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| England, England | 
 enlarge | Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 27658
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0330373447
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780330373449
ASIN: 0330373447
Publication Date: September 10, 1999
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Julian Barnes's England, England is a sharp-edged satire of Englishness at the end of the 20th century. The real England is failing--her empire lost, her aspirations to greatness subsiding, her history fading. Megalomaniacal entrepreneur Sir Jack Pitman hits upon the idea of creating an altogether superior, theme-park version of the original on the Isle of Wight (renamed simply the Island). His creative team includes Martha Cochraine, whose own childhood disappointments and unfulfilled dreams Barnes unfolds to the reader in the opening chapters. For a brief moment it looks as if able Martha will outsmart the ruthless Sir Jack, assisted by her grateful, bespectacled lover Paul Harrison (the operation's "ideas catcher"). But this is fantasy, so humble Paul betrays Martha (it would never do for the feisty woman to win after all). She retreats to the real England of faded glory, nostalgic folklore and regret. In one section of this short novel the theme-park Dr Johnson talks entirely in direct quotations from his distinguished 18th-century counterpart, before being judged insufficiently convincing. The real, we understand, is less compelling than the fake. There are so many cultural allusions per page that the head of even the most enthusiastic English culture snob will spin. --Lisa Jardine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Provocative perspective August 23, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In England, England, Julian Barnes inhabits similar territory to that of Unswaorth's Losing Nelson, but humorously. One character lists quintessences (there are more than five) of Englishness and many, perhaps most, are myth, by nature or association. And the purpose of identifying these icons of Englishness is to facilitate the construction, by Sir Jack Pitman on an eventually independent Isle of Wight, of an England Theme Park, packed with imitation and reproduction experience, collected together to take the strain out of tourism. Theme Park England becomes, itself, the quintessence (just one) of corporate identity and presence, with the products on offer being seen and marketed as "better" than the originals. It's all a great success until, that is, the imitations begin to adopt their assigned identities. Smugglers become a problem when they start smuggling. Dr. Samuel Johnson changes his name to - guess what? - Dr. Samuel Johnson and begins emulating the behaviour of the historical figure, along with a few of his own improvisations for added effect. The King thinks he's a king and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men yearn to be real outlaws. They are all in breach of contract. Through humour, the book asks questions about what is essential in national personal identity. The project identifies myths and reproduces them as second order experience which themselves become as capable of fulfilling the role of identity creation, definition and perpetuation as the real thing. So, by extension, the book questions how we create, assume and sustain cultures and their associated values.
"Old England had lost its history, and therefore, since memory is identity, had lost all sense of itself." May 14, 2007
In this witty satire of English traditions, values, and national identity, the eccentric Sir Jack Pitman gathers a staff of "forward-thinking" consultants and young executives to create the ultimate theme park. Sir Jack intends to relocate (or recreate, if he must) all of England's important tourist sites in one location--the Isle of Wight--creating a "Disneyland" of British history. Time is fluid here--Robin Hood and his band inhabit the woodland while Dr. Samuel Johnson holds forth in the local pub. The Battle of Britain is reenacted while shepherds and farmers cultivate the countryside using the oldest of tools.
The "selling" of the theme park idea to the king, who will appear at functions, and to the Houses of Parliament, which Pitman hopes to move there, is no less ambitious than his plan to challenge the thirteenth century purchase of the Isle of Wight by England so that he himself can govern it as a separate country. Sir Jack hires Martha Cochrane, an ambitious woman nearing forty, to be his primary assistant, along with a cast of eccentric characters, all of whom are determined to produce a new, more compact "England" to which tourists will be drawn in droves.
Throughout this wickedly complex satire, author Julian Barnes examines what constitutes "Englishness," raising issues of what how Britons define reality, what role the Church of England plays in real life, how important to present life are the "roots" of ancient history, and more personal subjects, such as how one defines salvation, what constitutes love, and whether integrity can exist within a business environment. Naturally, the concept of the theme park and its reality do not always mesh. The fake smugglers become real smugglers, Robin Hood and his Merry Men really do rob from the rich, and Dr. Johnson turns out to be an inebriated cynic who refuses to socialize at the pub.
