The closed circle

Critics

• Squaring the circle

  The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe 433pp, Viking, £17.99 How do you incorporate contemporary events and culture into fiction? It is a question that much exercises one of Jonathan Coe's characters in The Closed Circle. Benjamin Trotter, last seen as a ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• The return of the rotters

  Finishing The Rotters’ Club and finding ‘there will be a sequel’ posted at the back was a bit of good news. As was finding that sequel on my doormat. And here’s more good news: The Closed Circle is terrific. Last seen on election night in 1979, the c ... (read full critics)

  spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

8 Reviews

• 4 people find this helpful

  

  Wake up dreamer
  It's happening without you
  Cut your hair and shave your beard
  You squandered your chances
  I'll give you a thousand pounds
  To show me how you do it
  Stop being so laissez-faire
  We're all scared of the future

  You've been away for a long time, let's say 20 years. You get to see y ... (continue)

  Wake up dreamer
  It's happening without you
  Cut your hair and shave your beard
  You squandered your chances
  I'll give you a thousand pounds
  To show me how you do it
  Stop being so laissez-faire
  We're all scared of the future

  You've been away for a long time, let's say 20 years. You get to see your old friends. You're very happy to see them, but they're different people than the ones you left.
  Benjamin is the one who worries you the most. You want to shake him and tell him to wake up. In a way, he's not changed a bit, but at the same time you don't recognize him anymore, and there's not that intimacy between you anymore, so you don't say anything. He looks sad.
  Philip was the quiet one, never complaining, and seems satisfied with his life. It's good to see him, but he never was your favourite, was he?
  Doug is in London, living the dream (well, sorta). He's married with children and has a good career; charming as ever, you find that you still have a soft spot for him; seems like he couldn't ask for more from life, but you can't help thinking that he would have been better off with Claire. Yes, Claire, finally. She's the same, and you like her even more than before, if that's possible. At least she doesn't disappoint.
  And everybody keeps talking about Paul. At first it's interesting to learn what happened to Ben's creepy brother, but then you remember that he wasn't your friend, that you didn't like him; in fact everybody hated him, so you don't understand why so much attention.
  And in the end, you think that you love these people still, but it would have been better not to see them like this. Sometimes it's better to just hold on to the memories.

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  Claire N. said on Jun 5, 2010 | 2 feedbacks

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Bittersweet sequel

  Terrific novel, even tho the bittersweet development of stories, namely relationships between characters, not to mention the ending, induces delusion into readers who loved Rotters Club. Especially if they were youngsters in the late 70s and early 80s.

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  Anatole Pierre Fuksas said on Aug 31, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Not as good as The rotter's club, but Coe is always a pleasant read, and I definitely wanted to know how the story ended!

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  Miss Piggott said on Aug 9, 2007 | Add your feedback

• 

  Aw, Paul Trotter, what have you turned into...
  In this follow up to The Rotters' Club Paul's character is the only one that I really struggled to reconcile with his younger version in the former book. The 'creepy little thing' turned MP for New Labour has lost a lot of his scariness and becom ... (continue)

  Aw, Paul Trotter, what have you turned into...
  In this follow up to The Rotters' Club Paul's character is the only one that I really struggled to reconcile with his younger version in the former book. The 'creepy little thing' turned MP for New Labour has lost a lot of his scariness and become a laughable figure. A bit of disappointment there is inevitable, for a lover of black humour like me.
  In fact, a lot of the characters haven't (yet) fulfilled the promises they had as teenagers, and we find them twenty-five years or so down the line struggling to scrape even for a little bit of contentment. Disillusioned, bitter, somewhat tired, it is indeed somewhat saddening to read about the many ways in which life has made all of them somewhat unhappy.
  It is, however, a hugely entertaining, funny, well crafted book, in which Jonathan Coe's skills as a narrator, as a master of plots, conjure up a novel of many impossible coincidences and surprises, spiced with warming humour and humanity. And a novel that, despite its lighter tone at times, has indeed a lot to say about today's Britain, about politics and people, and about life, in general.

  I have read this book at a moment when I needed something to distract my mind from things that were not going so well in my own life - and Heaven knows how many times I have thanked God that Jonathan Coe exists whilst I was reading it! His books might not save your life, but they will certainly help you recover some of that faith in it that we all need to get by.

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  Blueskiesfrompain said on Jul 25, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  nice! but the rotters' club is much better...

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  Elenacrive said on Dec 11, 2008 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  What is 2000s' Britain like? What is changed and what remained the same, thirty years later?
  In this book we come to know what happened of Ben, Philip, Claire, Doug & Co. And we meet again Ben's brother, Paul, now brilliant and ascending MP for the Labour Party. Disappointment, failure, unhapp ... (continue)

  What is 2000s' Britain like? What is changed and what remained the same, thirty years later?
  In this book we come to know what happened of Ben, Philip, Claire, Doug & Co. And we meet again Ben's brother, Paul, now brilliant and ascending MP for the Labour Party. Disappointment, failure, unhappy marriages, religious crisis, missing sisters, a novel which is an ethernal work-in-progress and will never see the light, neo-fascists and a cruel but happy capitalism (is this Blair's "Third Way"?): almost anything in the present is entangled with the past. Only looking directly into it, the characters will be able, in the end, to find a sort of happiness. Around them, the Millennium Bug, September 11th, war in Iraq and anti-war protests...
  A much enjoyed reading, not maybe as much as The Rotter's Club, but... I really wanted to know how everything was going to end!

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  fughetta said on Aug 7, 2008 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 448 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0140294678
• ISBN-13: 9780140294675
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Pub date: Jun 02, 2005
• Dimensions: 1226 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Libros en Español, Libri Italiani, Suomenkielisiä kirjoja

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