's an interesting take on humanity, if rather melancholy (I found the book overall to be rather melancholy). What I found least successful was the reflection on national identity. Maybe it'd be more apparent to someone who'd grown up in the UK, but while the book dwelt gleefully on its Britishness in all its details, its greater points overall seemed to be more universal. Maybe the point is simply that Britain had reached the tipping point of cynicism that allowed something like "England, England" to occur. And maybe, in the wake of Brexit, I was expecting too much from this book as an insight into the complexities of English/British national identity. But there remained for me something distinctly under-realized here.
So, if you're looking for delightfully witty satire mixed with more profound speculation about the human condition and don't mind being made a little melancholy, check this book out. But if you're hoping for non-superficial insight into anything particularly English/British, you might want to look elsewhere.
As for the rest of the book, it is frequently an extremely witty satire. As an American transplant to the UK, the list of quintessentially English qualities as compiled by tourists especially delighted me with its accuracy (30. Double-decker buses, 31. Hypocrisy, 32. Gardening, 33. Perfidy/untrustworthiness, 34. Half-timbering, 35. Homosexuality). I found it most successful on this lightest of levels, and then possibly the next most successful on a philosophical one. It seemed to me that Barnes was championing the idea that humanity thrives on a kind of willful disingenuousness. Martha, who is hired as a professional cynic, ultimately suffers from that cynicism--which the book seems to strongly equate with realism. She is perhaps the only character unable to really embrace delusion, and thus markedly the most adrift. It's an interesting take on humanity, if rather melancholy (I found the book overall to be rather melancholy). What I found least successful was the reflection on national identity. Maybe it'd be more apparent to someone who'd grown up in the UK, but while the book dwelt gleefully on its Britishness in all its details, its greater points overall seemed to be more universal. Maybe the point is simply that Britain had reached the tipping point of cynicism that allowed something like "England, England" to occur. And maybe, in the wake of Brexit, I was expecting too much from this book as an insight into the complexities of English/British national identity. But there remained for me something distinctly under-realized here.
So, if you're looking for delightfully witty satire mixed with more profound speculation about the human condition and don't mind being made a little melancholy, check this book out. But if you're hoping for non-superficial insight into anything particularly English/British, you might want to look elsewhere.
monikapuff's review against another edition
3.0
Might be because I am sick of Barnes at the moment, but I think this is the most disgusting novel I have read in the last 4 years of my studies. It's cheap, it's 'scandalous' but in an ugly, ugly way. I am open minded, and not much things make me go 'eeew yuck god damn it' but this...
I understand that it is a satire and a farce, but this is just no up my alley. I get the structural part of the novel, and perfect usage of Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, and that is the only reason I give this three stars. And Martha, she kicks ass. Really. The first part was nice, and the last one, mostly because it was pretty much regular Barnes, questioning everything, the truth, memory, identity and those are the things I apreciate his writing.
Paul is a ball-less bastard, Sir Jack is just... a joke. I despise him and things he stands for.
I understand that it is a satire and a farce, but this is just no up my alley. I get the structural part of the novel, and perfect usage of Baudrillard's theory of simulacra, and that is the only reason I give this three stars. And Martha, she kicks ass. Really. The first part was nice, and the last one, mostly because it was pretty much regular Barnes, questioning everything, the truth, memory, identity and those are the things I apreciate his writing.
Paul is a ball-less bastard, Sir Jack is just... a joke. I despise him and things he stands for.
indigochlo's review
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
rubywarhol's review against another edition
2.0
DNF
Some cool political commentary, a couple of poetic gems, funny observations about Englishness, and random biographical bits about the past which I enjoyed, but the main plot wasn't very gripping and Sir Jack was an extremely boring character that was awful to read about.
DNF at 60% because there was too much business talk that no one cares about.
Some decent quotes:
Sometimes you can only remember a feeling but not a fact:
"Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke. You dreamed all night, or for long, serious sections of the night, yet when you woke all you had was a memory of having been abandoned, or betrayed, caught in a trap, left on a frozen plain; and sometimes not even that, but a fading after-image of the emotion stirred by such events."
- p. 6
Memories aren't necessary real - you manipulate them:
"If a memory wasn't a thing but a memory of a memory of a memory, mirrors set in parallel, then what the brain told you now about what it claimed had happened then would be coloured by what had happened in between. It was like a country remembering its history: the past was never just the past, it was what made the present able to live with itself. The same went for individuals, though the process obviously wasn't straight-forward. Did those whose lives had disappointed them remember an idyll, or something which justified their lives ending in disappointment? Did those who were content with their lives remember previous contentment, or some moment of well-arranged adverstiy heroically overcome? An element of propaganda, of sales and marketing, always intervened between the inner and the outer person."
