What a Carve UpThis is a wonderfully entertaining satire of the not too distant past stretching across much of the second half of the C20th with a strong focus on the events and politics of the UK in the 80's and early 90's. This is done through a narrative of the history of the Winshaw family stretched across two generations. An aristocratic family whose roots and connections spread right through British 'high society' (booo) - and divide the country up for their own greed and selfishness.
Story Outline The story begins during WWII and develops into a wonderful mesh of interweaving stories and histories occasionally crashing into each other. Building up into an often amusing criticism of the policies, priorities, aims and objectives of British politics, merchant banking, arms deals, intensive farming, art dealers and television and tabloid columnists. The Winshaws are representative of them all and grow richer and more successful through the 80's under Thatcher.
Jonathon Coe tells this story through the 'hero' of the book Michael, a disaffected writer who has been commissioned to write a book on the history of the Winshaws and acts as the narrator for much of the book. As he delves into their past and present dealings he begins to uncover the Winshaws trail of greed and corruption. And uncovers the mysteries of the past that have a surprising twist for Michael himself.
The main characters are:
-Winshaws: Older generation
Tabitha - seemingly mad old aunt, hates her family and is sent to a mental asylum
Lawrence, - another of the older generation believed by Tabitha to have killed Godfrey, their brother
Mortimer - one of the most selfless of the family, also hates the family even his own immediate offspring.
-Younger generation
Dorothy - industrialises the farming process, gloriously free of compassion for anything animal or otherwise
Henry - Tory politician started out with Labour (they were in power at the time) but switched to the dark side to privatise everything;
Mark - the ethics free arms dealer -much involvement in Iraq;
Roddy - unenlightened arts dealer -treats art solely as a commodity and status symbol, enjoys using his power in the art world to get what he wants.
Hillary - starts out in television but is sacked for incompetence, becomes successful tabloid columnist with highly outspoken right wing views, manipulates the country to a harsh, unforgiving outlook on the world, and basically known for writing bile.
Thomas - merchant banker with a perverse interest in hanging around film studios, obsessive about his eyes.
-Not Winshaws
Michael - eccentric fellow, publishes two reasonable books but loses interest in writing for a time, becomes the main character, much of the story centres around him.
Joan - childhood friend of Michael and crops up occasionally throughout the book.
Fiona - neighbour of Michaels, they strike up a friendship, is a very touching character
Phoebe - lived with Joan whilst in University, struggling artist and ends up working for Mortimer in the Winshaw family home.
This is a great book and thoroughly entertaining. It comes across with intensely personal and entertaining story telling whilst also telling the story of the often times negative social changes in the UK over the last half century, without being overtly political at all. At times the book feels somehow quite old fashioned in its style but this works brilliantly within the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone to read, even if you saw Thatcher as an absolute idol you'd be hard pressed not to find the book a charm, and you never know you might even get lucky and experience the light and be converted to our god the 'wholly' SOCIALISM, not that this is advocated by Coe at all.
