The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

by Jonathan Coe

Maxwell Sim can’t seem to make a single meaningful connection. His absent father was always more interested in poetry; he maintains an e-mail correspondence with his estranged wife, though under a false identity; his incomprehensible teenage daughter prefers her BlackBerry to his conversation; and his best friend since childhood is refusing to return his calls. He has seventy-four friends on Facebook, but nobody to talk to.In an attempt to stir himself out of this horrible rut, Max quits his job as a customer liaison at the local department store and accepts a strange business proposition that falls in his lap by he’s hired to drive a Prius full of toothbrushes to the remote Shetland Islands, part of a misguided promotional campaign for a dental-hygiene company intent on illustrating the slogan “We Reach Furthest.”But Max’s trip doesn’t go as planned, as he’s unable to resist making a series of impromptu visits to important figures from his past who live en route. After a string of cruelly enlightening and intensely awkward misadventures, he finds himself falling in love with the soothing voice of his GPS system (“Emma”) and obsessively identifying with a sailor who perpetrated a notorious hoax and subsequently lost his mind. Eventually Max begins to wonder if perhaps it’s a severe lack of self-knowledge that’s hampering his ability to form actual relationships.A humane satire and modern-day picaresque, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is a gently comic and rollickingly entertaining novel about the paradoxical difficulties of making genuine attachments in a world of advanced communications technology and rampant social networking.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, British Literature, Novels, Roman, Humor, Literary Fiction

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Jonathan Coe, born 19 August 1961 in Birmingham, is a British novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name, in the light of the 'carve up' of the UK's resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher's right wing Conservative governments of the 1980s. Coe studied at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, before teaching at the University of Warwick where he completed a PhD in English Literature. In July 2006 he was given an honorary degree by The University of Birmingham.

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Retrieved 10:55, February 2, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan...

Reviews

[Matthias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Coe gets a lot of attention in the Waterstones branch in Brussels. Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact he wrote a book, Expo 58, set in this beautiful city which was incidentally the book through which I got to know him. Or maybe it's because he stayed in Brussels while writing the second book I read by him, which is the one I’m reviewing here. Whatever the reasons, I’m glad the local Waterstones management decided to put the Coe books with their eye-catching cover-art on central display, because it seems that, for once, the corner of Goodreads in which I find myself would not have pointed me to him. This is surprising to say the least, especially because he seems to be a widely read and reasonably appreciated mainstream author outside of my Goodreads-bubble. Yet the few reviews I’ve read by my precious Goodreads friends on this man’s work have mostly been rather lukewarm.

I think one of the reasons that could pop up, at least in the case of both Expo 58 and The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (man, I love that title), is that the plot could be perceived as boring. That’s a bad thing to be for anything, even more so for a book. 98% percent of people who don’t like books claim that this is because the written word is boring (the other 2% take offence of statistics being pulled out of one’s ass, something that occurs in 87% of all books and 99% of this review). So is this one of those books that gives the others a bad name?

As you might have surmised from the four stars shining redly above this here text, I would reply in the negative to that last question. This book falls under contemporary fiction. Reading contemporary fiction during a time in which it is indeed considered contemporary can lead to plots being perceived as mundane. Who wants to read about stuff that could theoretically happen to you any given day? Where’s the magic? Where’s the wonder? But consider this: Give it a few years and this will be a unique time-piece looking into our world of today, and in that respect I find that Coe has succesfully managed to capture the atmosphere in which we currently find ourselves. The protagonist, Maxwell Sims, is an everyday kind of bloke who’s got nothing remarkable going on for him. He works in sales, got divorced, has got a daughter he barely talks to, eats the food we eat, uses the technology we use, sees the landscapes we see. Maxwell has got the same dreams of heroism and greatness that most of us have, which are plenty, and he shows the same ambition most of us do, which is to say almost none.

After having committed the biggest contemporary sin imaginable (“ giving up ”) one too many times, he finds himself alone and depressed. This book tells us of how he got into this state and of how he’s going to try to get out of it. There will be no magic to help him, nor any big armies to stand by his side. All he’s got at his disposal are his memories, his knack for observation and a voice-navigated hybrid car. Could love set him free? Probably, but rest assured that this isn’t just another romantic novel.

