England England
by Julian Barnes
Overview
From the Publisher
Flamboyant tycoon Sir Jack Pitman has an idea. Since most tourists are too lazy and unlettered to travel from landmark to landmark, why not simplify things and shrink all of England to the size of a theme park?
Unfortunately, Pitman turns out to be right. Located on the Isle of Wight, his reconstituted "England, England" is everything you imagined the original to be, but cleaner, friendlier, and more efficient. That is, until the King (the real King, on contract to Sir Jack, living with the rest of the Royal Family in a scaled-down version of Buckingham Palace) is suspected of sexual harassment, a smuggling ring begins to wreak havoc with the island economy, and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men decide to unionize.
In true Barnes style, England, England is a savage but outrageously funny examination of the search for authenticity and truth in a fabricated world.
My thoughts
Reading The Life of Pi was a fluke, but an extremely pleasant fluke. Years after I read that book I'm still chuckling about it from time to time. I decided to try another Booker Award nominee, thinking perhaps I'm on to something. England England did not disappoint!
Again, I have to say that I'm not all that big on fiction but when a fictional book is written with such cleverness as this one, I can't put it down! This book was SO funny on many levels! It's a big game with a wonderful play on words and a story that lends itself to a vivid imagination! I had no idea which direction the book would take next and I was guessing right up to the end. I loved it!! It was a very enjoyable read!
Favorite Passage
"When such discoveries were first made, there were certain old-fashioned people who expressed disappointment, even shame. It was like the discovery that masturbation with pornographic material is more fun than sex. Quelle horreur! Those Barbarians are within the gates once more, they cried, the fabric of our society is being undermined. But this is not the case. It is important to understand that in the modern world we prefer the replica to the original because it gives us the greater frisson. I leave that word in French because I think you understand it well that way.
Vocabulary Words!
Haute-couture (I know what it is, I just don’t know how to say it)
Porphyry (as in “athwart his porphyry toilet”)
Fuhrerkontakt
Tussocky
Garrick braces
Pizzicato
Sophists
Tromp-l’oeil
Circumambulation (that’s a great word!)
Bodge
Gimcrack
Uncauterisable
