Jonathan Coe has been one of our foremost British exponents of the ‘state of the nation’ genre, with a series of novels following a group of friends throughout their formative years, starting from their schooldays in 2001 with the Rotters Club. His current novel covers eight years from 2010 and includes many memorable news references:- Gordon Brown’s faux pas about the ‘bigotted’ woman, Ed Miliband’s bacon sandwich, the 2012 Olympics – and his main topic here - the political fault lines leading to the earthquake of Brexit.
Coe’s comedy-of-manners style is polished and very readable but his satirical approach is disappointingly marred in this instance by his own nakedly biased stance. The sympathetic characters are all Remainers and the Brexiteers are all depicted as 'deplorables' – with one character in particular coming across as such a villainous caricature as to be laughable rather than despicable. Unfortunately, this level of comedy is just about the only humour in the novel. The black and white stereotyping results in the characters being mere mouthpieces for the views of a metropolitan elite of writers, academics and left-wing journalists who all toe the line of Guardianista editorials.
I think a more balanced and nuanced interplay of personal relationships could have made the satire a lot sharper - and more honest, too.

I liked this book a lot, especially because there were some of the characters from the Rotter's club and it was like meeting some long forgotten friends whom you really enjoy to see again. The story was not so complicated. but as it was settled from 2010 to now, it was interesting for me to follow what precedes and came right after brexit. After the not so good last book (Numer 11), I enjoyed this new Coe a lot.

Questo libro mi é piaciuto parecchio, anche perché l'ultimo di Coe (Numero 11) non mi era piaciuto poi tanto e inoltre in questo c'erano i vecchi personaggi del Rotter club e mi sembrava quasi di ritrovare dei vecchi amici dei quali uno si dimentica, ma che é felice di rincontrare. La storia non era poi cosí complessa, ma lo sfondo dell'Inghilterra tra il 2010 ed il 2017 rende il tutto molto piú interessante, specialmente alla luce della Brexit. Un piacevole Coe dei vecchi tempi.

A commentary on how Britain has got itself into the current pickle we are experiencing on a day to day basis. It is sad and humorous tale, again a bit like modern Britain, and my one disappointment was that I hoped it would all tie up in the end and there would be a happily ever after, unfortunately we will have to wait and see what happens in the real world.

It was enjoyable meeting up with Jonathan Coe's characters from his previous books, as well as making new friends. A gentle read that deals with the divisive issues that have dogged society for the last few years, showing how families, friends and colleagues have been affected on a personal level.

Since I’ve spent the last four years as a welcomed guest in the Netherlands, this distillation of the major events of the decade in the UK (just England really as the title suggests) came along at just the right time for me and I would guess many others of us living across the channel, looking on aghast at the chaos at home and considering our future. Interesting that the upbeat ending should lean so heavily towards Europe.

I have enjoyed Jonathan Coe’s writing over the years, but haven’t read ‘The Rotters’ Club’ or its sequel. I realise now that the characters I most engaged with here are integral to those two books. Yet ‘Middle England’ is perfectly successful as a stand-alone novel - there are brief mentions of past events but none of the laboured rehashing often seen in sequels. I was particularly swept up in two of the relationships (Ben/Jennifer, Sophie/Ian), written with a sympathetic and delicate touch, but I have one major niggle about the characters. Where did the gorgeous and doughty Naheed go? I would have liked her to continue to feature large as the story unfolded.

High calibre writing (as you’d expect from Coe), but not a lot of laughs (and I’d come to expect more of those from him). The situation is too real and raw to be funny, certainly not yet.

Middle England revisits characters from Coe’s earlier novels The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle – I suppose the three books could be said to form a loose trilogy – and follows them from 2010 to the present day. Their experiences are juxtaposed with a wealth of political developments and newsworthy events: the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, Amy Winehouse’s death, the London riots, the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, the run-up to the EU referendum, Victoria Wood’s death, the murder of Jo Cox, the results of the referendum and its aftermath – to name a few of the developments that loom large in this particular story.

While all this is going on, we get glimpses of what's happening in the lives of our cast, made up of the The Rotters’ Club alumni, now middle-aged, and their younger relatives. Doug struggles to connect with his teenage daughter, the unfortunately-named Coriander. Benjamin gets a book published and it’s unexpectedly nominated for the Booker. His niece Sophie marries a man she isn’t sure about, and later gets suspended from her job in academia when she’s accused of discriminating against a student. (Sophie is in many ways the saving grace of this novel, but my god, her relationship with Ian resulted in some of the strongest second-hand frustration I’ve ever felt.)

