The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up!

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The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up!

by Jonathan Coe (Goodreads Author)

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 · rating details · 2,797 ratings · 170 reviews

A brilliant noir farce, a dystopian vision of Britain, a family history and the story of an obsession. Michael is a lonely, rather pathetic writer, obsessed by the film 'What a Carve Up!' in which a mad knifeman cuts his way through the inhabitants of a decrepid stately pile as the thunder rages. Inexplicably he is commissioned to write the family history of the Winshaws,...more

Paperback, 501 pages

Published January 3rd 1996 by Vintage (first published 1994)

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Jan 14, 2010 Blair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary

Black comedy at its finest and a perfect introduction to Jonathan Coe's style. Genuinely harrowing in places (I don't think I will EVER forget the chapter focused on Dorothy) but this is an excellent, effectively told, gripping and funny story - and I loved Michael.

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Aug 25, 2011 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

What a Carve Up! is so much more than a political novel, though it is certainly that. The Winshaw peeps represent all that was wrong with the greed decade (1980s) in Britain (when people I cared for couldn’t get a job or proper medical treatment on the national health). In spite of my disgust with those times, I’m delighted by Coe’s absolutely horrid, unabashedly over-the-top ‘baddies’ who represent what can go wrong when creeps rule. Also a plus is the ever-shifting narrative from first person...more What a Carve Up! is so much more than a political novel, though it is certainly that. The Winshaw peeps represent all that was wrong with the greed decade (1980s) in Britain (when people I cared for couldn’t get a job or proper medical treatment on the national health). In spite of my disgust with those times, I’m delighted by Coe’s absolutely horrid, unabashedly over-the-top ‘baddies’ who represent what can go wrong when creeps rule. Also a plus is the ever-shifting narrative from first person -- to manuscript -- to newspaper article -- to third person, etc. Love it.

Coe draws a network of parallels between his narrative and the 1961 film, What a Carve Up!, which is itself a spiffy parody of the horror film and the British cozy genres. The author uses a tame bedroom scene from the movie to describe the sexual awakening of the protagonist Owen as a youth, and in a separate part of the book, Thomas Winshaw’s paraphilia. But the connection to the film runs deeper. The characters and situations Coe draws are, at times, as outlandish as those in the film. A beastly, upper crust family; the imposing, dark mansion; an attractive, sincere nurse; a grave family solicitor; a nutty spinster; tensions between social class; unrequited love; the reading of the will with ensuing murders; and certainly, sexual repression – all these elements from the film are in this novel. Suits me; the film’s been on my mental ‘like’ list for quite some time because it’s a homage to Christie’s, Ten Little Indians.

There are yummy little illustrations of each Winshaw dotted throughout the book; each introduces the characters’ textual profiles. As caricatures, they are as cartoonish and farcical as Coe’s text. Likewise, they provide lots of information on who these people really are. Stylistically they copy Tenniel, and I believe that this is intentional because they effectively convey a type of demented whimsy that's found in, Alice Through the Looking Glass. (I hope these sketches are in all editions.)

The message is fairly straightforward: Greed is bad and can ruin people’s lives. Got it. But for me, what saves this book from being boringly preachy are mainly two things: The Fiona/Owen storyline harkens to Orpheus' loss of Eurydice (a major sniffle moment). Much of the sexuality in the book is insulated, dreamlike, and voyeuristic. Let’s face it – a healthy, well-adjusted existence is preferred by most in real-life, but makes for poor copy. The film’s bedroom scene presented through a mirror; Owen’s titillation via the lens of countless video tapes; Joan’s slumber observed; the deliciously icky Thomas -- all these remind me of the pathos and terrible consequences of an Orphean gaze, and the impotence of fear and greed.

The novel’s other saving grace and great strength is humor. I wonder. Would I like this book as much if I didn’t agree with the author’s politics as presented in the text? How much does this matter to me? I dunno. But it’s been a long time since a novel has made me laugh right out loud the way this one has. I startled the cat on several occasions with my guffaws. This is truly the author’s gift, because it’s those funny, shiny moments in the novel that remind me how hilarity makes life worth living, no matter who’s running the country. Now, I will never see a Maraschino cherry as just a Maraschino cherry. I am very happy to have read this book. (less)

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Jun 20, 2012 Zaki rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This has an architectural beauty of construction and a plot that Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens would've tipped their hats to.

