Jonathan Coe, heartbroken by England in the 2010s

Tuesday's books - Lauriane Pipoz

Part novel, part political essay, Jonathan Coe returns to introduce us to the forces behind the Brexit. Through the characters of Welcome to the Club and from Closed circle, he tells us about the of this once powerful country. Thanks to their adventures and, above all I laughed a lot. But it's a story of collapse collapse that the author describes for us. Without seeming to.

«How did England get here?» This is the question the characters in the novel «The Heart of England" are trying to answer. More or less consciously. Between 2010 and 2018, what has changed? Why a Brexit? How can we explain the rise of hatred in the streets?

The latter comes across well in this novel. Welcome to the Club was marked by the pub bombings of 1974. Here, we witness the riots of 2011. As with the former, these outbursts of violence have a political origin. As such, they are of interest to our author, who goes to great lengths to show not only the causes, but also the devastating consequences of this violence. He explains them simply, thanks to the clear stances taken by the characters. Benjamin, Doug, Sophie and the others join and oppose each other to show us how social background can - or can't - determine which side they'll be on when the question of Brexit arises. Or the Brixit, a term used by the author to surrealistically illustrate the extent to which Dave Cameron's firm is out of touch with reality.

«Excuse me, I'm interrupting, suppose the people vote for what?
- Brexit.»
Nigel looked at him dumbfounded. «Where did you get that word?
- Isn't that what people are saying?
- I thought it was called Brixit.
- What? Brixit?
- That's what we say.
- Who are we?
-Dave and the whole team.»

«And we who have always said Brixit...» Nigel shook his head as he took more detailed notes. «It's going to be a bombshell at the next Cabinet meeting.
- Well, as long as you're convinced it won't happen, you don't really need a word to say it...»

This simplicity is Jonathan Coe's trump card. Have you read the first two parts of this trilogy? Perfect. You haven't? That's fine too. Because Jonathan Coe leaves no one behind. Not his brand-new readers, nor those unfamiliar with British politics. The protagonists return to the past frequently enough for the novice reader to jump on the bandwagon. But it doesn't feel like it. The conciseness of the events means there's no room for boredom; the sheer number of them provides a complete picture of political and personal - and often political-personal, since the two are almost always linked. This is the real richness of this genre, somewhere between a novel and a political essay: the author uses his characters to help us understand the political forces at work. The most telling example is the split between the Sophie-Ian couple, torn apart by a series of remain and leave.

At the very first session, a week later, Lorna, their marriage counselor, explained that many of the couples she was currently seeing had mentioned Brexit as a key factor in their drift.
«I usually start by asking everyone the same question. Sophie, why do you resent Ian so much for voting no to the European Union. And you, Ian, why do you resent Sophie so much for voting yes.»
Sophie thought before answering.
«I think it's because I said to myself that he wasn't as open-minded as I personally would have thought. That for him, the primary model of human relations boiled down to antagonism and competition, not cooperation.»

I would add that this virtuoso of fiction based on real events knows how to describe human relationships. The characters are placed in ambiguous ambiguous situations. We have to think hard to understand which side the author is on. And above all, to determine our own. These fragmentations sometimes interrupted me in my reading. But that's a positive thing: they're a perfect representation the reasons why the author's country is fragmented. What's more, this ambivalence this ambivalence doesn't destabilize the reader too much, since the psychology of the characters are fairly straightforward. Rather predictable protagonists interacting and reacting and reacting to major events: this realistic recipe - yes, we're all a bit predictable - seems to work just fine.

This final instalment allows us to appreciate Coe's view of a political picture spanning decades. All in all, this fiction will provide novices to British politics with a wealth of knowledge and sensitivity for the country of the’After Eight. For others, humor british The deadpan delivery alone will win you over! For my part, I finished this book with undisguised pleasure, but also with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. That the split in the population was perhaps to be expected, and above all that it's well underway. That if the author of this trilogy wanted to offer his characters a semblance of happy end, that the Brexit saga is far from over, as he himself is well aware. And finally, that it will certainly not end well.

«Cameron is only part of the story,» continued Charlie. In my opinion, everything changed in England in May 1979 and, forty years later, we're still paying the consequences."

Write to the author: lauriane.pipoz@leregardlibre.com

Photo credit: © Jonas Follonier

Jonathan Coe
The heart of England
Editions Gallimard
2019
548 pages