book data
301 ratings,
3.47
average rating, 92 reviews
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published
March 11th 2008
(first published 2007)
by Knopf
binding
Hardcover, 256 pages
isbn
0307268039
(isbn13: 9780307268037)
description
Following The Rotters’ Club and its sequel, The Closed Circle, Jonathan Coe now offers his first stand-alone novel in a decade, a story of three gene
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 541)
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5 stars (41)
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4 stars (100)
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3 stars (109)
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2 stars (26)
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1 star (7)
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avg 3.47
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in February, 2009
The title of this novel, "The Rain Before It Falls," is a metaphor for those things that exist just beyond our experience, patterns that elude us, meanings we can't yet grasp. Coe uses as narrator the voice of a woman, Rosamond, describing twenty family photos into a tape recorder, before she takes pills and ends her life. Rosamond tells the story of four women, mothers and daughters, and the tragedy that silently passes from one to another. This melancholy book powerfully traces the...more
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Read in February, 2008
This beautifully written book takes the form of an oral narrative, recorded on a set of cassettes discovered beside the body of Rosamund, an elderly woman who has killed herself rather than let cancer do the job for her. It's the story of Rosamund's entanglement with her cousin Beatrix, a thoroughly self-centred and manipulative individual,and several generations of Beatrix's family.
As Rosamund's niece, Gill, listens to the tapes, she learns of the emotional disaster area that was ...more
As Rosamund's niece, Gill, listens to the tapes, she learns of the emotional disaster area that was ...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
numerous people
Gosh, so interesting, such a strong bluesy mood to it, even if a bit slight as indeed the critics complain. But just so beautifully sustained and with such a cool feeling of the experimental about it--I wonder if Coe is feeling more experimental these days since his biography of B.S. Johnson? Anyhow, I read in a Guardian review that Coe took his inspiration from the novels of Rosamond Lehmann--which makes me want to go back and read Lehmann all over again (ahh, Dusty Answer). I found myself fasc...more
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Read in March, 2008
Incredibly beautiful and melancholy, which seems to be quite the undercurrent in Jonathan Coe's books that I've read. I devoured this book in the course of a few days, and it was well-worth it.
The book is about a family tragedy carried down through generations, and the woman who was connected to the family, much to the effect of the events haunting her deeply later.
Jonathan Coe is adept at telling human dramas that could easily seem quaint with another writer, but he mak...more
The book is about a family tragedy carried down through generations, and the woman who was connected to the family, much to the effect of the events haunting her deeply later.
Jonathan Coe is adept at telling human dramas that could easily seem quaint with another writer, but he mak...more
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Read in July, 2008
I liked this better than The Closed Circle and The Rotters Club, but not as much as What a Carve Up, Like a Fiery Elephant or the The House of Sleep.
Perhaps because I've read so much Jonathan Coe at this stage, I'm overly familiar and never engaged with the characters as being anything other than his latest fictional inventions. For what was a very sad story, I never got weepy.
But I thought the central theme - misery being handed down the generations, deepening like a c...more
Perhaps because I've read so much Jonathan Coe at this stage, I'm overly familiar and never engaged with the characters as being anything other than his latest fictional inventions. For what was a very sad story, I never got weepy.
But I thought the central theme - misery being handed down the generations, deepening like a c...more
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8 comments
Read in April, 2008
Read the STOP SMILING review of The Rain Before it Falls:
Jonathan Coe’s The Rain Before It Falls is told largely in the words of the elderly Rosamund, who records the narrative on four audiocassettes while consuming a fatal dose of Valium and Scotch at her home in Shropshire, England. In her will, she has instructed her niece Gill to track down her cousin Beatrix’s granddaughter, Imogen, and deliver the tapes to her. The objective is to give Imogen “a sense of where you came from...more
Jonathan Coe’s The Rain Before It Falls is told largely in the words of the elderly Rosamund, who records the narrative on four audiocassettes while consuming a fatal dose of Valium and Scotch at her home in Shropshire, England. In her will, she has instructed her niece Gill to track down her cousin Beatrix’s granddaughter, Imogen, and deliver the tapes to her. The objective is to give Imogen “a sense of where you came from...more
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Read in April, 2009
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Read in December, 2008
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Virtually the whole narrative is made up of a series of photographs, each one described in detail by the narrator, Rosamond. Her death at the beginning of the novel instigates several questions - her niece is instructed to contact Imogen, a little girl who Rosamond lost touch with years before. Over the course of the book, Rosamond's story starts to emerge from the series of photographs, and you start to learn more about the things that happened to her and who Imogen is. This sounds like a trick...more
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Read in January, 2009
Not your usual Coe's novel. Less brilliant and witty than What a Carve Up!, although it is also the tale of a family and it deals with family relationships, cursed generations and secrets, and certainly not as funny. Yet the book has its moments of grace, some parts are really well put –not the mothers/daughters stuff but the dark side of a friendship, the lovely idea behind the title, the use of photographs and how they reveal and hide the truth at once– other parts are just touching. So no...more
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Read in November, 2008
[Hmmm. After reading what I wrote, this review seems a bit too curmudgeonly for such a sweet book, but I'll let it stand.]
