The Winshaw Legacy : or, What a Carve Up!

by Jonathan Coe | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0679754059 Global Overview for this book
Registered by dessa of Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on 5/12/2004
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11 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by dessa from Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Brilliant! This book is an English manor-house mystery, a spoof of English manor-house mysteries, a spoof of 1950s horror films, a penetrating satire of 1990s Britain, a touching love story, and a hilarious exploration of how writers write (or try to). Though it deals with issues that are quite specific to the early 1990s, it is unsettlingly relevant now as well.

Journal Entry 2 by dessa from Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on Friday, May 14, 2004
On its way to mdhistorian.

Journal Entry 3 by mdhistorian from Renton, Washington USA on Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Thanks, dessa -- looks like a fun summer read!

Journal Entry 4 by mdhistorian from Renton, Washington USA on Wednesday, May 26, 2004
I admit I'm not a big reader of mysteries, but even so it seems to me that Jonathan Coe has done something quite extraordinary with this book: combined an English country house murder mystery with explicit social critique. Now maybe traditional British murder mysteries are inherently critical of the upper class that populates them, but this one foreground the criticism of the class that makes the rules for everyone else. I can't say much more without ruining the plot, except that the author manages to skewer privatization, big agriculture, finance, Maggie Thatcher, and the British tabloids all at the same time, while keeping straight the complicated plot, which makes it a fun and wicked read. No neat resolution here; expect the unexpected! Dessa recommends Coe's _The Rotters' Club_, too -- sounds like a good idea to me.

Journal Entry 5 by mdhistorian from Renton, Washington USA on Thursday, May 27, 2004
_The Winshaw Legacy is off on a bookray...

Grover3d
Mysteryfan03
Tchouli
KF-in-Georgia
Cmbohn
Gerenggat
Skyrider
Keycollect
Minx2012
Brujula
Katayoun

Journal Entry 6 by grover3d on Saturday, June 5, 2004
Received this today and it's next on my TBR pile. Thanks!

Journal Entry 7 by grover3d on Sunday, June 13, 2004
Hmmmm. Well, OK. I didn't love it. While the individual chapters about the Winshaw cousins were interesting, the parts with Michael Owen were too long by half - the entire ending (not just the very end) was pretty disappointing overall. VERY interesting commentary on the Iraq situation, given current events, but, nonetheless I tried hard to like it, but it just wasn't for me.

Thanks for sharing this!

Journal Entry 8 by mysteryfan03 from Moberly, Missouri USA on Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Got this yesterday! Thanks. I am looking forward to reading this, but I have a few rings in front of it.

Journal Entry 9 by mysteryfan03 from Moberly, Missouri USA on Friday, October 1, 2004
This book hopped around too much for me. There were sections that really grabbed you and then all of a sudden, you were left and started somewhere else. Overall, it was somewhat interesting, but just didnt flow like a story should! Thanks so much for letting us read this!

Journal Entry 10 by tchouli from Snellville, Georgia USA on Saturday, December 4, 2004
recvd today
thanks

Journal Entry 11 by tchouli from Snellville, Georgia USA on Monday, December 13, 2004
off to KFnGA today - enjoy!

i liked the premise but i really did not like the michael character. tabitha was a hoot - but the ending was kind of unsatisfying.

thanks for the ring

Journal Entry 12 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Arrived today...

Journal Entry 13 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Tuesday, December 21, 2004
A publisher, discussing a batty old lady, describes her as “…one or two fly-leaves short of a folio.” [p. 113]

Michael Owen’s efforts to write a sex scene [pages 333-336] are a hoot.

