When I was in college I was a member of one of those book clubs where you order 5 books for £1 and commit to buying one a month for the next year at full price. One of the books I got on the introductory offer was Jonathan Coe's the house of sleep. I can't really remember about the book but in my memory at least it was wonderful and had a dream like presence which even now I can't quite pin down. It is against this half remembered book that I compare all other JC books that I read. The Rotters club and so on are all good enough stories but firmly set in the real everyday world and all too suitible for turning into TV dramas. This falls somewhere in between it follows the family history format of the later novels but exists with a few toes in the dream world of the house of sleep. Basically this starts off well but gets sillier and sillier as it goes on piling tragedy on disaster. Overall a bit disappointing when compared to something which may not have ever existed.
6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment