The Closed Circle

To truly enjoy this sequel, first read "The Rotter's Club", which introduces the main characters as teenagers attending British public school in Birmingham during the Thatcher regime of the 1970's. It was an era turbulent with labor disputes, IRA bombings, and countless sacrifices from the working class. "The Closed Circle" opens on the eve of the Millenium and continues to the present. The times are ostensibly more liberal with Tony Blair as PM, but has anything really changed? The problems of the working class continue, as the closing of a Land Rover factory threatens the lives of 50,000 workers. Suspicion of immigrants has intensified and led to increased activity by white supremacist groups. Following the tragedy of September 11th Britain joins in a misguided, increasingly unpopular war in Iraq. "The Closed Circle" picks up with the same characters, now 20 years older and struggling with mid-life self-scrutiny, doubts, and re-evaluations of the lives they've chosen. Benjamin Trotter, once brilliant, sympathetic, and full of promise has disappointed himself, his peers, and the reader by becoming a bland accountant. He is suffocating in a loveless, childless marriage to Emily who knows that she was a second choice. She has always been aware that Benjamin never got over beautiful Cicely, the most desirable girl in school who made love to him and then disappeared to America. Everyone expected multi-talented Benjamin to publish books and music scores. After a 20 year obsession with the lost Cicely, we find him blocked, indecisive, and unable to create so much as a haiku. His brother Paul, a smugly precocious 13 year old in "The Rotters Club" is now an MP in Tony Blair's government. He is single mindedly self-serving and careless of how his actions impact the lives of others. He always serves his interests, whether it's meeting the needs of his constituency to garner publicity for himself, ignoring his conscience while casting his vote to enter the Iraq war, or notifying his wife by text message that he is leaving her and their two daughters for his young mistress. In fact, he votes for war knowing that his journalist brother-in-law will be assigned to Iraq, which will free up his London apartment for Paul's recreational use with Malvina, his former media aide, now mistress. Secondary characters from the first book play significant roles in "The Closed Circle". Doug Anderton, Phil Case, Claire Newman, Steve Richards, Lois Trotter, and the once insanely funny, anarchic Sean Harding are all here, their lives mysteriously, and often hilariously intertwined. What happens to this cast of characters plays out against a backdrop of Britain's current social and political issues. "The Closed Circle" clears up the unsolved mysteries of "The Rotter's Club", including what became of Cicely; who sabotaged Steve, the school's only black classmate, in his A-level exams and subsequently his career; and most poignantly, what happened to beautiful, prom

Yes, but read The Rotter's Club first, which will throw you into Coe's 1970s in Birmingham, England. Then move on to this sometimes funny, sometimes melancholic, and always entertaining sequel that paints a disturbing portrait of British life up to 2003. Fiction and reality begin to merge as the overpowering political and economic events of our time, topmost being the American invasion of Iraq, begin to press onto the lives of these complex characters. No question that Amis and McEwan present contrivances, whereas Coe gives us real life in all its messy, comic, and tragic details. Nostalgia and the past play critical roles for Coe's generation of characters as they strive to deal with their personal histories, the persistence of which continuously shapes present events. And Coe labors to point out that the larger issues of terrorism, the disastrous American and British Iraqi war, and the grossness of corporate greed are also shaped by unresolved events of the past. In the end, the circle closes on the lives of everyone here in this novel as they resolve or understand what happened before. It will be interesting to see what Coe will write about, now that these characters seem to be written out of his system. And it's true, as one of the reviewers said here, The Winshaw Legacy, or What a Carve Up! is a terrific work! Read Jonathan Coe! Do it now!

Coe does a wonderful job weaving the lives of his characters with seamless and interesting transitions. He captures the mundane everyday details of life and mixes them with extraordinary situations. He paints his characters similar to those who surround you in your own world which keeps the novel rooted in reality. Very good follow up to The Rotters Club.

Absolutely compelling. Coe is a rare novelist--someone equally concerned with (and in control of) style and storytelling. This novel has humor, wisdom, anger and soul. Unlike Martin Amis, Coe is never guilty of empty pyrotechnics. Unlike McEwan, his characters are human. Yes, Coe and his subject matter are as British as...I dunno, really British stuff. And yes, you should definitely read the Rotter's Club first. And you should absolutely read the Winshaw Legacy, which is probably one of the best British novels of the last 20 years. Get this book now. Do it. Do it.

In Birmingham on the brink of the new millennium, senior accountant and wannabe author Benjamin Trotter has never forgotten the one that got away, Cicely Boyd, though two decades have passed. His frustrated wife Emily knows she still compares unfavorably to his teen love. However, he has a new secret interest, Malvina, who works as media guru for his parliament member younger brother Paul, who shares an attraction. Other friends from their 1970s ROTTERS' CLUB also have come complete circle. Claire Newman has returned from years in Italy. Her ex husband Philip Chase has become a journalist; so has Doug Anderton. All have moved on in Blair's new world order yet never quite matched their dreams. As he did with the ROTTERS' CLUB, Jonathan Coe takes a swift acerbic bite out of this time Blair's English society excesses, which have gone full circle from the welfare state to let the eat cake as long as someone else pays the tab. The story line is satire at its most cutting, which means the key cast members though heading into middle age remain caricatures representing a stereotype. No protagonist including the ROTTERS' CLUB alumni are fully developed in spite of having troubles, which adds to the feel that society is changing, but its members are bushed from the changes. Not for everyone, THE CLOSED CIRCLE is a Monty Python look at Blair's England through a post Iraq 9/11 altering lens. Harriet Klausner