And Owen’s discussion [pages 433-434] with Pyles (the Winshaw butler) is a lot of fun:
_____He and Michael proceeded slowly up the staircase together. Not having much experience of making small talk with servants, Michael waited some time before venturing his first sally.
_____‘Well, I can’t say I think much of the climate up here,’ he said, with a nervous chuckle. ‘Next time, I think I’ll bring a sou’wester and Wellington boots.’
_____‘The worst is yet to come,’ said Pyles curtly.
_____Michael thought about this.
_____‘You mean the weather, I take it.’
_____‘There’ll be storms tonight,’ he muttered. ‘Thunder, lightning, and blind rain enough to soak the dead in their very graves. He paused briefly, before adding: ‘But to answer your question, I did not mean the weather, no.’
_____‘You didn’t?’
_____Pyles put the suitcase down in the middle of the corridor, and tapped Michael on the chest.
_____‘It’s nearly thirty years since the family were last met together in this house,’ he said. ‘Tragedy and murder visited us then, and so they will tonight!’
_____Michael stepped back, reeling slightly from his close contact with the butler’s alcoholic aura.
_____‘What, erm…what did you have in mind, exactly?’ he asked, picking the suitcase up himself, and continuing down the corridor.
_____‘All I know,’ said Pyles, limping after him, ‘is that dreadful things will happen here tonight. Terrible things will happen. Let us all count ourselves lucky if we wake tomorrow morning, safe in our beds.’
_____They stopped outside a door.
_____‘This is your room,’ he said, pushing it open. ‘I’m afraid the lock has been broken for some time.’

Yes, the story has lots of clichés. And characters are clichéd stereotypes. But that’s the fun of the story. (And there’s a description of Bush—Bush Senior, that is—that warms this Democrat’s heart…)

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this book. Thanks for the chance to read it. I’ll have it on the way to cmbohn as soon as I get confirmation of her mailing address.

Journal Entry 14 by KF-in-Georgia from Marietta, Georgia USA on Wednesday, December 22, 2004
In the mail today to cmbohn in Utah.

Journal Entry 15 by cmbohn from Orem, Utah USA on Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Just got this one and I'm starting it next. Thanks for sending it my way. It sounds very promising!

CMB

Journal Entry 16 by cmbohn from Orem, Utah USA on Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Gotta agree with grover3d on this one, it wasn't for me. I didn't like the ending; I felt pretty cheated. But I didn't really like any of the characters very much, not even Michael. It seemed to try to be too many different things to be one really convincingly.

Will PM the next on the list.

CMB

Journal Entry 17 by gerenggat on Wednesday, July 6, 2005
I have just noticed that I never journaled the book when it arrived about a month ago - sorry everyone.
I really enjoyed the book especially how everything relates to politics in Britain in the 1970s and 80s. Thanks for sharing
I'll post the book as soon as I get the address from Skyrider

Journal Entry 18 by Skyrider from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Monday, July 18, 2005
The book's arrived safely with me. Thanks mdhistorian for organising the ring and gerenggat for sending it on. Real life is intruding a bit right now, so it might be a week or two before I can get on to reading it....

Journal Entry 19 by Skyrider from Cambridge, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Well, I thought that this was a great book, but reading it perched on an Alpine mountainside made me realise how set it is in upper-class British culture; in a different situation the machinations of the 'corridors of power' seemed somehow unreal. Coming back to the oak-lined halls of Cambridge came as a shock — in many ways it seemed like I was entering the world of the Winshaws! Perhaps it's the sign of good satire that one sees its reflections in reality. I'll have to see if I can get hold of the film from the video library now... ;-)

I've PMed Keycollect and will be sending the book on when I get an address.

Update 3-Sep-05: I've just heard from Keycollect that she wants to drop off the list. Now PMing Minx2012.

Update 5-Sep-05: Minx2012 doesn't want it either! Now PMing Brujula...

Journal Entry 20 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Wednesday, September 14, 2005
The book arrived safely in Belfort to day.
On the to be read pile it goes! I'll try not to keep it over a month so it can go on to Katayoun!
Thank you!

Journal Entry 21 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Wednesday, November 16, 2005
I apologize for taking so long to read this book.
I really liked it, found it very funny, but also very sad at the same time.
I always enjoy this kind of sarcastic critic of society...

I finally mailed the book to Katayoun two days ago!

Journal Entry 22 by katayoun from Tehran, Tehran Iran on Saturday, January 7, 2006
ok, it's official my postman is trying to aviod me!! :) so i don't see him for weeks and then 4 books in one day! wellllllllll, still it's nice that he does visit me sometimes and so great that this book is here, thanks brujula (know that you are heaving a sigh of relief :)).
got 5 books (omg, i am drowning in books, i can't believe it) before this but hopefully will be back soon. thanks mdhistorian and also let me know what is next for this book.

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