What I mainly liked about this book was not necessarily the plot, or not even its highly likable protagonist, but the author’s voice and sense of timing. Even though it gets heart wrenching at times, I will mainly remember this book for its humor. I literally laughed out loud several times when reading about Maxwell’s miserable state and not once did I feel bad about it. Aside from that the author experiments by working with excerpts of diaries, essays and short-stories that Maxwell reads during this tale. This, used sparsely enough, provided a welcome change in rhythm and tone which I imagine should work for anyone who appreciates a sorbet in the middle of a five-course meal.

What I did feel bad about is the way this highly likable protagonist was treated in the end. I’m referring to two things here. I’m not talking about a happy or unhappy ending, I won’t spoil that for you, but a certain revelation at the very end felt out-of-place, contrived and unnecessary. In that regard I found the timeline and background of Maxwell’s father far more convincing. But given that it was so unnecessary, it did not ruin the entire book for me because it's easy to consider the story while pretending it wasn't revealed. The second thing that annoyed me was the meta-experiment that the author employed at the very end, which was an ending after the ending. Normally I’m all for meta, and I think I can see what jolly ol' Coe was trying to do, but it didn’t work for me because I felt myself siding with Max instead of Jonathan. Jonathan came off as a bit of a jerk, really.

And for that reason I’m punishing Jonathan. He’s not getting his fifth star, and he’ll also have to wait before making it to my favorite author’s list. I’m a sucker for his voice though, so I think he’ll get there yet.

[B the BookAddict · Rating 3 out of 5]

The underlying theme in this novel is the culture in society these days of relying on electronic medium to maintain most social interface i.e. Facebook, twitter, IM, text, email, instagram etc and the question of how many of us actually communicate in face-to-face relationships.

“Mankind has, as you may have noticed, become very inventive about devising new ways for people to avoid talking to each other and I'd been taking full advantage of the most recent ones. I would always send a text message rather than speak to someone on the phone. Rather than meeting with any of my friends, I would post cheerful, ironically worded status updates on Facebook, to show them all what a busy life I was leading. And presumably people had been enjoying them, because I'd got more than seventy friends on Facebook now, most of them complete strangers. But actual, face-to-face, let's-meet-for-a-coffee-and-catch-up sort of contact? I seemed to have forgotten what that was all about.”

Thus our main character Max, who is recently separated, finds himself adrift from real true friends when his wife instigates their separation. He is lonely, clinically depressed and hasn't been to work in six months. An opportunity arises where he partakes in a corporate publicity exercise involving him driving from London to the Shetland Islands. On this trip, Max ignores the company given directive about this venture and starts visiting people from his past but sadly, for Max, the only real long conversation he has is with his Sat-Nav whom he calls Emma, the name being taken from the Austen novel.

These visits with old friends cause Max to stumble upon the mystery behind his long failed relationship with his father resulting in a revelation he has not been prepared for. He also becomes aware of, and starts to identify with, Donald Crowhurst, the British lone yachtsman whose bid to sail around the world in 1969 ended in debacle and tragedy. A very amusing situation arises when Max starts a friendship with his ex-wife by posing as a woman on the Mumsnet website; and the old adage about eavesdroppers proves true here for Max. The ending is effected in a very clever manner which I will not reveal here. It will leave you either amused, frustrated or annoyed; and I'm happy to say that I was amused.

I became interested in the work of Coe after his biography on the very brilliant novelist/poet/director/literary critic B.S. Johnson - Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson; and basically, as I'm a closet Anglophile, I enjoy a book based England. Coe is clever and insightful, inserting just the right amount of humor to keep you amused. Basically, a satirical tale, Coe has injected a wonderful thoughtfulness into this work. A humorous but also astute novel which kept me entertained and I'm interested enough to read other books by the author. 4★

[Chris_P · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, up until the final third of the book, I couldn't help feeling baffled by all the low ratings it has been getting. I was feeling positively hooked and really enjoying it, so I was thinking that maybe people were being too harsh on him or maybe everyone has set his three top novels as reference-points and expects all of his works to be of equal quality. I was bound to know, either way.