- p. 6
'Your marriage ended in divorce?'
'I couldn't stand the pace of happiness.'
- p.46
First love:
"He found himself, in the parallel universe of real life, allowed to do the things he had previously dreamed of. With Christine he burst into a world of condom-unrolling and menstruation, of being allowed to put his hands anywhere (anywhere within reason, and nowhere dirty) while helping baby-sit her youngest brother; of dizzying joy and social responsibility. When she pointed at some bauble in a lighted shop window and cooed with a strange longing he found uniquely feminine, he felt like Alexander the Great."
- p. 100
Love and time:
"In the past he had noticed how being with a woman changed your sense of time: how lightly poised the present could be, how trudging the past, how elastic, how metamorphic the future. He knew even better how not being with a woman changed your sense of time.
So when Martha asked him what he'd thought of her when they first met, he wanted to say: I felt you would change my sense of time irrevocably, that future and past were going to be packed into present, that a new and indivisible holy trinity of time was about to be formed, as never before in the history of the created universe."
- p. 102
Some cool political commentary, a couple of poetic gems, funny observations about Englishness, and random biographical bits about the past which I enjoyed, but the main plot wasn't very gripping and Sir Jack was an extremely boring character that was awful to read about.
DNF at 60% because there was too much business talk that no one cares about.
Some decent quotes:
Sometimes you can only remember a feeling but not a fact:
"Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke. You dreamed all night, or for long, serious sections of the night, yet when you woke all you had was a memory of having been abandoned, or betrayed, caught in a trap, left on a frozen plain; and sometimes not even that, but a fading after-image of the emotion stirred by such events."
- p. 6
Memories aren't necessary real - you manipulate them:
"If a memory wasn't a thing but a memory of a memory of a memory, mirrors set in parallel, then what the brain told you now about what it claimed had happened then would be coloured by what had happened in between. It was like a country remembering its history: the past was never just the past, it was what made the present able to live with itself. The same went for individuals, though the process obviously wasn't straight-forward. Did those whose lives had disappointed them remember an idyll, or something which justified their lives ending in disappointment? Did those who were content with their lives remember previous contentment, or some moment of well-arranged adverstiy heroically overcome? An element of propaganda, of sales and marketing, always intervened between the inner and the outer person."
- p. 6
'Your marriage ended in divorce?'
'I couldn't stand the pace of happiness.'
- p.46
First love:
"He found himself, in the parallel universe of real life, allowed to do the things he had previously dreamed of. With Christine he burst into a world of condom-unrolling and menstruation, of being allowed to put his hands anywhere (anywhere within reason, and nowhere dirty) while helping baby-sit her youngest brother; of dizzying joy and social responsibility. When she pointed at some bauble in a lighted shop window and cooed with a strange longing he found uniquely feminine, he felt like Alexander the Great."
- p. 100
Love and time:
"In the past he had noticed how being with a woman changed your sense of time: how lightly poised the present could be, how trudging the past, how elastic, how metamorphic the future. He knew even better how not being with a woman changed your sense of time.
So when Martha asked him what he'd thought of her when they first met, he wanted to say: I felt you would change my sense of time irrevocably, that future and past were going to be packed into present, that a new and indivisible holy trinity of time was about to be formed, as never before in the history of the created universe."
- p. 102
i_need_organization_skills's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
turrean's review
2.0
Not quite sure what to make of this. It was wickedly barbed in places; horrifyingly funny in places (reminded me of Carl Hiaasen) ; wincingly satiric in others. It's one of those books I suspect I am not sophisticated enough to embrace. I loved the whole premise of an "alternate England" theme park which becomes more popular than the real-life one. And lord, Barnes has a marvelous talent for words! But I found the last third of the novel weirdly dull compared to the first two sections. It's basically a laundry list of the events that happened to the island over the next 10 years. The story of the two lovers is strangely incomplete. And I wasn't really sure if I was meant to think England was actually delivered...or damned...by its return to a more bucolic existence.
It would be lovely to be delivered from Donald Trump by an American Martha...
It would be lovely to be delivered from Donald Trump by an American Martha...
dorisxdw's review against another edition
1.0
It started off interesting fand then just totally lost me