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Mar 12, 2013 Ginny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Le malefatte di una famiglia britannica ricca e potente, i cui componenti sono viscidamente abbarbicati ai posti più prestigiosi nella società (finanza, politica, media…) e fanno del thatcherismo il punto di forza della loro sconsiderata avidità, si intersecano con le avventure private di un giovane scrittore, Michael Owen, incaricato di ricostruirne le vicende per scrivere una loro biografia.
Il romanzo presenta spunti tematici molto interessanti, offrendo bozzetti ironici e disincantati della...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: british

Normally if I don't enjoy a book that someone recommends me I assume that I must be missing something, they like it there must be something great about it.

I don't feel that way about this book. Even though nick hornby says coe is the greatest modern writer and Karen said this was his best book. I am not saying this book is bad, it isn't. It just didn't strike me as horribly amazing. What was great were both endings in the novel. Coe really starts to figure out what people like me want to read w...more

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Nov 16, 2010 Valetta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In partenza questo romanzo mi aveva enormemente entusiasmata e già gli avevo assegnato mentalmente 4 stellette. Col proseguire della lettura l'entusiasmo è andato un po' scemando: il libro continuava a piacermi, l'ironia di Coe mi conquistava sempre più, la sferzante critica della sconsiderata politica thatceriana (si dice così?) si faceva sempre più feroce e coinvolgente, eppure qualcosa mi infastidiva.. Quel "qualcosa" era il personaggio di Michael Owen, lo scrittore incaricato di scrivere una...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Tancredi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: preferiti, inglesi

"Quando uscimmo dall’auto, il cigolio e lo schianto delle portiere aperte e subito richiuse parvero sbriciolarsi ed essere assorbiti anch’essi dalla pace che avevamo intorno: e mi fecero pensare – chissà perché – a segni di punteggiatura abbandonati sul bianco di un foglio vuoto."

Sia lode a Jonathan Coe! Questo è un romanzo capolavoro, anzi, è il romanzo, il romanzo per eccellenza! Che stile, che arguzia, che brio!

Da dove cominciare? C'è così tanto.

Partiamo dalla struttura stessa del romanzo, or...more

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May 29, 2011 Vasha7 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An angry savaging of the destruction of Britain by a few wealthy individuals, since WWII but especially during the "Thatcher Years"; though written in 1991 (with the Gulf War as recurring theme), a lot of it rings very true for the US in 2010. However serious in intent (and not shying away from depiction of the horrors committed by utterly unscrupulous greed), it is nonetheless written in a cockeyed, at times downright bizarre form, blending the ruined and ruinous personal lives of the criminal...more

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Jul 28, 2011 Derek Baldwin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Splendid book which cleverly satirises - among other things - the idle selfish English ruling class, inhumanity generally, the meat industry, the "ooer missus" genre of English films, arms dealers, and much much more, not least the haunted house novel. All of this plus a clever character study of an inhibited man and how he - eventually, ultimately - lives out a fantasy that has plagued him all his life.

Very well written and cleverly constructed, with a well-controlled anger at injustice, and so...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Jayne Charles rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even someone as blind to allegory as me can spot that this is an attack on the self-obsessed Eighties in Britain under Margaret Thatcher. It's highly original if nothing else, and changes gear and focus so fast it can leave you highly disorientated. Oh, and it's all wrapped around a real film (the What A Carve Up of the title), which I have seen bits of since reading the book. Clever it certainly is.

