Metro, November 22
Jonathan Coe’s body of enjoyable, socially-conscious novels largely interrogate politics, class and work via family saga. He’s set himself quite the task this time, a seven decades-long state of the nation survey beginning with Mary’s experiences of VE Day as a child and ending with her death during the pandemic.
Coe marshals the fates (or more accurately opinions) of Mary’s family through the prism of major communal events, from the coronation in 1953 through to the World Cup Final in 1966, Charles and Diana’s wedding and so on. Though it does emphasise his idea that this country is weirdly wedded to tradition it becomes a repetitive device, reams of BBC commentary transcribed to no particular end.
Which is a shame, because in the smaller moments of personal crisis Coe is typically brilliant. So the ambition is there and it’s effortlessly readable, but the general tone of weary exasperation at the kinds of people who lead us – and who vote for them – doesn’t make Bournville moreish.
