The Rotters Club

by Jonathan Coe

The Rotters Club

by
Jonathan Coe

book data

686 ratings, 3.89 average rating, 80 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		24%
4		46%
3		23%
2		5%
1		0%

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published

January 1st 2007 by Penguin (first published 2001)

details

Paperback

isbn

0141039159 (isbn13: 9780141039152)

description

At a time when people are looking back on the 1970s with nostalgia, Jonathan Coe's The Rotters' Club is a timely reminder of how ghastly that benighte…more

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May 29, 2007

Taylor rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

bookshelves: favorites, fiction, have-reread, hidden-gems, own, the-power-of-love

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'...more 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 as Rushdie meets McEwan. It's got the scope of Rushdie: ensemble "cast," intersecting story lines, his dark humor and his attention to politics. As far as McEwan, the novel is based around singular events and the way they effect the group of people, and it's got that same sort of darkness (much like McEwan, Coe isn't afraid to let bad things happen to his characters).

The lead in is a bit confusing, but it starts off with two youngsters in the year 2000-something talking about the history of how their parents know each other. The girl tells the story she knows - which is basically the entire book. It tells of four young men in grade school in England who are close friends: Ben Trotter, Phillip Chase, Doug Anderton & Sean Harding. Ben Trotter and his family are the focus point for most of the story, but it rotates through each of the characters, as well as a few peripherals - their parents, their teachers, their significant others. It takes us through illicit affairs, politics (the IRA, socialists, unions, riots, terrorism), school rivalries, school crushes, and more.

The short of it is that this is a coming of age story, but it's not just that: as I said, the scope of this is pretty huge, and even though character development is the driving force behind the story, there's just so much going on overall, though not enough to be distracting or confusing (he's bested Rushdie in that regard, but his scope is also a little more focused).

Coe does a really wonderful job at developing his characters, even the ones who don't get a long time to narrate to us. Someone on this site said they didn't care about the characters, but I can't imagine that. Benjamin in particular is easy to relate to, with his obsessive crush on the most popular girl in school, yearnings to be a writer, confusion about politics and love of music.

Coe also has a fantastic sense of humor - it's very diverse, ranging from the dark to the slapstick. Some of the most memorable moments come from it.

The only thing that irked me on this read was the end of the "story" section. It's basically stream of consciousness from Benjamin's point of view, so there are no pauses, just one long run-on sentence. It's a little exhausting to read.

Otherwise, I fell in love with this book all over again.(less)

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Feb 18, 2008

Tom Southall rated it:

(review of isbn 014029466X)

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...more

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Nov 19, 2009

Caitlinstuart07 rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

Read in September, 2009

This was a really interesting book, told from the perspective of several characters in the 1970's culture clash in Britain. The characters are rich, engaging, and amusing. Several historical events are immersed in the culture of the book, from the rise of Punk rock to union strikes to IRA bombings to disputes between the Labour party and the Tories. This is a time period that I am not well educated on but it felt like it came alive through the eyes of Ben, Philip, and Doug. Ben's father is also ...more

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May 28, 2009

Colleen rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

Read in March, 2006

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

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Oct 06, 2009

Anna Savage rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

Read in October, 2009

The jacket played this novel up as comedic and hysterically funny, and although that's not entirely false, it skewed my attitude going in and possibly made me like the book less. I kept expecting to laugh, and I didn't. Not even once. The story is just as sad and nostalgic as it is funny. That's not a bad thing, but it did seem a little conflicted in tone throughout. I also hated the obviously set up to be made into a movie structure of the story, and the fact that it ends entirely without resol...more

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Feb 21, 2010

Adam Scovell rated it:

(review of isbn 014029466X)

Words can't really descibe how much I love this book. The late 70's is a time I always hear of and I'm always envious of people who have experienced it. This book captures what I imagine it to have been like perfectly, whether it be through the death of prog rock by punk or showing the chaos the IRA bombing caused. This is a superb coming of age novel and it makes 1970's Britain seem like a different planet.
It's also hilarious and pre dates any of the skins/inbetweeners idea.
In ...more

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Nov 06, 2009

Meg rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

Read in November, 2009

Because it wasn't what I was expecting, I suspected I liked it less than I might have. The last third of the book really moves and gets into more of the politics, the tumult, and the culture of the 70s. By the time I got there, I was hooked. I think it was the book jacket that misled me a bit.