So, there's Maxwell Sim. A middle-aged man whose wife left him, taking their daughter with her and who's suddenly found himself alone and surrounded only by friends who only seem to exist in the virtual level of the internet anymore. I've got this friend who could totally relate to Max... Anyway, Coe does a brilliant job portraying his character's inner thoughts and the first-person narrative does wonders. We see Max desperately searching his e-mail for a friendly message, finding only penis enlargement ads, or trying to strike conversations with airport and café employees just to feel like he's still a part of a world where people talk to each other and exchange humanly, if brief, warmness (my friend again...), among all this technology which is supposed to make our lives easier and end up making it emptier. The Donald Crowhurst parallelism, the GPS and texting concepts, all these things spoke to me in a deep way. To make a long story short, the depiction of this cold, industrialized world along with the thoughts and introspections of a troubled man, absolutely worked for me. And then the ending happened.

Others have said it better than me. The revelation about himself comes out of the blue and is totally uncalled for and anti-climactic. What's more, the fact that two women who barely knew him, saw in him something that even he had no clue about, is rather unrealistic and convenient. In fact, I felt as if Coe forced his own character to be something that he didn't know he was. With absolutely no indication beforehand, the final twist was simply that: forced and unnecessary. As for the final six or so pages and the character-meets-his-maker gimmick, although awesome, what with all that preceded it, it failed to make a serious difference.

Bitterness was the dominant feeling I had after finishing The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, because if Max's development had been more suitable or simply different, we would be talking about a brilliant novel here.

I still love Coe, though.

[João Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

”A Vida Privada de Maxwell Sim” - é o nono romance do escritor inglês Jonathan Coe (n. 1961) - uma história improvável, simultaneamente, absurda e extravagante, que começa numa disparatada proposta de trabalho que inclui uma viagem num Toyota Prius de Londres para as Ilhas Shetland, na Escócia, transportando um novo tipo de escovas de dentes ecológica, num trajecto longo e solitário.
É durante esse itinerário que o narrador – Maxwell Sim - estabelece uma peculiar conversação com “Emma”, a deslumbrante voz feminina do GPS da viatura, que revisita os locais da sua infância e que reencontra velhos amigos e familiares – numa tentativa desesperada de superar o seu recente divórcio, a incapacidade de comunicar com a sua ex-mulher, Caroline, e a sua filha, Lucy, e, apesar de ter setenta amigos no Facebook não tem ninguém com quem conversar.
Quem é afinal Maxwell Sim? Ele próprio refere que na sua lápide deviam escrever ”Aqui jaz Maxwell Sim. Para dizer a verdade, era um tipo bastante vulgar.” (Pág. 164); mas precisamente quando a sua vida não se podia tornar mais desapontante relata-nos um novo epitáfio: ”Aqui jaz Maxwell Sim, a pessoa mais desnecessária que alguma vez nasceu.” (Pág. 291)
A escrita de Jonathan Coe é inconfundível, um estilo simples e legível, um enredo inventivo e várias subtramas intrincadas – incluindo, a história real do navegador Donald Crowhurst - com inúmeros momentos inesquecíveis, de riso e comicidade, mas, igualmente, de drama e infortúnio.
”A Vida Privada de Maxwell Sim” é um romance original com um final verdadeiramente surpreendente, numa interligação perfeita entre a escrita de Jonathan Coe e a problemática dos tempos modernos, num relato actual sobre a inadequação de Maxwell Sim à vida social.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor old Maxwell Sim isn’t in a good place. His wife Caroline left him six months ago and took their daughter Lucy with her leading to Max having a breakdown and getting signed off from work. So he decides to travel to Australia to try to reconnect with his distant father and fails at that too. Through a chance encounter, he learns about Donald Crowhurst - a real-life amateur sailor who faked his round-the-world boat trip in 1967 before killing himself - and gets a new job as a toothbrush salesman. As part of his new company’s ad campaign, he finds himself on the road to the Shetlands, all alone - except for his increasingly attractive SatNav. A mentally and emotionally unbalanced man left alone at a difficult time - what could go wrong?

