The Closed Circle

In Jonathan Coe's satisfying sequel to THE ROTTERS' CLUB, the Birmingham high school students are now middle-aged and facing the eve of the twenty-first century. They are still self-consciously afflicted--with nostalgia (Benjamin still pines for his one true love), old mysteries (Claire still misses her sister, who disappeared in the 1970s), and questions of self-identify. Now accountants, journalists, politicians, and parents in varying marital situations, their individual decisions and the events of their time connect and conflict in unexpected ways. Most satisfying is the continuation of Colin Buchanan as narrator. His enthusiastic reading and lovely British accent will keep listeners entertained. His interpretation of the multiple characters is wonderfully nuanced. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 28, 2005
The Rotters' Club
(2002), Coe's witty novel of teenage schoolmates growing up in 1970s Birmingham, England, introduced an expansive cast of characters. With echoes of Anthony Trollope and Anthony Powell, this wonderful, compulsively readable sequel explores the adults those young people became—it opens in 1999 and closes in 2003—and paints a satirical but moving portrait of life at the turn of the century. Claire Newman still mourns her sister, who vanished without a trace in The Rotters' Club
. Benjamin Trotter still mourns his one true (teenage) love. His brother, Paul, is an ambitious member of Parliament in "Blair's Brave New Britain." Doug Anderton and Philip Chase became journalists, and the first book's other characters all reappear in some way or another (along with flashbacks to many of their teenage escapades). Coe cleverly works real events into the plot—London's Millennium Eve, the possible shutdown of a British auto manufacturer, the war in Iraq. The theme, as in The Rotters' Club
, concerns the conflicts and connections between individual decisions and societal events, but while Coe's political sensibility is readily apparent, this novel, with its incredibly well developed characters and its immensely engaging narrative, is no polemical tract. It's a compelling, dramatic and often funny depiction of the way we live now—both savage and heartfelt at the same time.