I often found myself thinking Middle England would make a better read for someone who knows very little about British politics and current affairs of the past decade and is looking for an entertaining primer. If you’re British and/or live in the UK, you can’t fail to have been aware of the events depicted in this book, because they’re all major social or political developments that happened 7 or 8 years ago at most. In fact, I’d imagine most readers will have had more meaningful experiences of these things than Coe’s characters do. Too many sequences feel like they are merely soulless rehashes of news stories.

It was nice to read a novel about this political era set predominantly outside London (most of it takes place in and around Birmingham). There are some fantastic individual scenes: Benjamin and Lois scattering their parents’ ashes, for example, and Sophie’s reconciliation with her trans student Emily, and Benjamin and Jennifer’s goodbye. In these small, personal moments – too-scarce glimpses into the humanity of the characters – the book is at its best. A few entertaining sections in which a journalist meets up with a obsequious politician, illustrating the changing nature (but consistent hypocrisy) of government over the years, are also very good.

The bigger picture, however, is disappointing. The novel culminates in a plotline about the effects of Brexit in which the worst the characters have to fear is feeling a bit put out. The nods to diversity with a few minor characters don’t take away from the overwhelming sense that this is a story about people so privileged nothing can really touch them. There are troubling omissions (Naheed just disappears), disturbing details that are oddly glossed over, and some developments that simply don’t make a lot of sense.

It’s totally understandable that an established British novelist would want to write something that serves as a response to the current political moment. But Middle England is a largely toothless satire that offers neither an interesting perspective on society nor particularly engaging characters. As a state-of-the-nation novel, it also has the misfortune to have been published within a few months of Sam Byers’ vastly superior and much more vicious Perfidious Albion, which I would recommend over this.

It took me a long time to realise that this novel picks up a lot of the characters from Coe's earlier novel, 'The Rotters Club'. The same characters, 40 years after their school days described in that book, are now grappling with the shifting world of the 2010s and, in particular, the Brexit referendum. The England they knew has changed beyond recognition and they, plus an extensive cast of extended family and friends, are trying to make sense of the new political landscape.

At least that's what I think the novel is about! It seems to include a lot of people, perspectives, political meditation, thoughts on Englishness and description of the changing physical landscape of England as well as the ideological. Some of this was engaging, although it seemed a little too convenient that so many perspectives could be found within one group of people, from the Lithuanian housekeeper to the politically radical student to the older generation citing Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood speech.

A lot of the novel is, I think, intended to be humorous. There are a few funny moments and you can see that Coe is using satire to send up his characters and their views (I especially liked Nigel, political advisor to David Cameron). However, the subject matter - given our current position regarding Brexit and the tensions within the country - is (in my opinion) still a little too sensitive to mine for humour. With the 2019 date for the separation of the UK from the EU looming, and with all the uncertainties and tensions involved in that, I read some bits with a sense of grim recognition and horror.

Overall, I can't fault Coe's writing and the thought that has gone into this novel. Indeed, on one level, it reads as an engaging family saga and a chance to revisit some of the characters from Coe's earlier books and to find out how they are faring in the modern world. However, for me, it also allowed space in which to dwell on some rather unsavoury truths about what it means to be English at this point in our history.

I have enjoyed much of Jonathan Coe’s previous work and he writes as well as ever here, but overall I struggled with Middle England.

Having dealt with wealth, poverty and finance in modern Britain in Number 11, Coe’s latest state-of-the-nation novel takes us through the politics of the last eight years from the 2010 General Election to the political earthquakes in 2016 and beyond. As ever, he writes beautifully and readably and creates convincing, if slightly exaggerated, characters. The trouble is that there’s precious little in the way of the wit and satire which have made his previous books readable and enjoyable. Also there is such a wealth of detail both in the period settings and his characters’ lives that I began to get very bogged down and found myself skimming – something I’ve never done before with a Jonathan Coe novel.