I quite liked The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim but it’s a very unbalanced novel - parts of it were good, parts of it were bad, the ending is an utter mess and I’m not totally sure what Jonathan Coe was driving at (if anything)!

I liked one of the earliest scenes of Max coming back from Oz and, upon discovering almost no emails from anyone in his life, ends up trawling through his junk mail folder, pretending they’re sent from real people with a genuine interest in his life - that was very funny. And that’s important too: I liked Max as a character. He’s a totally hopeless wally but a likeable wally, and certainly not a bad person, who I did feel sorry for - he was so desperate for human connection and consistently failed to get it.

Learning about Max’s disastrous past (and, towards the end, his dad’s) through various short story interludes (one of which - The Nettle Pit - appeared previously in the Ox-Tales: Earth book from Oxfam) was fun, as well as Donald Crowhurst, who was a real person, and whom I knew nothing about before. The parallels between Donald and Max’s lives are drawn quite obviously but I thought Max’s descent into madness on his car journey up north was the best part of the book, with his increasingly unhinged conversations with his SatNav, whom he names “Emma”.

However, less compelling scenes are interspersed among these like his awkward dinner with his teenage daughter Lucy, his reunion with his childhood friend Alison, and visiting his dad’s flat in Lichfield and having tea with his neighbours. They didn’t really add much to the overall narrative, particularly that last one. And then the ending was just bizarre.

Max’s dad coming to terms with his homosexuality wouldn’t have made a satisfying end because his dad plays such a small part of the story - but Max also being told he was a closeted gay man too? How can someone live 48 years without getting an inkling that they’re gay?! And what was the point of Jonathan Coe inserting himself into the story in the very last scene to tell him that he’s just a character in a novel he’s writing?! What was the point of the book - that a man figures out his sexuality only to be told it doesn’t really matter because he’s a figment of a real person’s imagination?!

It’s more of a nitpick than a huge problem, but I think I spotted a plot hole too. So Max meets Poppy in the airport who gives him her number - which he makes a point of saying that this is the only thing he has to contact her with - and then his mobile is stolen in a mugging. So he can’t contact her again and the only thing he knows about her is her first name - he had her number but now he doesn’t. Then later on he’s having dinner with her family in London - how? How did he get back in touch with her to find out where to go for the dinner? Is it sloppy writing or an unreliable narrator being deliberately obtuse? Because he does remark at one point:

“... and everything else you know. Or at least, everything that I’ve chosen to tell you.” (p.107)

He breaks the fourth wall quite a bit but there’s no other example of blatant gaps in logic like this anywhere else in the narrative. Seems like a plot hole to me anyway.

Coe’s humour, pleasant characters and rambling, occasionally entertaining story make this worth a read, if you’re a fan of his, but it’s not among his best. There’s a great novel to be written about loneliness (the “terrible privacy” of the title) with regards to life in the digital age but this isn’t it.

[Catherine Vamianaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

είναι η ζωή του Μαξ...
Δεν θέλω να γράψω λεπτομέρειες όμως ήταν μια απίστευτη ιστορία της ζωής του.
Το ξεκίνησα και δεν ήθελα να το αφήσω. Θέλω να αναφέρω την συχνή του αναφορά ενός υπαρκτού προσώπου του Ντόναλντ Κραουχερστ. Σχεδόν είχε ταυτιστεί μαζί του.
Ωραίο βιβλίο που θέτει πολλά ερωτήματα για την σημερινή κοινωνία της Αγγλίας και οχι μονο. Ηταν το πρώτο που διάβασα του Τζόναθαν Κοου. Ελπίζω να διαβάσω και άλλα του

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible terrible book. The plot involving selling green toothbrushes and the author's "quest" never gets off the ground. The ham-handed meditations on modern loneliness -- with references to Facebook, email, texting, shopping malls, and GPS systems -- are only not clunky and implausible when they are utterly cliched. That whole aspect of the book is written as if a wry old centenarian were manufacturing quips on "kids" (the kids in question are all late 40's) today for a Reader's Digest article. The book asks us to assume, initally, that the author is plunged into loneliness by returning from a 2 week visit to Sydney to learn that no one has emailed him or written to him on Facebook. Because they don't have the internet in Sydney? Never mind, queue another "Prius" joke.