Some readers might be disappointed by the lack of resolution of some of the storylines, but I liked that not everything wrapped up in a neat package. The times called for something messier and ...more

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Feb 02, 2010

Hannah rated it:

(review of isbn 0141033266)

bookshelves: engels

Read in February, 2010

A book has never made me laugh as hard or long as this one, many times but in particular when I read about the "HIC HAEC HOC" motto. I'm seriously considering to ingrave that above my door, if I ever own a house. It'd make me laugh every day (thus significantly increasing life quality), and maybe I could strike up a friendship with fellow J. Coe-readers who recognize it? I hope so!
And yes, you really do care about the characters. On top of being incredibly funny it really is very...more

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Feb 27, 2009

Djrmel rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

bookshelves: fiction, historical-fiction, romance

Read in April, 2008

A funny, sad, romantic, historical, and always entertaining coming of age novel about the lives of four young men in 1970's Birmingham England. As an American, I'm sure I'm missing some of the major story line about labour and some of the minor pop culture points, but I understood enough to know that the characters are complicated and interesting and very, very human. I was glad to know there's a sequel, because when this book ended I wasn't ready to say good bye to these guys or their families...more

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Aug 28, 2008

Sean rated it:

(review of isbn 014029466X)

bookshelves: everyday-fiction, socio-cultural

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 ...more "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, etc. Ben mostly hangs out with his erstwhile mates, Philip and Doug, tries to form a prog-rock band, writes articles for the school newspaper and nurses his crush on Cicely Boyd, the typical 'popular girl' that everyone's trying to date. Ben also has a precocious younger brother, Paul, who embraces the Tory takeover in the late 70s, as the socialist ideas of the Labour Party were stagnating.

Ben's sister Lois meets a "hairy guy" called Malcolm, though a lonely hearts ad in muso-mag, Sounds. They get together and Malcolm introduces Ben to off-beat prog like Henry Cow and Hatfield & The North (whose second album gives the book it's title). Lois and Malcolm date for a year and as Malcolm is about to propose to Lois, the pub they are both in explodes, due to an IRA bomb. Malcolm is killed and Lois, who survives, is transformed into a mute recluse for a few years.

This sort of bittersweet quality informs most of the book. The kids' parents have unfulfilling affairs, Ben has a religious epiphany, but later returns to his initial ambiguity about the topic. Phil's prog band dream crashes around him, only this leads to the others in the band forming a punk group, meeting with some local success. Ben goes out with a girl for a short time, but his unhappiness leads him to seek out Cicely again. There are lots of other plot threads, some get resolved...others don't.

I really enjoyed this book, it brought back memories of being an awkward teen. Some themes seem universal and location and points in time are just details. I deducted a star for the episode where Doug travels to London to visit the NME office, ends up at a Clash gig and beds a 20-something woman he met earlier in the day. That bit just seemed thrown in as a cheap device for character development--the way films do when a character will just "go to Vegas" on a whim.

For that small complaint, though, I still stand by "The Rotters' Club" as an enjoyable read. Any book that describes Henry Cow as "The Yardbirds getting into bed with Ligeti, then driving through the ruins of a divided Berlin", has two characters calling their prog-rock band "Minas Tirith" and name-checks Gryphon is just alright with me.

(less)

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Aug 10, 2008

Todd Sobocinski rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

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 ...more 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 thing I got out of this book, was that there was a lot of terrorism in England in the 70s. (What with the Tory Party and the IRA) Pubs blew up and there were class wars. So, knowing that pubs blew up, it stands to reason that some of the characters in the book would blow up as well. They do...and it is a momentarily thrilling way to kick off (if novels can be kicked off on page 113) a novel that is otherwise about listening to Henry Cow and challenging your parents' politics by writing subversive articles in the high school paper.
One of the characters, writes a story in the school paper about Eric Clapton's music being racist. The article catches the attention of NME (somehow) and he is invited to come to London and meet the editor. He goes to London, gets lost, ends up going to see the Clash, meets a punk rock woman in her twenties, goes back to her place and they do it all night long. This is a stupid thing to put in a novel. It never happened to anyone, not even Cameron Crowe. Not even the Clash. Again, I have to ask. Why in the hell is the Clash so intriguing to writers? Why is this band used to lend depth to retro-characters? It's just a band.....man. They weren't even that good. Pioneers Shmioneers.
After millions of pages, these kids make it through high school. Their parents have affairs and become divided by picket lines. Benjamin gets a girlfriend.
The point of the book: Birmingham, in the 1970s was teeming with politically correct high school students who liked the Sex Pistols.
All right, I can't stand it. One of the characters gets his head blown off and it lands in his fiancé's lap just as he is about to propose to her.
(less)

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Mar 31, 2008

doreen rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

bookshelves: fiction

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 t...more

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Aug 04, 2007

Trin rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

bookshelves: english-lit, historicalfiction

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 Believer columns, and it s...more

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May 20, 2007

steve jacobs rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

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 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 unions, race, music, extra-marital affairs, the aftermath of World War II, religion, meaningless sex and the conflict between Britain and Ireland. Remarkably, the book also manages to be incredibly funny for much of the time.

