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As every schoolboy knows, you can fit the whole of England on the Isle of Wight. In Julian Barnes's new novel, the grotesque, visionary tycoon Sir Jack Pitman takes the saying literally and does exactly that. He constructs on the island 'The Project', a vast heritage centre containing everything 'English', from Buck House to Stonehenge, from Manchester United to the White Cliffs of Dover. The project is monstrous, risky and vastly successful. Indeed, it gradually begins to rival 'Old' England and threatens to supersede it. "Both ambitious and serious - real if you like. Dive at those dump-bins." - Andrew Marr, "Observer". "A brilliant, Swiftian fantasy." - "Economist". "There is no more intelligent writer on the literary scene. In this novel, he is also moving. He has written nothing more poignant and enticing." - John Carey, "Sunday Times". "The novel has memorable characters and sentences, but its main impact will be through its penetrating ideas." - John Lanchester, "Daily Telegraph". ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

"Old England had lost its history, and therefore, since memory is identity, had lost all sense of itself."
(3.5 stars) 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 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.nMary Whipple
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En esta novela Stuart ya no es el cornudo desconcertado de su novela anterior, Hablando del asunto. Oliver ha dejado ser la joven promeda artistica con ganas de dinamitar parejas y Gillian sigue pensando si habra hecho lo correcto a la hora de hacer lo incorrecto. Ellos continuan hablando del mismo asunto de siempre, pero ahora mucho mas preocupados por la permanencia del etcetera que por la fugacidad del amor. Comedia de costumbres, tierna y feroz son estas paginas. ... Read more

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The Truth About Dogs is a delightful and lovingly drawn homage to the curious idiosyncrasies of man's most loyal animal companion. On every page of this well-observed and very funny collection, there lies another indisputable certainty about dogs that Volker Kriegel succinctly portrays with his understated and wonderfully composed sketches. For intriguing ideas about potential cross-breeding to illuminating insights into different breeds' defecation procedure, this is a book that has something for all members of the dog-loving community. From the wellied country gent with his boisterous pair of black labradors to the snazzy urbanite with preened poodle in step and even further afield to professed dog haters, everyone will find some aspect of canine existence that rings true in these hilarious sketches and that will consequently bring them to fits of laughter. ... Read more