Warning: spoilers follow.
The wild-n-crazy plot twists telegraph that the main character's father is gay, but it takes another 200 pages for the narrator to figure it out. Then, wait for it, based on nothing, we (and he) discover the narrator is also gay, though he's had no glimmer of it til now. Why? You liked the twist so much you had to use it twice. And then, just when you were rinsing that bad taste out of your mouth, the author appears on the stage and you learn that the whole thing was a figment of the author's imagination. Which is hep po-mo literary meta-ness in the same way that references to texting and food courts are really trendy and modern. I.e., not in the last several eons.

Horrible.

[Elina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Είμαι σχεδόν σίγουρη ότι όσοι έχουν διαβάσει Κόου θα διαφωνήσουν οπωσδήποτε με τα πέντε αστέρια που δίνω στο συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Όμως λίγο με νοιάζει τελικά διότι μετά το πρώτο του βιβλίο που διάβασα το τί ωραίο πλιάτσικο και τώρα αυτό, αποφάσισα ότι μου αρέσει ο Κόου!!! Το τί ωραίο πλιάτσικο η αλήθεια είναι ότι ευχαρίστως θα το ξαναδιάβαζα ενώ το συγκεκριμένο οχι. Θεωρώ ότι ο Κόου μάλλον είναι πολυσχιδής προσωπικότητα με μεγάλες ευαισθησίες για όλα τα θέματα του σύγχρονου βίου. Τα συναισθήματα που μου έβγαλε αυτό το βιβλίο ήταν θλίψης, ντροπής, αηδίας, θυμού, βαρεμάρας....όλα μαζί σε διάφορες φάσεις. Θεωρώ ότι ο Μαξουελ Σιμ είναι ο καθένας από εμάς (όχι σε όλα του τα χαρακτηριστικά φυσικά) και εκφράζει τις ισορροπίες που έχουμε στη ζωή ανάμεσα στα τυχαία και επιλογής μας γεγονότα που καθορίζουν τη ζωή μας. Δεν θα πω τίποτα άλλο μόνο ότι θέλω να διαβάσω όλα τα βιβλία του!!! Αυτά...

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alguns dos meus pensamentos enquanto metia o bedelho na vida privada de Max Sim:

... coitadinho do Sim! Abandonado pela mulher; com uma depressão de seis meses; tem setenta amigos no Facebook mas nenhum fala com ele. Está tão sozinho que ainda se vai apaixonar pelo GPS...

... outra vez a técnica (das fotografias) e o mesmo tema d'A Chuva Antes de Cair?

... que enfadonhas são estas conversas sobre Economia; instrumentos financeiros, spread, swap, mas a profissão da Poppy (facilitadora de adultério) é muito interessante...

... já estou no penúltimo capítulo, os fios soltos estão todos unidos mas isto não faz muito sentido...

... Genial este final!

[Anni · Rating 5 out of 5]

(UPDATED REVIEW)

This is the first one of Coe's novels I ever read, four years ago, swiftly followed by all the rest with ne'er a dud among them.
I remembered that I enjoyed it very much but couldn't recall any of the plot, so I've had to re-read it to reassure myself it was as good as I previously thought ... I'm glad to say it is, but dismayed to realise I'm losing my marbles!

********************************************************************
(2014 review)

Never ask an author where he gets his ideas from!

'Hapless' is the only way to describe the novel's protagonist, Maxwell Sim - named as in SIM card (but also, in a giveaway to the meta-fictional ending, a reference to the virtual reality game 'The Sim Family'). Maxwell is severely depressed after his divorce and well on his way to a complete nervous breakdown, but this is only the latest in a lifetime of self-sabotaging relationships. If this synopsis doesn't sound very enticing, don't worry: Coe's magical literary alchemy turns this unpromising material into black-comedy gold. This is my first Jonathan Coe novel and I loved it, despite some other off-putting reviews here, and I will definitely go on to read his other books.