The story is told in the form of a flashback, as discussed in Berlin in 2003 by two of the main characters' children, who bump into one another while they are both vacationing there. Over the course of the novel, the plot reveals itself in many different ways: it changes narrators, follows different characters, and even appears in the form of issues of The Bill Board, Ben’s school newspaper.

This method effectively gives the reader a full, three-dimensional view of the plot, characters and historical context. Nonetheless, although the flashback from Berlin in 2003 helps to set the scene and ties in rather well with some of the obscure details that appear in the bulk of the novel, the departure from and return to the present day serve as rather weak bookends for what is a very self-contained story. The exploits of Ben and his friends provide a satisfying end to the novel, making the return to Berlin awkward, clumsy and a little cliche.

Despite this one weakness, The Rotters’ Club is a fun and informative read, capable of both making the reader laugh and of delivering profound statements. In many instances, the novel serves as a light satire of British institutions, gently poking fun at their interesting idiosyncrasies. A particularly funny example of this is a classroom scene in which a student asks the teacher if a poet whom the class is studying is gay. After berating the student, accusing him of having a “grubby and ultimately rather banal little mind” and insisting that “the artistic temperament has no gender,” the teacher undermines his own efforts to evade the question when he immediately directs another student to read aloud one of the aforementioned poet’s works, entitled “The sweat of the young working boy stiffens my resolve.”

In another instance, a discussion between Ben and his classmate Sean Harding reveals a great insight into British culture. When listening to a modern interpretation of an old English folk song, Ben and Sean identify its melancholy as quintessentially English. “The English are a very violent people,” Sean says. “People don’t realize it, but we are. We repent afterwards, which is why we are so melancholy. But first of all we do whatever has to be done.”

In this manner, Harding very often serves as the voice of the novel, writing topically satirical letters to The Bill Board and playing bizarre, but telling, pranks on his classmates and the school itself. The novel presents him as almost omnipotent; none of his peers or teachers can understand him or his motives, but, to him, all is clear.

The Rotters’ Club, in its own way, faithfully reflects English culture in the 1970s—but does so with a light heart and a sardonic wit, also characteristic of the English. In the end, the reader comes away with a sense of perseverance through a life of dissatisfaction. None of the characters are miserable, but none of them truly content. Even in the end, when they have accomplished their goals, they cannot achieve happiness simply due to the fact that unhappiness surrounds them. Nonetheless, the melancholy reads sweetly; the characters push on and live their lives with good-humored cynicism and sarcasm.(less)

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May 23, 2008

Ngaire rated it:

(review of isbn 0375713123)

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....more

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May 20, 2008

Writerlibrarian rated it:

(review of isbn 2070762157)

bookshelves: june-pile, read2008

Read in June, 2008

This portrayal of England in the 1970 in a working-class blue collar town is both fascinating and somewhat foreign. We follow the teenage years of a group of friends Benjamin the writer, Philip the historian, Doug the leader, Harding, the joker. Coe succeeds in making us care about the love triangles, the angst, the deception all mirrored in their parents lives also. Adultery, depression, violence are all part of their lives. We read about the strikes, the IRA bombings, the racisms, the climb to...more

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Mar 16, 2008

Madame Charlotte rated it:

(review of isbn 2070317234)

bookshelves: _romans

Read in January, 2007

J’ai toujours eu un faible inexplicable pour ces îles dans leur ensemble, et aussi pour les films de Ken Loach entre autres, je me suis donc plongée avec délice dans cette satire de l’Angleterre des années 70. On s’attache vite aux personnages. Les ados sympathiques et un brin naïfs partagent avec les adultes un monde plutôt sombre et glauque, où le racisme, la politique, l’économie pèsent lourdement sur la société.
On assiste à l’éveil des adolescents, leur naissance...more

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Oct 09, 2007

Rowan rated it:

(review of isbn 0375413839)

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 tim...more

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Oct 08, 2009

Godzilla rated it:

(review of isbn 014029466X)

bookshelves: 2010, growing-pains

Read in February, 2010

An interesting re-read: it must be almost a decade since I first read this.

It did transport me back to my school days again: the petty squabbles and first loves are evoked beautifully. There we lots of incidental characters who clearly were omnipresent in British schools of that era.

The plot pivots around a coupel of key incidents which show how they can polarise viewpoints.

The racist issue certainly rekindled memories for me: we too only had one black pupil i...more

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Feb 13, 2009

Mark rated it:

(review of isbn 014029466X)

bookshelves: read-in-2009

Read in February, 2009

An intricate bittersweet tale of friendship, love and laughter. Jonathan Coe’s writing, like the humour he uses is pitch perfect. His books readable and accessible even if you’re unsure whether the storyline will appeal. I absolutely adored it. And what’s even better... I’m straight into the sequel. :)

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