All this meant that, although I am in sympathy with Coe’s point of view, I didn’t find much new insight, satire or enjoyment here and for me it became a rather dismal litany of all that has been wrong with British politics (with references to the US as well) in the last decade or so. Plainly, others have enjoyed Middle England very much but for me, while it’s certainly not terrible, it was a disappointment.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

It is a long time since I have read anything by this author and that is something I intend to rectify very shortly. He reintroduces characters from previous novels to provide an overview of the state of our nation and how it has developed or even declined over the past near decade.

There is humour and pathos and strong characterisation and also a sense of anger and despair at how things have transpired.

If you want to rediscover or learn about some of the key episodes in our recent history and be entertained at the same time this is certainly the book for you.

Highly recommended.

‘Adieu to old England, adieu.’

Shirley Collins’ haunting folk song bookends Jonathan Coe’s new novel, starting with a funeral and ending with the prospect of new life, covering the tumultuous period of 2010 to the present day. Is this an elegy for a lost England or a novel for our times? I admit to being perplexed by my reaction to this, so my review will undoubtedly reflect that. I so wanted to like the book more than I actually did, and whilst I have huge admiration for Coe as a writer, and whilst there are some excellent parts of the novel, it left me frustrated at times, and at others downright irritated.

Be warned, the title is a massive clue: this is such an England-centric novel the rest of the UK doesn’t get a look in. There is cursory mention in one sentence of the Scottish independence referendum, and if you are looking for anything Welsh and Irish then forget it. Middle England, or Deep England: this is a novel about country versus city, of monoculture versus multiculturalism, of older generations versus younger. And, of course, this is about Brexit - from an English point of view and in all of its bitter, argumentative, divisive forms. For me, it felt like Coe was trying too hard to make his points. Sometimes less is more, and as the metaphors and symbolism piled up I got slightly exasperated. Brexit divides the country? Check. So, relationships break down. Day of Brexit vote means an end to something? Check. So, one of the characters dies. Non white-middle-class representation in the characters? Check. Everyone has a friend or colleague from a different background. North-South divide? Check. Cue lots of moving to and fro between London and ‘the north’. And so on…

However, saying all that, the book does have some laugh-out-loud comic moments (let’s just say one involves a wardrobe) and there are set-piece moments which show Coe to be a startlingly good novelist (the chapter which covers the various central characters’ reactions watching the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony is inspired writing). There is clearly an underlying sense of resentment and anger from Coe at the Brexit result and the divisions it has stirred up. The ending of the book does offer some hope for the future, yes, but at what cost? It involves most of the characters either moving cities or even moving abroad. Is that really the answer? It might be OK if you are white middle-class, but for the rest of the country? How do they/we deal with the mess? Perhaps the best image from the book is that of 2 children’s entertainers dressed as clowns having a punch up in somebody’s kitchen while discussing Brexit. Politically, that sums it all up on both sides.

This is a decent book, but not – for me – a great one. Proverbial curate’s egg. Is it too soon to write a Brexit novel when the ramifications are still unfolding? Perhaps, perhaps not. I recommend the book for sure, because Coe is a genuinely good writer. 4 stars in some parts, 2 in others, so overall a 3 star from me is the best I can do.

Middle England is Jonathan Coe's new novel, a satirical and meandering look at the past eight years. It follows a cast of characters around Birmingham and London predominantly, looking at their interconnected lives and how they're affected by politics, Brexit, and British society. Around this, there is also a lot about family, relationships, and finding and changing what you want to do in life.

Many of the characters have already appeared in Coe's earlier books The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle, but there is no need to have read either to read this one (I didn't realise until the closing pages it might be a sequel). The way it is weaved around the events of the past eight years is sometimes great (it is amusing to see how all the characters react to the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, and their reactions are very real) and sometimes less so (Coe places so much focus on Brexit that it can't help but be depressing, for starters). He seems to aim to depict a confused Britain, though being so timely (it runs up to 2018) does make it quite stressful.

Coe brings together a cast of characters, balancing their stories well, in a novel that seems aimed at the people it is often gently mocking: the left wing middle class. At times a strange mix between funny escapism and a harsh reminder of how recent years have unfolded, this is a British satirical novel for the present day.

A return to the characters of The Rotters Club in this funny, clear sighted novel of the Brexit campaign.

Coe uses these well remembered individuals and a detailed setting of Britain during the campaign to tell the story of the Brexit era. A really insightful exploration of the issues, the political manoeuvring,and social tensions of this period in modern history. Clever, sensitive and thoughtful. Just like Benjamin Trotter, really.

