One of the weirdest books I’ve read for a while. No idea how to describe it. In fact I’m not even sure what it was about. I’ve rated it at three stars but not sure if I mean that. It held my attention anyway

I found this book very entertaining and impossible to put down. The plot twists kept coming and kept me intrigued until the very last page. The language is of great quality. I enjoyed Coe's humour and his comic description of modern world and specifically modern England.

The thing with Jonathan Coe that always feels like a slap in my face is how modern, real, and British his stories are.

I don’t read many modern books. In fact I hardly ever read anything published after 1999. Just like with What a Carve Up! Characters are quite something, but this one -I did not notice it was 2015.

With most of the books I read I’m transported to places and settings I don’t know. Jonathan Coe doesn’t transport me anywhere, and while his characters are a bit cartoonish, at the same time you find yourself thinking “I’m sure there are people just like them!” And then he talks about the austerity, and the food banks, bedroom tax, the Tory racism, I’m a celebrity get me out of here, and Twitter it’s creepy how feels no fiction at all. But surely whenever someone reads Jonathan Coe 100 years from now, they’ll have a clear picture of what Britain was on 2018.

A solid 3☆ read.
I got the book from my library (I liked the blurb and the cover) and only saw too late that it was described as a satire. Generally I don't like satires.
This one though was clever, thought provoking and well written.
The only thing I didn't like was the end (last 2 pages).

The joys of reading contemporary authors in the days of social media is that sometimes you're lucky enough to receive a response if you ask them politely about their work. I was one of those lucky people when I asked Jonathan Coe if he'd consider this book a sequel to What a Carve up! and he told me that indeed he did. And reading this book, it just makes so much sense. It may not be a sequel in the classical sense as a continuation of plot, but it certainly is in spirit. The Winshaw family looms over everything and everyone, influencing the fates of every character we meet in different ways.
What's more: this book from late 2015 feels so relevant right now, which shouldn't be remarkable of course, but with politics unraveling in the UK in times of Brexit it is an astonishing achievement. And isn't the millionairess insisting on an 11th basement floor, regardless of collateral damage and risk the perfect analogy? Wanting the 11th floor not for a specific purpose but just because she can and just because others don't (no worries, this is not a spoiler but a minor anecdote). The self obsessed megalomaniac displays their own flavour of madness, the results of which shouldered by anyone but her.
I couldn't help but compare Coe to Bret Easton Ellis in more than one way. They are both sharp observers of the societies they live in and satirise them brilliantly. But what's more, where Ellis uses exaggerated violence to ridicule, Coe's characters re faced with different kinds of horror more personal ones, which in ways feel more grim because they seem more realistic.

As a follow up to What a carve up, this was an incredibly satisfying read that reminded me why I loved Rotters Club and What a Carve up so much when I read them, now over 10 years ago.

Not his greatest book but a rollicking good satire. He retains title of novelist with whom I'd most like to share a pint.

Such a strange sequel to "What a carve up!". It's more a variation on the theme, while also going to even stranger places than the latter, managing to include horror elements in its political satire. Very enjoyable in any case.