cljx007@abctales.com

The eighties were distinctly a game of two halves for me. The first half (1980–85) was pretty much dominated by school, culminating in that glorious June afternoon, after my final O-level exam, and walking out of the school gates for the last time. The second half moved more towards adulthood with college and the discovery of student drinking, learning to drive, working for a living and girls! Happy times.
So when you read, ‘What A Carve Up!’ by Jonathon Coe, it’s revealing just how much of the eighties I chose to ignore when so much discord was present within the society of the day.
If you’re not familiar with the book (and you should be – it’s that good), it’s the tale of a writers attempt to piece together the history of the Winshaw family, one of the worst examples of upper class, self important bunch of miscreants you are ever likely to meet. Through them we experience all that was bad about that decade - the sale of arms to Iraq, the systematic closure of hospital wards, the destruction of the coal industry – the Greed is Good mindset pushed to the hilt.
Interspersed with this is the story of the writer himself who, with the help of flashbacks, tries to come to terms with a number of issues regarding his past, present and indeed, his very future existence whilst living through and coming to terms with Thatcherist Britain at its height.
This is a rich, broad novel that intertwines its threads like a spider with its web. The story is impacted regularly when seemingly inconsequential characters from previous chapters re-cross our protagonist’s path at differing stages which, in lesser tomes would be annoying, but here prove to be vital.
If I was to use just two words to sum this one up then I would choose intricate and compelling. A book that’s a pleasure to read but one in which you dread finishing.

I'm struggling with this book to be honest. Although I'm halfway through - it moves at a very swift pace, maybe too swift and here could be the problem. With the pace so fast, and the switch from first to third person every chapter, the book's struggling for depth so it just isn't grabbing me. The story is fine, the characters okay but at the moment there's no tension and no real surprises in the plot. Log it in the same league as The Da Vinci Code - a semi-decent holiday read !

An amazing book - amazing in the sense that nothing actually happens in it. Dull characters, dull setting, and if it had a story then that would be dull too ! I stuck with it in the hope that something interesting might occur, but the way that I look at it now is it took away a week of my life that I'll never get back !

I enjoyed it too. Nice resolution to the series, however the last chapter was a bit too sugary for my liking !

Must admit, getting a bit bored with this now. Going to stick with it but there's only so much of "6.00am Write for two hours" I can take !

Is this a totally un-biased view ;-)

Ermm...how can I discribe this one. If you're an American Football fan then you'll probably like it (and know most of the games' terminology used throughout the book), but if you're not then I'd give it a wide berth. If truth be told not an awful lot happens. An ex-football star returns home for the funeral of his ex-coach, he catches up with friends and an old flame. The End. Not one of my favourite Grisham's.

Okay, hands up, who's looking forward to this one ? Personally, I'll admit, I am. I've found the previous six enjoyable so I'm eagerly awaiting this to see how it all ends up.

Right, finally finished this one and I have to say that I quite enjoyed it. It had a plot that kept me intrigued, I felt that it successfully recreated New York of 1909 and the characters, although not quite drawn well enough, were sufficient to see it through. I give it a 7 out of 10.

I've never been to Barcelona, but having read this book I felt not only that I knew the place intimately, but that I also had good friends there. I can't give this book enough praise !