Bought from a charity shop in Lichfield.


I have wanted to read this for a while.

Synopsis
Michael is a lonely writer, obsessed by a film featuring a mad knifeman. When he is commissioned to write the family history of the Winshaws he realizes that the family have cast a blight on his life and he decides to take his revenge by re-enacting his favourite film.

Well the above synopsis copied and pasted from Amazon dosen't do justice at all to this brilliant, satrical, novel, with its huge cast of characters and its intricate plot. An absolutely fascinating novel and a real page turner - I loved it. It is of course a biting satire of the 1980's and Thatcherism in all its foulness. Anyone who was at an impressionable age during the 80's (I was 12 in 1980 and therefore 21 in 1989 so that's definetly me), who first found their own political leanings during that decade, and who ever had an opinion (especially a negetive one) about Thatcher will love it - although the final section of the book is not for the sceamish.

I would have read this much quicker if I hadn't of been very headachy the last three days - it was very frustrating because I was dying to get back to the book - and I can't read much at all when I have a headache.

RELEASE NOTES:

At the Birmingham evening meet.

Picked up at the meet, as I am on bookring for this which appears to have stalled.

I have loved the other Coe books I've read, but this really did not hit the spot for me. I have read BC reviews for other copies of this book, and realise that I am in the minority. It took me a long time to get into the book. If I had had a "50 page and then stop" rule, I would not have finished this. It darted around between people and times far too much for me, and took me at least half the book to sort it all out. I did appreciate his writing, as ever, and the anti-Thatcher stance.

Giving to LyzzyBee To send to Minneapolis in a swap-box with DrSlump612.

RELEASE NOTES:

Posting to DrSlump as part of a local authors swap between Birmingham and Minneapolis-St.Paul.

This one isn't set in Birmingham but the author is very definitely a local and an accomplished satirist.

This book is realeased as part of the Never Judge A Book By Its Cover release challenge 2008: Week 26: complete sentences. Release # 13.

My apologies for taking so long to journal this - arrived about two weeks
ago.
This looks like fun! Thanks, Katisha and Liz.

Really an amazing book. Unusually well constructed, and an engaging style makes it easy to read. But - I'm still wrestling with how I feel about it overall. The ferocity of the ending is appalling, and yet still inadequate to the suffering caused by the six Winshaws. And by the end of the book I'd gone back and forth a few times on who really deserved to be sent off the the mental hospital.

It's certainly a good enough book that I want to share it, but I'm going to have to think carefully about where to release it so it will have a good chance of being matched with a reader who will appreciate it.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

On bookshelves in donor canteen