The Closed Circle

Jonathon Coe

This is the sequel to The Rotters' Club, one of my Top 10 books, and continues the style of that book: plenty of narrative viewpoints, lots of uses of different forms (emails, letters, diaries, different perspectives) and big themes: war, terrorism, New Labour, the decline of industry in the UK, love, families, racism.

Indeed, many of the criticisms in the press about this book have been that it tries to do too much, and it is a valid one. But I don't think he could have written it any other way. I think that it was always going to have its flaws and would never be a perfect book, but that doesn't make it any the less enjoyable.

Most of the loose ends from the first book are tied up, though not always to the protagonists' satisfaction, let alone the reader's. Coe almost seems rushed at times, as if he knows he has a lot of stuff to get through by the end of the book. These two books were originally going to be six, and one wonders whether he has just crammed everything in he could.

I don't want to be unduly negative - this is still a great book. It's funny, moving, surprising and heartwarming, just like its predecessor. What Coe does brilliantly is that his characters are just so likeable, even the shallow Paul Trotter elicits sympathy rather than aversion. Benjamin Trotter is the heart and the soul of these novels, and in a way his life runs a parallel course with that of the 'accidental woman' of Coe's first novel.

Anyway, it's very good, if flawed. Read The Rotters' Club, then this - you will feel a lot better for it.