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12th out of 13 books
—
7 voters
Mr. Phillips
Mr. Phillips, c'est vous, c'est moi, l'homme de la rue, le " petit homme " de Gogol, que rien ne distingue de ses voisins - ni ses préjugés, ni ses tabous, ni ses phobies, ni ses fantasmes - et qui voit soudain le ciel lui tomber sur la tête le jour où l'entreprise qu'il a diligemment servie pendant plusieurs décennies le licencie sans cérémonie. Ce Monsieur-Tout-le-Monde,...more
268 pages
Published
(first published 2000)
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Mar 30, 2012
Manny
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People who want to know what's going on in other people's heads
Recommended to Manny by:
notgettingenough
Dr. Rayner
Dr. Rayner has just finished reading Mr. Phillips, a novel he greatly enjoyed, and now he walks to work along his usual route thinking about the review he is planning to write. Dr. Rayner has recently learned, from an online friend he feels he knows quite well but has never met in person, that he may be a High Energy Introvert or HEI. HEIs spend a large part of their time having entertaining conversations with themselves, since they tend to find the company of other people enervating....more
Dr. Rayner has just finished reading Mr. Phillips, a novel he greatly enjoyed, and now he walks to work along his usual route thinking about the review he is planning to write. Dr. Rayner has recently learned, from an online friend he feels he knows quite well but has never met in person, that he may be a High Energy Introvert or HEI. HEIs spend a large part of their time having entertaining conversations with themselves, since they tend to find the company of other people enervating....more
A delight.
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Added after reading Manny's review of this book and having but one vote for my own...
NGE sits despondently on park bench, thinking:
If each two words of a review get one vote, then Manny is going to get 346.5 votes.
And let's face it, he only gave me that one so that I'd go and look at his.
Fuck.
---------------
I can't help adding something to this review, since I do think in Mr Phillips ways from time to time. Have you ever thought about how much time women spend put...more
----------------------
Added after reading Manny's review of this book and having but one vote for my own...
NGE sits despondently on park bench, thinking:
If each two words of a review get one vote, then Manny is going to get 346.5 votes.
And let's face it, he only gave me that one so that I'd go and look at his.
Fuck.
---------------
I can't help adding something to this review, since I do think in Mr Phillips ways from time to time. Have you ever thought about how much time women spend put...more
8 likes · like · see review
As you know, Mr Phillips, a portly middle aged accountant, the quintessence of dullness, has been made redundant the previous Friday but hasn't got the nerve up to tell his family, and this is now Monday, so he toddles off as if going to work as usual, and spends the whole day pootling around in London and thinking stuff. That's it. That's all of it.
Mr Phillips is the new Leopold Bloom for sure. The cast of his thoughts, the somewhat curious musings on this and that, are exactly like our Leopold...more
Mr Phillips is the new Leopold Bloom for sure. The cast of his thoughts, the somewhat curious musings on this and that, are exactly like our Leopold...more
7 likes · like · see review
This day in the life of a mild mannered yet inwardly lascivious Reggie Perrin type is like a cross between Mrs Dalloway and Peep Show with some extra rude bits thrown in for good measure.
This was a requested present after reading excellent reviews. Most saying how hilarious the book was. (I didn't titter once.) If it hadn't been for the fact that someone else had spent money on it I would not have persevered. Also I have a rule - no matter how bad a book may be I should at least read the first 50 pages just to give it a chance. Boy was that a struggle. Especially as I have a thing about foul language. I despise it and if a book contains it then there should be a warning on the c...more
At our book club, we seemed to have chosen to read Mr Phillips by John Lanchester by accident. At the last meeting I had mentioned the new book by the same author called Capital that had received great reviews, and that I had bought one of his earlier novels. Everyone thought that a short book about one day in the life of a man who had just lost his job but could not tell his family, sounded quite interesting. In the event it was a strange story, mainly because the main charater was a fairly sor...more
Mr Phillips is a very ordinary man. An accountant, a London Commuter, a daydreamer about sex, he wakes up on Monday morning and readies himself for the office as he does every day. Except there is a difference today, as he was made redundant on Friday, and hasn't yet brought himself to tell his wife or family.
Over the course of the day, he meets his son for lunch, he chats with a pornographer, he sees a minor celebrity and gets involved in a bank robbery, reflecting all the time with his interio...more
Over the course of the day, he meets his son for lunch, he chats with a pornographer, he sees a minor celebrity and gets involved in a bank robbery, reflecting all the time with his interio...more
This novel falls under the currently popular theme of a day in an ordinary life. The danger of such a theme is that, even if it is well told, it will essentially represent an ordinary novel. Mr Phillips is an ordinary man who has been made redundant in his accounting job but hasn't the heart to tell his family he's been fired. So he pretends to go to work and wanders the streets of London until he determines how best to handle his professional demise. He is a rotund man in his fifties who wonder...more
4 likes · like · see review
Ecstatic quotes from respectable sources on the cover lead me to expect something special from this one (although I picked it up for free in a hotel library so I can't complain about wasting my money).
