Bournville: From the bestselling author of Middle England

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This was a satisfying read and my only negative observation is that the generational shift and the alternating time shift within sections made it difficult to reconcile how each character was related by birth to one another. Should the next novel be in the offing, Coe already has a ready made opening setting with the death and state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. That is the overriding mantra of John Coe’s latest book, which tells a nation’s story through generations of the same family.

The news in the UK is totally saturated by these topics right now - understandably - so perhaps for me personally this was not a good moment to read a novel that featured these two themes so prominently when I am reading a novel to relax and escape from constant discussion and rumination on such topics. Standing on the front doorstep with her broom in hand, listening to the distant sound of children's voices, [Doll/Shoreh] felt that she was at once inhabiting the past, present and future: it reminded her of her own childhood, her own schooldays, more than twenty years ago, the little school in [Wellington Shropshire/Hamedan], an ancient but vivid memory, but it also reminded her that these shouting and singing children would be the ones carrying the next few years on their shoulders [rebuilding the country after its six year battering, laying the memory of war to rest]. In style at least "Bourneville" is in many ways similar to the Rotter's Club trilogy using key moments in history to anchor the story, albeit this time in a much compressed format; anyone who enjoyed the Trotter books will most probably enjoy "Bourneville". Another character – when challenged as to whether he has ever done anything daring – proudly proclaims that he has joined the nascent SDP and criticism of the lurch to the left of Labour under Foot and then Corbyn is also explicitly expressed by the characters (and implicitly endorsed by the authorial voice).

My guess is that this is the period Coe has lived first hand and therefore is more comfortable in relating it. As Coe mentions in his author’s notes, Bournville is loosely related to his Unrest series as Mary is Sylvia Foley’s cousin.

Bournville, like Middle England, is a state-of-the-nation novel that seeks to respond to a question asked by a German musician early in the book: “This new path you’ve taken in the last few years – why exactly did you choose it? The Rotter’s Club and Number 11 create a wincingly-accurate portrait of Britain through the seventies and beyond, complete with all its petty class warfare and the agonising blunders of adolescence and middle age. Ma dov'è finito 'quel' Coe che decenni fa mi fece innamorare della banda dei brocchi o della casa del sonno? This book is set in Bournville in Birmingham where the famous Cadbury's factory produced some of the nation's favourite chocolate bars.Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, as modern life and the city crowd in on their peaceful enclave. Predictably, the family must confront interracial marriage and the coming out of a key family member. E’ curioso che quasi in contemporanea, ma con ben altro piglio e personaggi meno pallidi e più sfaccettati, anche Ian McEwan abbia pubblicato un romanzo fiume biografico che a sua volta interpreta in filigrana la recente storia d’Inghilterra, benché in quel caso il racconto sia meno corale e molto più incentrato sul protagonista e sulle figure femminili che ne condizionano l’esistenza.

You might have thought, for the people who named it, that with its almshouses and playing fields, its miniature boating lake and white-flannelled cricketers, the village was built as an archetype - a parody, almost - of a certain notion of Englishness.The author has said in an interview that he his “heart sank” when he initially heard of Ian McEwen’s “Lessons” published just ahead of his own and covering a similar timespan and the interaction between national and personal events – before reading it and realising how different the two books are in style and approach. Dal canto mio, nel corso della mia presenza su questo sito ho già avuto modo di dire che considero Coe un genio per i quattro libri che ha scritto in gioventù (lo so che li conoscete, ma li cito lo stesso: La banda dei brocchi, La famiglia Winshaw, La casa del sonno ed Il Circolo chiuso), e, siccome si tratta di libri che io non sarei stata in grado di scrivere neanche campando trecento anni, non posso certo rimangiarmi il giudizio. Some of the events chosen are more specific to England in their importance, such as the investiture of Prince Charles.