The Rotters' Club
by Jonathan Coe
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 475)
Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
people who like their novels to have a little bit of everything
Much to my delight, this held up very strong on the second read. Before I re-read it, I browsed through some of the reviews others had written on this site, and it made me nervous - maybe I just loved this book so much because I was young and it's about youth, so I just connected to it out of a common vim and vigor.
Not the case.
Not only did I love it the second time around, I think I liked it even more.
As much as I don't like to compare authors so much, I can't help but describe this...more
Not the case.
Not only did I love it the second time around, I think I liked it even more.
As much as I don't like to compare authors so much, I can't help but describe this...more
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Read in August, 2008
"The Rotters' Club" was recommended to me by my brother-in-law, shortly after the BBC mini-series was shown on the toob. He had read the book before then and thought I would like it due to the many prog band references.
The story centers around Benjamin Trotter, a public school boy living in Birmingham, England in the 1970s. B'ham seemed like a pretty grim place during that time, with the erosion of the workers' unions, terrorist activity by the IRA, 3-day work weeks, power cuts, et...more
The story centers around Benjamin Trotter, a public school boy living in Birmingham, England in the 1970s. B'ham seemed like a pretty grim place during that time, with the erosion of the workers' unions, terrorist activity by the IRA, 3-day work weeks, power cuts, et...more
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A coming of age novel set in Birmingham in the early 70s. There are, I think, three main characters, the most main of whom is Benjamin Trotter. He's this guy, nearly indistinguishable from his friends who all seem to want to become musicians and journalists. By the end of the novel, they all become journalists. But I really am not certain of this. The problem may have been the fact that their names were so unmemorable: Phillip, Doug, Ben. They also had overlapping interests.
The only...more
The only...more
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Read in July, 2007
I can't remember exactly when I read this book, but I believe it was summer in 2007, and July seems as good of a month as any. I was loaned a copy by my former manager, and I am still amazed at how he managed to gauge that I might have liked this book, and its subsequent book, The Closed Circle.
Not only is the time period in which this takes place fascinating of itself, but I learnt much of the socio-political dynamics that were in play during the 1970s and in 1980, which is where th...more
Not only is the time period in which this takes place fascinating of itself, but I learnt much of the socio-political dynamics that were in play during the 1970s and in 1980, which is where th...more
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Read in April, 2008
Really fabulous novel about growing up in Birmingham, England, in the ’70s. Coe tackles all the usual adolescent woes, but also politics and history and music and culture and… If this were a fantasy novel, I’d call it amazing world-building. Instead, Coe makes the real world—one I’ve never experienced, true, but a world that did exist—come alive so vividly.
I acquired this book last year, I believe on the recommendation of one of Nick Hornby’s ...more
I acquired this book last year, I believe on the recommendation of one of Nick Hornby’s ...more
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Read in March, 2002
In The Rotters’ Club, Jonathan Coe presents a vivid and telling portrait of Birmingham, England in the 1970s. Focusing primarily on the adolescent Benjamin Trotter, whom his schoolmates jokingly call Bent Rotter—from the British slang for homosexual—the book tackles the standard issues of English high school, such as dealings with the opposite sex, parents, bullies, peers and, of course, the tribulations of wearing a uniform. But it also breaches the deeper problems of labor relations and ...more
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Read in August, 2008
Hmm. Not sure what I think of this one. I really liked parts of it, once I got to grips with all the characters (there are so many of them, and even by the end of the book, I often couldn't figure out who was whose parent). Once it cuts away to focus more on the boys, it's a much better book. A little bit frustrating in the way it jumps around in time - you're just getting into things when bam, it's nine months later.
But I loved the evocation of place and time (Birmingham, Eng. in the ...more
But I loved the evocation of place and time (Birmingham, Eng. in the ...more
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Read in November, 2007
This was really good! The plot and characters twist, and sometimes I did have to go back and re-read sections to recall who was who, but that adds to the fun of the story.