Looking back at the book (it's a while since I read it), it's the small details that stay with m...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Vasco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

THE HOUSE OF HORRORS

What a Carve Up!
by Jonathan Coe

The British actress Shirley Eaton was immortalised in the history of cinema by her appearance in Guy Hamilton’s Goldfinger (1964), the third in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery: although hidden under the shadow of the ‘bondgirl’ Honor 'Pussy Galore' Blackman, no-one will forget Eaton’s body completely covered in golden paint. A few years before the golden spray, Shirley Eaton had starred in What a Carve Up! (1961), Pat Jackson’s blac...more THE HOUSE OF HORRORS

What a Carve Up!
by Jonathan Coe

The British actress Shirley Eaton was immortalised in the history of cinema by her appearance in Guy Hamilton’s Goldfinger (1964), the third in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery: although hidden under the shadow of the ‘bondgirl’ Honor 'Pussy Galore' Blackman, no-one will forget Eaton’s body completely covered in golden paint. A few years before the golden spray, Shirley Eaton had starred in What a Carve Up! (1961), Pat Jackson’s black comedy (freely inspired in T. Hayes Hunter’s The Ghoul (1933)), which, even if the comparison seems, to me, a bit derogative and even unfair, came a bit close to the style of the tedious comedy film series Carry On... (30 films from 1958 and 1978, plus one revival attempt in 1992 – that’s something!).

This film, and especially the scene where Linda, the character played by Eaton, is surprised undressing in her room by an embarrassed Ernie (Kenneth Connor), is one of Michael Owen’s recurring obsessions – together with Yuri Gagarin, Orpheus (Jean Cocteau’s), chocolate bars and videotapes, and Owen happens to be the main character of the novel where Joathan Coe borrowed the title from Jackson’s film.

The narrative follows two parallel lines, established right away in the prologue and presented throughout part one, always in alternate chapters. On the one hand, the disclosure of the life of the obscure and anguished writer Michael Owen, which gravitates around the mysterious commission for the biography of one of the richest and most influent (and vilest) British families – the Winshaw family. On the other, the revelation of the members of the family’s third generation – the narrative encloses precisely three generations of Winshaws (17 of them), which would make the first pages of the book somehow confusing without the help of the family tree printed at the beginning of the prologue. It does help the reader locate the characters within the family structure. The information narrated in these chapters is obtained from Michael’s researches for the composition of the biography, including fragments of television programmes, magazine articles, etc., which makes us follow Michael’s perspective for the whole part one. He actually assumes how difficult it is to keep reality and fiction apart as he gets more and more involved with the Winshaws.

Part two takes place in the lugubrious family mansion, where Mortimer Winshaw’s will is read. At this moment in which every piece of the puzzle fits via the expected revelations (as in a Cluedo game), in a mixture of an Agatha Christie novel and a Terence Fisher film, we see Michael’s opportunity, at last, to meet the remaining Winshaws face to face, only to confirm through the events that his relation with the family goes far beyond the professional status of biographical writing. Moreover, that is the night where the writer, who had been obsessed with What a Carve Up! (the film) since his childhood, finally confirms the feeling – which he’d had since he first saw it at the age of nine – that he is not a mere spectator, but a character living it from the inside without any control of the events – fact confirmed by the fact that Michael stops being the first person narrator, and by the climactic moment where he embodies Kenneth Connor and surprises his very own Shirley Eaton in the mansion room, concluding thus the process one could guess with the constant dejà vu of this scene throughout the narrative.

The Winshaw family is a raw and poignant portrait, centred between the conservative administrations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, of an England literally carved up by a small dominant group that systematically undermines the National Health Service reforms, ruthlessly knocks down the stock market, favours artists in return for sexual favours, fills up the food market with meat that comes from farms with dubious methods of cost-effectiveness and sells guns to Saddam Hussein while waiting for him to invade Kuwait (the book focuses persistently on the anticipating anxiety of an imminent gulf war). Much more than a simple socio-political satire, this narrative is an extremely comprehensive reading experience and one greatly enriched by the mixture of genres and influences, especially those of cinematic origin: cinema clearly crawls into the book, which, after all, is not surprising at all if we bear in mind that Coe also moves in the cinematographic media, since he wrote Humphrey Bogart and James Stewart’s biographies.(less)

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Apr 26, 2013 Irene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: inglese, contemporanea, umorismo

