What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe Review

I have no idea why this book got stuck in my head years ago as something I had to read but it did and when I saw it on a shelf recently I thought why not give it a crack at long last now? And I’m glad I finally read it but… eh, it’s just ok.

What a Carve Up! by! Jonathan! Coe! is a critique of Margaret Thatcher’s reign from 1979 to 1990 where the Tories “carved up” public assets and sold them off to the private sector, to the public’s detriment. Coe personifies these critiques - poor healthcare, banking deregulation, war profiteering, and a cheapening of the culture - in the form of the fictional mega-wealthy Winshaw family, whose lives are chronicled here.

It’s also about the family’s biographer, Michael Owen, an ordinary man whose life is connected to and affected by the Winshaws in more ways than he realises. And the title is also a reference to an obscure 1961 movie of the same name starring Sid James, Kenneth Connor and Shirley Eaton, which Michael Owen is obsessed with and whose plot mirrors the book’s in places.

Phewf - what a labyrinthine concept! And the first thing to say about it is that Jonathan Coe deserves a lot of credit for juggling this many balls without dropping one - it really is an admirably detailed and masterfully told story. And then the second thing to say is that, after all that, the effect is underwhelming. Coe has enormous contempt for Thatcher and her ilk but besides that I’m not sure what he’s trying to say beyond expressing that rage in, what I imagine was for him, that cathartic finale.

The criticisms of Thatcher’s era as personified in the Winshaws isn’t as strong across the board. I could see it in the banker Thomas, the politician Henry and the weapons dealer Mark, because banking, politics and war were the most prominent features of that time, but Roddy the art dealer and Hillary the newspaper columnist? Eh, their contributions to giving the public sub-standard art was a weak point.

It’s also an immensely contrived narrative. I understand that in most fiction you have to allow for a degree of disbelief suspension, but there were just too many contrivances for my liking. Random lodgers in some distant town playing a major role years down the line, that forced four-month romance between Michael and Fiona shoe-horned in for a strained sentimental moment to underline the problems of the NHS, a chance encounter with someone connecting decades back to WW2 and the Winshaw family and Michael Owen - I mean, really? And what was the point of constantly drawing parallels to the Sid James movie - why did the book have to turn into a pastiche of that film?

There are also a lot of slow, boring parts to the book. Too many of Michael Owen’s chapters weren’t engaging, nor were all of the Winshaw family chapters - Dorothy, Thomas and Mark - terribly interesting.

I really enjoyed all of the scenes set in the macabre Winshaw Towers, as well as all the parts featuring the wretched clan squabbling amongst themselves - more than a few Winshaws come off as amusing Roald Dahl grotesques. The wonderfully named and overly-sexed elderly gay detective Findlay Onyx was a fun and quirky addition. And some of the Winshaw family chapters were really good - Henry’s is a wry look at the rise and fall of Thatcher.

Being a fan of Agatha Christie, and especially her best novel ...And Then There Were None, I really loved the finale as it turned into a country house murder mystery. Coe’s writing is incredibly skillful and, though I found the narrative contrived, it is remarkable to put together this kind of layered storytelling where even the smallest components come into play at some later point.

The novel could certainly be tightened up though - it didn’t need to be 500 pages long for what it is. It’s too sprawling, making its points unfocused and watered-down, especially its overall verdict on Thatcher, which was unremarkable. I’m glad I read What a Carve Up! if only to cross it off my mental checklist of books to read in this life, and it had its moments, but I wouldn’t say it’s a great novel anyone needs to read.