Jonathan Coe continues on themes that have been his natural areas of interest, this time he acutely observes the painfully divisive and depressing state of the nation since 2010 and Brexit through previous characters he once again resurrects along with the creation of new ones. Cameron as Prime Minister breaks Britain apart with his partner in crime, Osborne, inflicting an austerity on the poor and middle class whilst those who created the economic crisis, the bankers, walk away with impunity. Cameron's misjudgements are now legendary and it is unlikely history will be kind to him, his willingness to put Tory Eurosceptics above the interest of the country along with his efforts to encroach on UKIP territory for votes with his referendum on leaving Europe. He then proceeds to walk away from the unholy mess he created, the architect of the incoming car crash government of Teresa May.

Coe's trademark wit and comic humour is present, albeit severely curtailed given the bleakness of the circumstances. His characters capture the rage and anger prevalent in the nation, the precarious economic uncertainties blamed on immigrants and Europe, the inability of so many to come to terms with the new realities amidst a nostalgia for the past when Britain actually made things. Families and marriages are torn apart or hampered by desperately strained relationships, trying to ignore key faultlines in their differing perspectives. Coe takes us through the years with the 2011 riots and Coriander developing her radical political perspectives, whilst despising her out of touch political commentator of a father and her mother's lifestyle. The brief illusory moments of national unity provided by the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics captivate a number of the characters, especially the gay Sohan. The Leave Campaign's twisted lies and manipulation takes place in a toxic climate with key elements of the press labelling those who oppose Leave as enemies of the state and traitors, as the country's deep fissures are publicly exposed.

Coe excels in the connections he makes between the personal and the political, the past and present, and in capturing the seismic shifts of a nation as its mental health disintegrates with Brexit. Whilst there is very little cheer in the bleakness of future prospects, there are distinct moments of solidarity, support and hope. Benjamin reaching out to a long lost childhood friend experiencing the sharp end of austerity with his reliance on foodbanks, the possibility of a marriage saved from the brink of permanent separation, and other examples provide the small chinks of light for the future. I found myself completely immersed in this perceptive and timely study of Britain and Brexit through the well honed characters that inhabit this novel. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

Well, I'm now massively embarrassed that I haven't read anything by Jonathan Coe before. It's interesting coming in at the end of a sequence of books - this absolutely stands alone, but I now want to go back in time and find out where these people came from.

This is an intertwining of stories and viewpoints, mainly middle-class, middle England intelligentsia. That's OK. They are making the same accommodations we all make - how do you balance the political and the personal? It's set in the years leading up to and the months immediately after the Brexit referendum. It's hard to step back and get a perspective on the history of an era that's so close to us, but to me this seems to capture the divide in this country between Leave and Remain, and the difficulty in comprehending people on the other side. It's about fear of change, and ultimately, I guess, it's about love.

The river is a central image, and this is a river of a book. You can just lie back and relax, knowing that he's not going to put a foot wrong here. The writing is great - and it's funny, and moving, and it's populated by people who feel absolutely real, and make mistakes, and triumph in small ways, and keep going. I'm off to read The Rotters' Club now.

Absolutely brilliant pen picture of modern England, and the path that led its citizens to Brexit, if not yet beyond. Great characters, gripping plot, searing political satire, highly recommended.

A history of our times

Set between the general election of 2010 that ushered in the coalition government and September 2018, this is a 'state of the nation' novel that tells the story of our times. Anyone who voted Leave may want to approach this with caution and have the blood pressure tablets handy; the rest of us can relive the tumultuous events of the last 8 years from the riots to Jo Cox, from the Olympics to the emergence of Jeremy Corbyn, and all the hideous hatred and vitriolic rhetoric that Brexit has legitimised.

Coe isn't really saying anything new here as his characters line up on both sides of the debate: those who think there's nothing wrong in poking fun at "lezzers" (vegetarian, at that!), or quoting Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech with a patronising 'told you so' air; or those with a more inclusive, compassionate, complex sense of what it means to be 'English' today like young academic Sophie.

There's less humour here than we might expect from Coe but I would guess that he's as disheartened as many of us with the re-emergence of the alt-right, the wistful yearning to turn the clock back to a mythical 1950s England, and the utter chaos caused by Brexit. For all that, there's a tentatively hopeful ending - though it has to take place partly outside of England itself.