About the Author

Jonathan Coe has received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, the Prix Médicis Etranger, and, for The Rotters’ Club, the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for the most original comic writing. He lives in London.

Reviews

“Reflective and compelling, satirical and tender, wildly imaginative and painstakingly realistic.” –Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post Book World

“The gritty, cross-pond equivalent to Look Homeward, Angel. . . . The pangs of embarrassment, the anguish of uncertainty, the awkwardness of success [are] vividly present here.” – Mike Francis, The Oregonian

“Funny and astute . . . The strength of The Rotters’ Club lies in its comic humanity.” – Stephen Amidon, The Atlantic Monthly

“Please, God . . . if there’s a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe. The Rotters’ Club offers a thick slice of seventies Birmingham–sharp, acerbic, and menacingly true; a sad, funny, thoroughly engaging look at compromise, complicity, and change in a decade many of us would choose to forget.” –Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and A Cook’s Tour

“Its tinder-dry combustion of comic, indignant and elegiac suggests an Evelyn Waugh of the left.” –Richard Eder, The New York Times Book Review

“A thrillingly traitorous work. It hums along for a hundred pages of wise comedy about teenage love’s mortifications, then cold cocks us with an honest surprise as cruel as it is earned.” –David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

“Jonathan Coe is a mesmerizing writer. . . . The Rotters’ Club is a wonderfully gripping novel, by turns funny, heartbreaking and terrifying.” –The Seattle Times

“The novel’s many intricate parts manage to mesh and turn with the startling harmony you find in Robert Altman’s movies.” –Todd Pruzan, The Village Voice

“If there’s a contemporary novelist who combines sharp and sometimes savage social commentary with the classic, full-blooded pleasures novels are supposed to give readers as well as Jonathan Coe does, I must have missed him.” –Charles Taylor, Salon.com

and from the UK . . .

“A must-read for anyone who cares about contemporary literature.” –Katie Owen, The Telegraph

“Filled with characters whose destinies we care about, whose welfare moves us. This is the simplest but highest calling of literature.” –William Sutcliffe, The Independent on Sunday

“As always with Jonathan Coe, the sheer intelligent good nature that suffuses his work makes it a pleasure to read.” –Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“As a study of adolescence, it is hard to beat. The aching naivety and intensity of the main characters made me think of Salinger.” –John de Falbe, The Spectator

“Coe handles his complex approach to a complex era effortlessly, and the end product is a compulsive and gripping read.” –Paul Connolly, The Times

“At once uproariously entertaining and deadly serious–a comedy of manners and mores, but also a conscientious and politically charged reminder of an age quite easily forgotten, yet not far removed from our own.” –Henry Hitchings, Times Literary Supplement

“Like all of Coe’s novels, The Rotters’ Club is brilliant, funny, apposite, informed and unflaggingly truth-seeking.” –Rachel Cusk, The Evening Standard

“Superior entertainment. The pages seem to turn themselves.” –Hugo Barnacle, The New Statesman