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oy. If I have to read one more book about a middle-aged British man who hates his life but is clueless that he brought it on himself, or that he has the power to change it, I may have to just punch the next middle-aged British man I run across.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this far more than I did, because the ideas it engaged -- loneliness and isolation in a mediated, online world -- are some of my most constant fascinations. But the novel felt overblown in ways that prevented me getting very invested. I really enjoyed the voice of Max, the narrator, and while the novel stayed in his head and his perspective, following him on his road trip, I was engaged. Unfortunately, the novel relies on a number of inserted "found" texts, which seemed a bit of a cheap way to introduce important facts and secrets into the story. Granted, the ending (which I won't reveal) explains why the story works this way and why there are so many too-tidy coincidences propelling the plot, but not well enough, I'm afraid, to have gotten me past the frustration of those awkward insertions breaking the narrative voice and the dramatic tension every time they built up to something. Had this been a shorter, more sharply focused novel, without those insertions and interruptions, I think I would have enjoyed it very much.

[Ana Lúcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Depois de ter lido “A Chuva Antes de Cair” e “A Vida Privada de Maxwell Sim”, ameaço tornar-me uma verdadeira fã de Jonathan Coe.
Este livro divertiu-me e ao mesmo tempo deixou-me irremediavelmente triste.
Trata-se de uma profunda, magnífica e completamente delirante reflexão, sobre o mundo em que vivemos.
Podemos relacionar-nos virtualmente com pessoas do mundo inteiro. Estamos todos interligados, sem fichas nem fios. Podemos estar sentados em nossas casas e com um clique comunicar com o mundo.
Sem nunca termos visto alguém, podemos tecer sólidas redes sem fios, estabelecer fluxos de ideias e sentimentos entre corpos, corações e almas…
No entanto, estamos cada vez mais sós.

Aqui está um belo epitáfio “Aqui jaz Maxwell Sim, a pessoa mais desnecessária que alguma vez nasceu”

[Christopher James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read once, oh, on the internet or somewhere, that laughter, as a behaviour, is an evolution of a snarl. Think of wolves. If there is a weak member of the pack, an individual who no longer contributes to the whole, the rest will turn on them. They pull back their lips, to reveal their teeth, and make deep resonant sounds. I can see how this is like a laugh.

And laughter can be threatening, especially to the one who receives it.

But somehow, in the course of human evolution, we have come to love our fools. The outsiders, the losers. As much as we ridicule them, and seek to drive them away, we are also pulling for them. Hoping they can turn things around, make things better. We're still waiting to welcome them back to the fold. Mostly.

Hence the comic tragedy. They are the same things really. Like in Shakespeare, or the three stooges. It seems to me Jonathan Coe is pretty good at this sort of thing.

Max is one of life's losers. It's easy to laugh at him, and we do. But we never lose sympathy. There's an earnestness to his attempts at redemption, even when they are clearly doomed to failure, that consistently engages. He's a real human, is our Max.

Personally, I'd be quite happy to take Max down the pub, just for a little encouragement.

..."Tooth brushes you say... Yeah, great idea... To Scotland you say... Sweet..."

Then back slowly away and just hope for the best. Genuinely.

You'll have to read this to see if he makes it back. But for me the slap yourself in the forehead ending works beautifully.

Coe is one of my favourite contemporary writers, but I must admit to being a little underwhelmed with some of his recent outings. Although not quite up to the heights of 'The House of Sleep', this is a clear return to form, and his best book for several years.