Cerco da dieci minuti buoni di scrivere qualcosa che non sia un semplice fantastico! e non ci riesco, per - almeno - un milione di motivi. La Famiglia Winshawè un capolavoro indiscusso che è entrato nei preferiti già al primo capitolo: una trama densa, un turbinio di personaggi dai destini incrociati, lo humour a tratti grottesco, tipicamente nero, e poi loro, la sfilza di Winshaw folli e corrotti, uno per ogni peccato capitale dell'Inghilterra capitalista tra gli anni Settanta e i Novanta: il p...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Wendy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've never read anything quite like this before. And yet, because of the way it plays with genre, there is a lot of familiar territory here. It blurs genres, occupying the territory of the detective story, the family saga, comedy, bildungsroman, Gothic, romance, and so on. The lines between them all get blurred together in a fascinating way. The book is in turn gruesome, moving, funny, ridiculous, and remarkably subtle. It is a postmodern novel that revels in play and undermines constructions of...more

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Nov 04, 2010 Nikki Dudley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was strangely readable. I did find it a bit too factual at points and the varying perspectives were sometimes tough when the character was not so interesting. The main character, Mark was actually quite intriguing and I wanted to spend more time with him. There was also a lot of political content here which is interesting for someone who doesn't follow politics religiously, and particularly in light of hindsight - it looks even more hilarious and tragic from today's perspective! The vi...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Katie Grainger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I absolutely loved What a Carve Up! It is a fantastic black comedy with a host of truly excellent characters. The book focuses on Michael Owen, a novelist who is asked to write a family history on the Winshaw family. As he researches the family he begins to realise these the family are despicably greedy individuals who care little for anyone, even each other. The first part of the book takes us on a journey through 1990/1991 as we find out more about Michael Owen the biographer alternative chapt...more

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Sep 29, 2012 Simona rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Nonostante abbia detestato tutti i personaggi di questo libro, nonostante reputi "La casa del sonno" insuperabile, devo ammettere che mi è piaciuto, anche se i finali dei libri di Coe mi lasciano sempre perplessa e questo non è esente da questa peculiarità.

"La famiglia Winshaw" potrebbe essere due romanzi in uno: da una parte Michael Owen, scrittore e io narrante che ha vissuto un'esistenza di solitudine e la cui vita si intreccerà con i Winshaw, in quanto è incaricato da uno dei componenti di...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is absolutely wonderful. I'd read it before a few years ago, and was itching to get my hands on it again. I'm not sure exactly why it's so great - fantastic characterisation, a hugely twisting and turning plot, hilariously funny, consistently surprising...it has it all.

Micheal Owen is an out of luck writer who was commissioned to write a history of the Winshaw Family, a hugely rich and hugely powerful family who between them manage to carve up pretty much every influential sphere of Br...more

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May 05, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 17, 2010 Morwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ho letto questo libro su consiglio di un'amica, che è una grande fan di Coe. Per tutta la prima metà del libro sono rimasta favorevolmente impressionata dalla varietà di stili narrativi e dal fatto che le vicende dei membri della famiglia Winshaw si alternassero con quella del protagonista, autore di una biografia della famiglia stessa. Mi è piaciuta l'ironia con cui sono descritti i vari mali della società inglese sotto la Tatcher (ma non solo), ma non ho apprezzato fino in fondo alcune uscite...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Philip Lane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This quite a collage of a book - lots of genres rolled into one. There seemed to be a bit of biography, historical, family saga, humour, gothic, mystery, parody etc. I found it all rather amusing until the end when I thought it started to get a bit silly. It is undoubtedly well written and did carry me along but in the end it felt like the plot had been so well constructed that I could see the notes - it just got less and less realistic. In other words it forced me into suspending disbelief. At...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Jessie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Normally I find that books full of unlikeable characters make for unlikeable books. Here, though, the characters represent so many true to life political concepts that the book remained interesting. The main character, Michael Owen, also made the book redeemable. Owen is comissioned to write a history of a despicable family that controls all the major social forces: politics, communication, food, weapons and trade, and sees his obsessions and a family secret undermining his ability to function....more

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Jun 30, 2010 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

Hilarious and completely bizarre and I absolutely loved it. Jonathan Coe is so funny especially when he is being a bit political and throwing barbs at Thatcherism. There's an element of Dickens to this one with all the various characters and stories interweaving into a single whole. The Winshaws are a hugely important family in 1980s Britain involved in all types of industry - banking, politics, arms dealing, factory farming, art and media. Another one is killed in WWII and another is crazy. Mic...more

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Jan 01, 2008 Sharktrager rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: life-changing-books

This book, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.