This witty, sprawling and ambitious novel relates the coming-of-age stories of a group of adolescents in Birmingham, England, in the 1970s, with the era itself becoming a kind of character, encompassing trivialities like music as well as more serious issues: labor struggles, racism, terrorism. Of course, the teenagers Benjamin Trotter (a play on his name accounts for the novel's title) and three of his male classmates, along with two female peers, are struggling with their own timeless issues: Why are my parents so weird? Will I ever have sex? Is Eric Clapton God? Coe amusingly and sympathetically articulates the desperate nature of teenage life, demonstrating a sure command of his protagonists' vernacular. He juxtaposes "crises" of adolescence with much more compelling events: a pub bombing by Irish nationalists and drawn-out strikes, for example, and the very real toll they take on people, including some of his characters. But this interweaving also reveals the novel's biggest problem: the combination of these two narrative strands isn't as seamless as it ought to be, nor as illuminating as Coe intends. The book is Dickensian in scope, with multiple plot lines and perspectives as well as miniature portraits of virtually everyone connected with the teens. Unfortunately, the narrative is sometimes hard to follow, and individual characters often remain opaque. The difficulty is compounded by rapidly shifting perspectives and an awkward framing narrative set in the early 2000s. As he demonstrated in his well-received novel about the Thatcher years, The Winshaw Legacy, Coe is immensely clever, but that cleverness is almost misplaced here: universal as it may be, adolescent angst doesn't really compare to the problems of massive social change. (Feb. 26) FYI: This novel is intended as the first of a two-book series, the second of which will revisit the characters' lives in the 1990s. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Adult/High School-It is Birmingham, England, in the '70s, and amidst IRA pub bombings, labor strikes, and immigration-related racism, Benjamin, Philip, and Doug are going about the business of adolescence. This means, among other things, changing their theoretical band's name from "Gandalf's Pikestaff" to "The Maws of Doom" and sneaking as much satire into the school paper as possible. Coe is hilarious and empathetic in capturing the moment when political awareness begins to bump insistently around the edges of one's consciousness, and when failing with girls and being forced to swim in the nude after forgetting one's trunks in gym class are the most earth-shattering things that can happen to a man. The entire novel is funny, and it is serious. The narrative switches occasionally from third person to first (Benjamin), and includes diary excerpts, the boys' ridiculously pretentious attempts at music and theatre reviews, and other formatting diversions. Followed, too, are the lives of the main characters' families and friends: Philip's mom, to his extreme discomfort, is being wooed by his dilettante art teacher; Benjamin's smug, obnoxiously smart younger brother seems determined to humiliate him in public. More importantly, Richards-the only black student-is cast as Othello in the school play, and others insinuate that it's only because of his color. The school's top athlete and a brilliant student, he faces more jealousy and racism in the course of the novel. For all it takes on, and despite its length, The Rotters' Club is a galloping read. Teens will find it irresistible.-Emily Lloyd, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"Reflective and compelling, satirical and tender, wildly imaginative and painstakingly realistic." -Chris Lehmann, The Washington Post Book World

"The gritty, cross-pond equivalent to Look Homeward, Angel. . . . The pangs of embarrassment, the anguish of uncertainty, the awkwardness of success [are] vividly present here." - Mike Francis, The Oregonian

"Funny and astute . . . The strength of The Rotters' Club lies in its comic humanity." - Stephen Amidon, The Atlantic Monthly

"Please, God . . . if there's a next life, let me write as well as Jonathan Coe. The Rotters' Club offers a thick slice of seventies Birmingham-sharp, acerbic, and menacingly true; a sad, funny, thoroughly engaging look at compromise, complicity, and change in a decade many of us would choose to forget." -Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour

"Its tinder-dry combustion of comic, indignant and elegiac suggests an Evelyn Waugh of the left." -Richard Eder, The New York Times Book Review

"A thrillingly traitorous work. It hums along for a hundred pages of wise comedy about teenage love's mortifications, then cold cocks us with an honest surprise as cruel as it is earned." -David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle

"Jonathan Coe is a mesmerizing writer. . . . The Rotters' Club is a wonderfully gripping novel, by turns funny, heartbreaking and terrifying." -The Seattle Times

"The novel's many intricate parts manage to mesh and turn with the startling harmony you find in Robert Altman's movies." -Todd Pruzan, The Village Voice

"If there's a contemporary novelist who combines sharp and sometimes savage social commentary with the classic, full-blooded pleasures novels are supposed to give readers as well as Jonathan Coe does, I must have missed him." -Charles Taylor, Salon.com

and from the UK . . .

"A must-read for anyone who cares about contemporary literature." -Katie Owen, The Telegraph

"Filled with characters whose destinies we care about, whose welfare moves us. This is the simplest but highest calling of literature." -William Sutcliffe, The Independent on Sunday

"As always with Jonathan Coe, the sheer intelligent good nature that suffuses his work makes it a pleasure to read." -Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

"As a study of adolescence, it is hard to beat. The aching naivety and intensity of the main characters made me think of Salinger." -John de Falbe, The Spectator

"Coe handles his complex approach to a complex era effortlessly, and the end product is a compulsive and gripping read." -Paul Connolly, The Times

"At once uproariously entertaining and deadly serious-a comedy of manners and mores, but also a conscientious and politically charged reminder of an age quite easily forgotten, yet not far removed from our own." -Henry Hitchings, Times Literary Supplement

"Like all of Coe's novels, The Rotters' Club is brilliant, funny, apposite, informed and unflaggingly truth-seeking." -Rachel Cusk, The Evening Standard

"Superior entertainment. The pages seem to turn themselves." -Hugo Barnacle, The New Statesman