[Banu Yıldıran Genç · Rating 4 out of 5]

ya jonathan'cığım nasıl minnoş minnoş insan hikayeleri yazıyor, bayılıyorum. depresif ve yalnız bir adamın hikayesini alıyor, kapitalizmin çarklarından tutun da 68 kuşağının yeni düzen karşısındaki bozgununa, yıllarca açılamadan yaşamak zorunda kalmış eşcinsellere nasıl bağlıyor, mucize gibi.
her kitabında yakın dönem tarihin ilgi çekici bir olayını alıp onu çok sağlam iplerle hikayeye, karakterlerine bağlıyor.
maxwell sim unutulmayacak bir karakter. babası da ^.^ romanda herkese ayrı ayrı hak vermek, fikirlerimizin 180 derece değişmesi en sevdiğim şeylerden biri.
ve sonunda yazar ve karakterinin karşılaşması da hoş bir çalımdı. aslında jonathan her şeyi nasıl kurduğunu gayet güzel açıklıyor.

* kitap hakkında agos'a yazdım.
https://tembelveyazar.blogspot.com/20...

[Whisperingwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ogni giorno andiamo in giro in mezzo alla ressa, corriamo di qua e di là, arriviamo quasi a toccarci ma in realtà c'è pochissimo contatto. Tutti quegli scontri mancati. Tutte quelle possibilità perse. È inquietante, a pensarci bene. Forse è meglio non pensarci affatto.

Pag.16

Ogni giorno andiamo in giro in mezzo alla ressa, corriamo di qua e di là, arriviamo quasi a toccarci ma in realtà c'è pochissimo contatto. Tutti quegli scontri mancati. Tutte quelle possibilità perse. È inquietante, a pensarci bene. Forse è meglio non pensarci affatto.

Pag.16

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It was so well written and oddly gripping and quirky -- despite the fact that it's about loneliness and not much happens. The narrator's voice was bang on. My only complaint -- and reason for 4 rather than 5 stars -- was that the ending was somewhat hokey and unnecessarily so.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

The titular character of this low-key character study is an Englishman in his late 40s who has been understandably mired in deep depression for the six months since his wife and teenage daughter left him. He's an epically milquetoast fellow who seems perpetually three steps slower than the modern world, and whose job (customer service clerk for a department store returns division) is a very telling marker of his absolute meaninglessness. He's the kind of guy who, when he does start sharing his interior life, does so with spectacular ineptitude.

The book opens promisingly enough, with him about to return from a visit to his father in Australia. Minor adventures ensue on the flights home, and he meets an interesting young woman who introduces him to the story of Donald Crowhurst. (He was an amateur sailor who disappeared while competing in a "round-the-world" race in 1969. Although he was judged to be the winner, later examination showed that his logbooks and records had been falsified, and that he was clearly going insane, and probably committed suicide.) Upon his return to England, Maxwell Sim is hired by an old friend to participate in a promotional road-trip to publicize a new line of toothbrushes. Thus, he embarks on his own solo journey toward madness, with the voices in his head coming from his on-board navigation system.

The terrible privacy of the title is essentially loneliness, and Coe appears to be trying to criticize the new modes of social networking and communication (Facebook, texting, etc.) that have grown ubiquitous in the last ten years but have not necessarily improved our ability to truly connect as humans. The book also has a secondary critique of the McDonaldsization of the Western world, as all places become interchangeable combinations of franchise locations. Unfortunately, neither message carries with it any great insight or particular depth or resonance. Nothing Coe has to say on either topic is new or noteworthy, and even worse, Max is a fairly unsympathetic and tedious protagonist for most of the book.

I generally like Coe's writing, and I absolutely loved What a Carve Up! and The Rotters Club, but this one is a dud. There are some grand revelations at the end that feel cheap in that kind of movie plot way, the one or two key secrets that explain all the angst and unhappiness of a life. Real life is generally more complicated and nuanced than that. There's also an annoying metafictional coda chapter involving the author, which is really best left unread. There are scenes here and there that will remind Coe's fans of some of his best writing, but these are too few and unconnected to the main narrative to rescue this ill-conceived book.

[Maria João Fernandes · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Movemo-nos em círculos todos os dias, corremos daqui para ali, passamos a centímetros uns dos outros, mas há muito pouco contacto real. Tantos desencontros. Tantos 'podia ter sido'. É assustador, quando pensamos nisso. Provavelmente, o melhor é não pensar."