Four families, their stories told mostly by their school age sons, live in Birmingham in the 70's. The book is about England in those times (Freaks, the music scene, hippies, punk, the unions, the working class, the Jamaican immigrants, the IRA) and how lives of ordinary people are impacted by the changing times. Since th...more
Four families, their stories told mostly by their school age sons, live in Birmingham in the 70's. The book is about England in those times (Freaks, the music scene, hippies, punk, the unions, the working class, the Jamaican immigrants, the IRA) and how lives of ordinary people are impacted by the changing times. Since th...more
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Read in January, 2006
really good coming of age story, yeah, they're prepsters, but it's in this non-london setting, and for those remember a sootier, mechanical time, it brings it back. very interesting to see the sort of parallel English experience to the american 70s. A major auto workers strike, about which I knew nothing, plays a role. It's a bit about the coming nastiness of Thatcherization and a changing of the guard... along with the expected Garpian romances and shifting personalities of a growing group of ...more
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Read in July, 2008
This book was stuffed in the back of my bookcase. Like finding $20 in an old pocket, this was unexpected treat.
Coe reins in his satirical impulses enough to breath life into his characters. He chronicles the strike-ridden mid-70s British industrial heartland not only by referring to the advent of Thatcher but also to the demise of pretentious prog-rock by punk. It's a useful device.
Many of the telling details in the novel remind me of the excellent BBC series Life on Mars, set ...more
Coe reins in his satirical impulses enough to breath life into his characters. He chronicles the strike-ridden mid-70s British industrial heartland not only by referring to the advent of Thatcher but also to the demise of pretentious prog-rock by punk. It's a useful device.
Many of the telling details in the novel remind me of the excellent BBC series Life on Mars, set ...more
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Read in April, 2008
A glimpse into the decade in which I was born but never knew.
Whether teenage to adult, prog rock to punk, Labour to Tory, racist to tolerant or loner to lover this is a sometimes unnecessarily repulsive but often hilarious story of a group of teenagers and a nation growing up and changing - for better or worse.
Some reviewers complained of being bogged down by too many characters and interweaving stories but I didn't find this confusing or offputting at all.
An enjoyable and easy read...more
Whether teenage to adult, prog rock to punk, Labour to Tory, racist to tolerant or loner to lover this is a sometimes unnecessarily repulsive but often hilarious story of a group of teenagers and a nation growing up and changing - for better or worse.
Some reviewers complained of being bogged down by too many characters and interweaving stories but I didn't find this confusing or offputting at all.
An enjoyable and easy read...more
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Read in August, 2007
I read this book, because the second installation was the choice for bookgroup for August 2007. And I am so glad that I did! The story takes place in Birmingham and begins in the 70's, and is now moving so that the second book will take place in the 90's. However, I felt the author captured the feel of the 70's in his descriptions: even though I imagine the british experience must have been very different from mine! However, he captured my attention and left me with a sense of remembrance of...more
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Read in August, 2007
I couldn't finish this book, I wanted to find out what happened at the end and then i thought, what am i looking for at the end of the book. There wan't really a question I wanted answered and there was no conflict that needed to be resolved. I was not at all devoted to the characters, so why should i bother with the last 80 pages?
The story just went on and on, and there was nothing consistent that kept you locked in. I thought it was a real bore, and I was disappointed in Jonathan Coe becau...more
The story just went on and on, and there was nothing consistent that kept you locked in. I thought it was a real bore, and I was disappointed in Jonathan Coe becau...more
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Read in January, 2006
A great novel of modern times - twists and turns, shocking realism and the politik of 70's Birmingham. I enjoyed all the aspects, although some left me feeling very sad indeed. One of those books where you suddenly realise where parts of it are heading, and those destinations are real historical events, not fictions at all. And there is nothing you can do to stop that momentum because it is the momentum of reality. I came to The Rotters Club after reading another of Coes books and thoroughly enj...more
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Read in August, 2008
Fantastic! Just as you familarise yourself with the characters and begin to wish you had lived your youth in the 1970s (although not necessarily in Birmingham, a sudden disturbing event will soon change your mind. Towards the end, the story focuses more on the lives of the younger characters - as opposed to those of their parents too - and everything comes together well. For me, it was easy to identify with Benjamin at most points in the book. All in all, paints a vivid picture of this era.
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I strongly recommend this book about four boys from 1970s West Midlands in Britain. I can't even really do it justice to describe it.
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i liked it a lot, though it was kinda random and unfocused. this weird british girl i know recommended it to me, and she prolly would've got a lot more of the references/slang than i did. that being said, it was still good even for a non-anglophile - well writeen with several memorable characters. the author's sensitivity to 1970's music (both Yes and the Clash are treated with equal reverence) was really cool, too.
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