What I got was a collection of tired clichés about a white collar worker who spends one day walking on the wild side. He's an accountant (of course) which means that he's mild-mannered, sexually frustrated and spends all his time making calculations in his head. That's about it as far as characteri...more
What I got was a collection of tired clichés about a white collar worker who spends one day walking on the wild side. He's an accountant (of course) which means that he's mild-mannered, sexually frustrated and spends all his time making calculations in his head. That's about it as far as characteri...more
This is the second of John Lanchester's books that I have read, the first being The Debt to Pleasure which I ADORED. This guy can WRITE! Mr. Phillips didn't grab me the way The Debt to Pleasure did, but it was still an excellent read. The book describes a day in the life of a middle aged man, recently made redundant but hasn't shared that information with his family. The best part of this book is that Lanchester isn't just describing where he goes and what he does, but always his thought process...more
Aug 21, 2009
Jukka
added it
Mr Phillips - John Lanchester
Think of a sex-obsessed modern Walter Mitty. Pocketa, pocketa, pocketa. [Remember Mitty dreams but he doesn't ever really do anything.:]
Lanchester never shrinks from offending, in a most interesting way.
I enjoyed this very much and i really liked his The Debt to Pleasure.
Probably not for you. Then again you might really like it. I though will be reading more Lanchester soon.
Think of a sex-obsessed modern Walter Mitty. Pocketa, pocketa, pocketa. [Remember Mitty dreams but he doesn't ever really do anything.:]
Lanchester never shrinks from offending, in a most interesting way.
I enjoyed this very much and i really liked his The Debt to Pleasure.
Probably not for you. Then again you might really like it. I though will be reading more Lanchester soon.
Mr. Phillips has promised his family they'll go on a holiday in Florida. He's gone to work, every day, year in, year out. And on the day after he's made redundant, Mr. Phillips starts his morning, the same as every morning, puts on his suit and tie, and walks out the door, as if he's going to work. The sound track for this book should have included "Eleanor Rigby." Beautifully written book.
A day in the life of a 50ish Londoner who was let go by his accounting firm. Sounds exciting, right? Told in third person, present tense, it's a droll, contemplative and hugely enjoyable single day slice of a nondescript middle-aged accountant's walkabout of his native city to avoid admitting to the wife and family he was laid off.
This was an easy, fun read, but nothing amazing. At first I was expecting it to go a little Falling Down on me but no, Mr. Phillips just goes on a walk about and we get to taste what goes on in his head (mostly sex and numbers). It was okay, but there is nothing new here. It has been done before, and done better. It is enjoyable, but in my opinion not as enjoyable as most of the other reviewers seem to think.
I read this a very long time ago, but there is a very very funny bit in the beginning involving a mild mannered man and a --one of those long gun things afghan rebels carry on their shoulders to shoot missiles. A funny book, but also a good book.
May 12, 2013
Alison
added it
day in the life of Mr P when he has just been made redundant and hasn't told anyone. cliche but not a cliche book. obsessive chap , sex and figures -profit and loss, etc. patterns of life, comic/ironic philosophy. nicely written
"At night, Mr. Phillips lies beside his wife and dreams about other women". This is the first line in this book.
It was more fun to read it than what I expected.
The humour is intelligent, and sometimes a bit dark.
Mr. Phillips leads a boring life. He is an accountant but he is fired and does not tell his family. What we can see here is his first day in London without work.
He has an interior life trully remarkable.
It was more fun to read it than what I expected.
The humour is intelligent, and sometimes a bit dark.
Mr. Phillips leads a boring life. He is an accountant but he is fired and does not tell his family. What we can see here is his first day in London without work.
He has an interior life trully remarkable.
A man loses his job, and to some extent his identity. The musings of this dislocated man as he drifts around the city, trying to figure out what comes next. Interesting enough. Somewhat archaic style of writing.
I liked this. Reminded me of Next or Saturday - novels where the course of the action is told over a single day and where an act of violence steers the day in a particular direction. Beautifully written.
I liked this, and in general I love John Lanchester, but I don't think this will appeal to most readers. It's about the first jobless day in the life of Mr. Phillips, who was made redundant (as he puts it) on Friday and hasn't told his family yet. So the book follows him walking around London all day, and we are privy to all of his thoughts and fantasies, many of which have an "Aha! I think that, too!" quality. Recommended for librarians, accountants, and Nicholson Baker fans.
This is a humorous but ultimately slightly frustrating read due to a lack of plot development. Lanchester has drawn a wonderful portrait of a seemingly mundane accountant, Victor Phillips, who hides the recent loss of his job from his family, and thus spends 24 hours perusing life while touring the capital in his pin-stripe suit, briefcase in hand. The chracter's penchant for scoring all he perceives with a mark out of ten, and his sexual frustrations, offer very amusing passages. Yet, this read...more
This was a Guardian Book Club book in September 2006.[return]http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio...
This book was wonderful. Mr. Phillips is a funny and engaging frame with which to see a day in the city of London. As he ambles through his first day of "redundancy", he remarks on the world around him and the office life he left behind. As an accountant, he is constantly "doing the math" on such subjects as married sex and women that pose naked. These asides are thought, and chuckle, provoking. Many of which I read aloud to my husband. Lanchester paints a picture of Mr. Phillips through his cha...more
Thoroughly enjoyable, slightly jealous it's not my creation.
Dec 30, 2011
Kate Z
added it
Also on my "Best I Read in 2000" list.
Good, but not as good as "The Debt To Pleasure."
Loses job, wanders, remembers.
It is fun to read. Enough said.
This was okay, fine, enjoyable, and I do like this style... but I was hoping for something a little bit more, but maybe that's the magic of it....?
laughed aloud on the train and startled people
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John Lanchester is the author four novels and two books of non-fiction. He was born in Germany and moved to Hong Kong. He studied in UK. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was awarded the 2008 E.M. Forster Award. He lives in London.
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Nov 15, 2012 01:21am
Nov 15, 2012 01:29am