Despite the intriguing concept and the pointed satire, this is a very "talky" novel, with little real action. Conferences in the boardroom or Sir Jack's office vastly outnumber scenes in which something actually happens, and the author's self-conscious wit and arch observations pall in the course of the more than four hundred pages. Sir Jack, Martha Cochrane, and her lover Paul Harrison never develop enough human qualities to add genuine humor to the dark cynicism of the satire, and the reader often feels a bit patronized--left out of the joke. Ultimately, Barnes shows the cycle of history repeating as he fantasizes about the future. An idea more interesting in concept than in execution. n Mary Whipple
 A promising satire let down by it's loss of focus March 20, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The idea is fairly simple.... Recreate England on the Isle of Wight. The problem with the book is the fact the prose fails to hide effectively that Barnes is ranting- Satires like Catch 22 are subtle, and the Handmaids tale even more so, but this feels like a waste of time and massive failure.
Tedious nonsense October 7, 2002
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
It was a real struggle to stick with this book to the end. The combination of uninteresting characters and dull storyline put paid to any enjoyment that might have been found within its pages.The book is basically the story of Martha, professional cynic. Each of the three parts of the book detail episodes in her life- the short first and last parts are about her childhood and old age respectively, and how her surroundings change with the passage of time - there may be some allegory to be drawn here but I wasn't interested enough to think about it more deeply. The longer middle part chronicles her involvement with the book's other main players- Sir Jack, egotistical self-made multimillionaire, and Paul, wimpy professional yes-man. The first and last parts are the most interesting, and merit at least a couple of stars. The middle part is dull beyond belief. It's based around Sir Jack's magnum opus- a vast theme park based on the idea of 'England' which takes over the Isle of Wight and becomes more 'England' than 'England' itself, resulting in the downfall of the mainland after the island's independence. There's some heavy-handed philosophising about the nature of 'replica' and 'reality' with the involvement of some minor players to spin out Barnes' amateurish navel-gazing. It's impossible to really care about any of the characters and the theme park, which had the potential to be an interesting story by itself, merely becomes the background to the characters' tedious self-involvement. Even Sir Jack's unusual personal predilections don't hold the interest for any longer than it takes to read about them. On the whole, not recommended.
 Witty, entertaining and brilliant February 10, 2002
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Barnes' reputation as one of Britain's foremost modern authors is strongly reinforced by this recent work. England, England is the story of one man's successful attempt to turn the Isle of Man into a gigantic theme park containing everything that represents England. He is so rich, and so influential, that this project manages to relocate key English landscapes and even the monarchy. The theme park becomes more and more "English", whilst, meanwhile, England is changing. What is left behind on the mainland in the absence of London Bridge, traditional pubs, the Royal Family, soldiers in bearskin hats, and so forth, is a much slower pace of life. With all foreign visitors now diverted to the Isle of Man, by then a quasi-state more powerful than the country it has emulated, England becomes progressively isolated and retreats within itself. An arcadian revival takes place, with a return to rural living, agriculture, village fetes and simple, uncluttered lifestyles. The natural question this draws us to ask is: "Which one is *really* England?" Barnes' concept is strikingly brilliant, and calls into sharp question the values to which we ascribe a certain country or people -- is what makes a country quintessentially that country the legacy of a rotting jumble of nineteenth-century national rhetoric - Britannia, the Union Jack, Queen and Country-, or is it rather something deeper, that has survived political change in the hearts and minds of its people over the centuries? The portrait of life in England Barnes paints by the end of the novel is so much simpler, so much more pleasant than the busy, noisy, stressful lives we lead today that one almost wishes someone would try to create that Isle of Man themepark. In an age of globalisation where states - Britain and England prime amongst them - are having to reconsider their identities, to redefine what makes them "unique" and what characterises them, England, England is an intelligent and persuasive addition to the literary debate, presented in a very clever and extremely amusing format. Its characters are sharply and wittily constructed and the whole central plot, based around the scheming of the self-made millionaire and the constrast between his public and private personae, will keep all readers entertained. Highly recommended.
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