I read this immediately after the long, unusual novel "The Savage Detectives" by Roberto Bolano, so it seemed a bit too straightforward at first. However, it was not long before the story captured me. I did enjoy the structure and Coe's version of multiple voices, but this did pale in comparison to Bolano's novel with voices that appear once and inclu...more
I read this immediately after the long, unusual novel "The Savage Detectives" by Roberto Bolano, so it seemed a bit too straightforward at first. However, it was not long before the story captured me. I did enjoy the structure and Coe's version of multiple voices, but this did pale in comparison to Bolano's novel with voices that appear once and inclu...more
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Read in August, 2008
I had to read this quite quickly as I felt it had the potential to put me into a bit of a funk. Plus it was very absorbing and I was holiday binge-reading so I ate it in an evening and a morning.
The first chapter, the set up, pissed me off mightily. Far too flowery. I don't know what Coe was trying to do, perhaps he was trying to distance his narrative voice from hers that would follow, but I almost put it down. I don't remember The Rotters' Club feeling like that.
Then i...more
The first chapter, the set up, pissed me off mightily. Far too flowery. I don't know what Coe was trying to do, perhaps he was trying to distance his narrative voice from hers that would follow, but I almost put it down. I don't remember The Rotters' Club feeling like that.
Then i...more
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Read in August, 2008
First, I liked this author's style of writing=one star. Second, I liked the format of this book (a great aunt leaves behind tape recordings describing pictures to help convey a story to a distant blind relative)=two star. But that is about it. The story is mainly about a woman and her relationships with her cousin, Beatrix who has a extremely dysfunctional mother, Ivy. Beatrix eventually has a daughter, Thea and turns into a dysfunctional mother herself. The cycle continues, until finally Th...more
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Read in July, 2008
Right, Mo's finished it now so I can review it. This book, I think, could have been amazing and emotional and really and truly gripping, but I found it all a bit sparse.
The entire book should have been dialogue, but it was all very 'written'. Even for an old woman (who might have a more formal grasp of the English language), this obviously wasn't spoken word. If she was writing a long letter to Imogen describing the photos, then it would have worked, but at no time did it really sou...more
The entire book should have been dialogue, but it was all very 'written'. Even for an old woman (who might have a more formal grasp of the English language), this obviously wasn't spoken word. If she was writing a long letter to Imogen describing the photos, then it would have worked, but at no time did it really sou...more
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6 comments
Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
Jeff and Nicola (I'll be giving it to you--happy holidays!)--and other Coe fans
The critical wisdom on this is, as many have mentioned, that it's slight--the generally suspenseful story eventually unfolding into some generically familiar family dynamics. Whatever... maybe. Even on its own terms, the story unfolds with an engrossing sense of momentum, with Coe's fantastic eye for detailing character and context obliquely, in passing.
What I loved--loved quite a bit, and perhaps unwisely? I read it in a couple of long swallows, over a couple of nights--what I lo...more
What I loved--loved quite a bit, and perhaps unwisely? I read it in a couple of long swallows, over a couple of nights--what I lo...more
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Read in March, 2009
This is a lovely story, but I couldn't help wishing that the author or editor had made different choices in the way that it was told. It felt to me that certain pieces were missing, or maybe just some characters were superfluous. The story would have been much richer if those characters had not been introduced or if their relationships had been fleshed out more. Still worth the read though.
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Read in July, 2008
I love Coe's The House of Sleep -- he's the architect of the most riotously funny footnote gag ever. Rain is not as baroquely weird as Sleep -- In fact, I'd put it in the same category with Penelope Lively and Carol Shields. Through the tapes bequeathed to a mysterious Imogen by his elderly narrator Rosamund, Coe lays bare the complex relationships of several generations of women.
Rosamund has chosen 20 photographs to describe to Imogen in order to explain the tangled history that beg...more
Rosamund has chosen 20 photographs to describe to Imogen in order to explain the tangled history that beg...more
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Read in March, 2009
A choice for one of my book groups rather than an independent choice. Still it is one I am glad was chosen as I might not have read it otherwise.
I found it a powerful story overall, very well written that drew me in completely. It is a poignant tale that is about love and loss. It left me in a rather melancholy mood.
I found it a powerful story overall, very well written that drew me in completely. It is a poignant tale that is about love and loss. It left me in a rather melancholy mood.
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Read in June, 2009
Really 3.5 stars. I picked this up at the library with Barry Unsworth's Land of Marvels and read it first because it seemed easier. It is a quick read but by no means a simple story. I think it would make a good book group selection--it is one of the books I expect to think about and would like to discuss with someone else
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Read in June, 2009
This tightly constructed book unfolds as the narrator describes a series of photographs taken over the course of her life. It is beautifully written and the characters are well developed. If you're looking for a light piece of reading, this isn't the book. This is a story that is painful at times and will linger long after you've finished it. I really liked it.
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