I think it's distinctly English and might not appeal to non Brits but it shouldn't matter.

Hilarious, satirical, heartbreaking, twists you never saw coming, loose ends tied up that you didn't notice were loose.

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Dec 04, 2011 Wileyacez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay--this book was so much more than expected. It's an homage to a certain type of movie (and even an actual movie, "What a Carve Up!"), but it's also like Coe decided to use as many writing styles as possible to create the book. He even manages to have a section that is purportedly written in childhood--it's a cornucopia of fictional writing techniques. On top of it all, Coe seems to be having a grand time of it. The plot made me think of Snakes & Ladders--characters popped up here as mere...more

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Sep 14, 2011 ilaria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: uk, fiction, contemporary

Ero indecisa per le 4 stelline, ma qualcosa non mi ha convinto fino in fondo. Comunque, un libro ben costruito, ben studiato e scorrevole. Mi sono arenata solo un pochino sulle parti più politiche, ma mi rendo conto della loro importanza nell'economia del romanzo.
Prima e seconda parte sono scritte con toni ben diversi: il protagonista, Michael, un personaggio inizialmente apatico e con poco spessore, assume via via toni più alti fino ad arrivare a essere estremamente attivo nella parte finale. P...more

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Oct 03, 2011 Laura Faludi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jonathan Coe certainly does not lack the neccessary brio what his protagonist holds in such a high esteem. A novel, which started as an alloy of a historical panorama of the 80's and a family chronicle takes some dramatic turns just to end in a bloody suspense. Or a parody of a suspense, as the whole book is flavored with a considerable amount of sarcasm and irony. Some parts are very informative, I myself found the desriptions about animal breeding especially dreadful. Coe moves his characters...more

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May 02, 2011 La Stamberga dei Lettori added it · review of another edition

Shelves: valetta97

Coe scrisse La famiglia Winshaw in reazione agli sconvolgimenti sociali derivanti dalla sfrenata politica liberista attuata da Margaret Thatcher negli anni 80 in Inghilterra. L'opinione di Coe in merito non è delle più entusiaste, e si sente. Il libro è feroce nel mostrare l'impatto che certe scelte, particolarmente nel campo della salute pubblica e dell'agricoltura, hanno avuto sul benessere del singolo cittadino, che rimane annichilito di fronte ad una una serie repentina di cambiamenti ...

htt ...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Ruth Lennox rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

This took me a while to get into, partly because of end of term ennui ngl, but I am in love with this book. It's so clever and you recognise it's clever from the beginning but it only comes out in full force at the end and my god the ending. Part II is fantastically hilarious and I was legitimately cackling throughout it. The way Coe plays with form and the evolution of modern, post-WWII, Thatcherite Britain is just so amazingly clever and the way it's all woven together!! I know I keep harping...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A collage of a novel made up of equal parts mystery, socio-political statement, potted family history, meta-textual literary abundance. It is funny throughout, with distinct and often repugnant characters that the reader can really sink their teeth into. It's presentation of a Thatcher-infected Britain of the 1980s and early 1990s is exceedingly effective, as Coe takes pot-shots at the first Gulf War and Arms sales, the method of food production, the print media & television and the art of p...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Sarah Sammis rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pc, read-in-2006

What a Carve Up! is two stories in one. The first is that of a writer trying to find his voice and his tragic short romance with a neighbor. The second story is that of a family implosion. The two intersect because the author has been working on a biography of the family for the last decade. In 2005, Radio 4 did a brilliant adaptation of the book and now having had the chance to also read the book, I think the abridging they did served the story well. There are many ponderous moments to this nov...more

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About Jonathan Coe

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Jonathan Coe, born 19 August 1961 in Birmingham, is a British novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! rew...more

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