A nice commentary on the need for human interaction and connection. Read this during a time when I was torn between wanting to go off grid to shut down all the noises around me and feeling cut off and alone. Still not sure where the final coin falls but the book made me think more about the cho...
I won’t mince matters. The terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read (that’s why I also gave it five stars). I have to admit that it’s had been a while since I enjoyed reading so much. To be honest, this books brought the pleasure of reading ...
Mal du siècleNon si può dare un voto a questo libro a caldo. O almeno io non so dare un voto a questo libro a caldo, tanto più che in generale ho un rapporto difficile con Coe. Questo libro è geniale o banale? Presenta quanto meno dei colpi da maestro o inutili effetti shoc? Non lo so. Prendiamo ...
I am not sure yet what I think of this book and this author. The ending kind of dumbfounded me. I may change my mind on the rating of this book after I have a little more time to assimilate iThe author starts with a "news article" about a man found in a car suffering from hypothermia in Scotland....
I hated this book! Well, actually I loved it. I really liked Max. I wanted Max to do well, and he does. I was rooting for him all the way; and he was real. He had real emotions with real responses. By the end of the book, he was really in my life. But why o why Mr Coe did you write the last chapt...
I really like Jonathan Coe. The house of sleep is one of my favorite books. This one was not an absolute favorite and it took me a while. On one hand, Maxwell's voice is good and his loneliness kinda seeps in. On the other hand, sometimes it is too much and it becomes confusing; also, there are s...
Jonathan Coe did it again. A pretty decent effort of a novel spoiled by an abrupt, clumsy (and metafictional!) ending. Pity, because 'The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim' has its good moments and includes some brilliant dialogues and ideas. There's just too much here: too many characters, too man...
Every day is like Sunday Sarà capitato anche a voi di guardare in una tazzina di caffè e vedere "la superficie oleosa percorsa da un vibratile luccicore".A me, no, mai, sarà che lo prendo macchiato.Questo fatterello (accaduto a pag. 8) ha incrinato i miei rapporti con questo libro, la cui lettura...
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, given that my only previous experience with this author came from ‘Like a Fiery Elephant’, his excellent (and quite idiosyncratic) biography of B. S. Johnson. The only suggestion I’d gleaned was that here was a writer wedded to a kind of gentle experimental...
Middle age, disillusionment, decay, renewal, closure I had a strange experience when I initially started to read this book. I knew it was the sequel to The Rotters’ Club – especially after I had read the author’s note – and that it only made sense to read it if I had read that first book. The t...
Arrivi a un certo punto di questo esile libro e ti domandi se questa pubblicazione sia un tentativo di giustificare, in qualche modo, una piccola raccolta di quattro racconti, o se invece i suddetti racconti concorrano a definire la storia generale. Fatto sta che Coe trova un buon escamotage per ...
What a Carve Up! is so much more than a political novel, though it is certainly that. The Winshaw peeps represent all that was wrong with the greed decade (1980s) in Britain (when people I cared for couldn’t get a job or proper medical treatment on the national health). In spite of my disgust wit...
William's life is beset with frustration: his band turns his melodic songs into grotesque parodies of Status Quo, and cool Madelaine dangles out of reach. Things could hardly get worse, it seems - until he becomes the only witness to a bizarre murder. "A very clever, very funny book ...Brilliant"...
It struck him, at the time, as an original reflection, being new to him, at any rate. And the person who had inspired it, sitting a few inches away from him at the glass-topped table, a small beaker of vodka raised to her lips, her eyes flitting evenly between Tony Buttress and Andrey Chersky as ...
The Rain Before it Falls VIKINGPublished by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division ...
A Great Day for RonnySpring that year was rainy. Maria rarely had the inclination so much as to step outside, whether to go for walks or to visit friends or to see plays or films. Instead she would sit on her bed, staring blankly at the drizzle and waiting for the time to pass. Many, many weekend...