Published 1994 / Length 512 pages
What a Carve Up! takes its reader on a spirited romp through the chequered family history of the well-to-do Winshaws. Beginning with the tragic death of RAF pilot Godfrey in the Second World War, it catalogues the ruthless ambitions of several family members who, by the 1980s, have been using their influence to devastating and damaging effect in the worlds of merchant banking, tabloid journalism and arms trading. Interspersed with the story of the power-hungry Winshaws are tales from the life of Michael Owen, a young writer commissioned to produce a biography of the Winshaw clan, though his attempts to get to the bottom of their many secrets are deliberately and continually blocked. Part detective story and part socio-political satire, and taking its title from the 1961 film comedy (which is revealed to have played a crucial role in Michael’s formative years), What a Carve Up! is an unforgettably witty family saga filled with monstrous characters, insightful comment on the excesses of Thatcherite Britain, comic tragedy and countless unexpected twists and turns.
‘A big fat treat of a novel anatomizing the corrupt machinations of Britain’s free-market power-brokers today – politicians, captains of industry, arms traders, media tycoons – with immense inventiveness and exuberant black humour.’ – The Scotsman
• How much of the book is a polemic against the evils of capitalism associated with 1980s Britain?
• Does the author succeed in provoking sympathy in the reader for any members of the Winshaw family?
• How do you feel about the character of Michael Owen and his role as biographer, and the interspersed references to his own life popping up throughout the narrative?
• Do you think that Aunt Tabitha really is mad, or is her behaviour merely a reaction to the dark, underhand dealings of various family members over the years?
• Is the author successful in maintaining fluency throughout the book, despite the ever-fluctuating sequence of events?
• What a Carve Up! is Coe’s fourth novel, and won the 1995 Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger.
• Coe was a university student from the early to mid-1980s, and attended numerous CND rallies and demos opposing the Thatcher government.
• Coe wrote his first book aged eleven, and was writing novels by the age of fifteen.
• The House of Sleep by JONATHAN COE – his fifth novel is a tangled web of relationships, coincidences and sleep disorders, jumping back and forth between dreams and reality.
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum by KATE ATKINSON (see here) – a meandering, semi-tragic family history set over four generations.
• The Pursuit of Love by NANCY MITFORD – a hilarious story chronicling the trials and tribulations of a unique 1930s upper-class British family.