Maxwell Sim (como os cartões SIM do telemóvel) tem 70 e tal amigos no Facebook, mas ninguém se lembra dele ou dá pela sua ausência; tem mais de 100 e-mails, mas apenas um não é spam.

Jonathan Coe conta-nos mais uma história maravilhosa: divertida, assustadoramente real e profundamente triste. Se por um lado retrata o nosso mundo dominado por redes sociais e acessibilidade permanente, onde a solidão encontra o seu caminho até nós, por outro lado mostra-nos o que podemos ganhar numa vida feita de encontros, combinados e aleatórios, com amigos, conhecidos e desconhecidos.

Já tinha lido "A Casa do Sono", "A Chuva Antes de Cair" e "Os Anões Da Morte", mas Jonathan Coe voltou a surpreender-me. Desta vez com uma história feita de histórias mais pequenas que, afinal, fazem parte de uma história ainda maior. Talvez não me faça entender, mas só o livro o pode explicar. Como em todos os livros do autor, no final, tudo faz sentido e nenhuma pergunta fica sem resposta.

O meu caminho cruzou-se com o Jonathan Coe graças a uma Atleta muito especial que faz parte da minha vida graças às redes sociais. Um encontro aleatório num mundo imenso <3

"Onde isto vai levar depende apenas de si."

[Carol Fenlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A typical entry into the crazy literary world of Jonathan Coe, this book doesn't disappoint with Coe's usual play with form, digression, stories within stories and metafiction, delivered with hugely comic panache but at the same time imbuing the major characters with pathos and a powerlessness with which most ordinary mortals can identify. If there is a problem it is that Coe's facility with the English language and literary form, his ability to twist and turn the narrative in so many different ways, creates such admiration in me as a fellow writer, that I was sometimes lured away from the plot.
Maxwell Sim, the protagonist of this story, is a nerdy, somewhat anal character but his dilemmas and loneliness are common to many people in our modern world. Although often poking fun at the character, Coe at the same time creates sympathy for him and the hope that things will turn out well for him in the end. Coe uses coincidence, missed opportunities and possibilities to the extreme in this novel building up a higgledy piggledy narrative of fantastic proportions which climbs to its unforeseen conclusion in a somehow logical manner. Maxwell Sim is, despite, the fantasies, an eminently credible character - until you get to the end.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a good 100 pages to really get into. I liked the character of Maxwell Sim, in fact he seemed very familiar to me, but I'm not sure the author really knew what to do with him. His story meanders between memories of his youth to his struggle with depression (which, incredibly, seems to come with 6 months paid leave in the UK, at least in this story) to the related stories that others have told. Actually the related stories are probably the most cohesive parts, making me think I'd really enjoy the author's short stories.

I felt like the ending didn't feel very honest. And the very very ending was annoying. And he never even gets to where I kept waiting for him to go, my very reason for reading the book, so that was frustrating. I had a countdown for a while. "Oh, page 97! Finally we are getting to the Shetland Islands!" "Page 203, haven't gotten there yet..." and so on.

Overall, too many coincidences, too many parallels, too many conveniences to make it a believable story.

[Taraneh Ip · Rating 3 out of 5]

تو طول کتاب نمره ش ۳-۴ بود پایانش ۲ بود

[Aaron (Typographical Era) · Rating 5 out of 5]

(http://www.opinionless.com/book-revie...)

Tonight I finally get to meet Jonathan Coe as he makes a stop on his very short book tour across North America to promote the stateside release of his latest work, “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim” which saw its initial release in the U.K. last summer.

I’ve got to say that I’m more than excited. Coe’s body of work is nothing short of stunning. He’s a master storyteller with a gift for writing rich, believable, thoughtful characters of both sexes. Over the past twelve years he’s written five novels which have resonated deeply with me, my favorite of which is “The House of Sleep.” I don’t want to turn this into a meditation on his past work though; instead I’d like to discuss my thoughts on his current novel. To do this I’ve gone back to the original notes I jotted down when I first read “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim” back in July of last year.

“The Terrible Privacy of “Maxwell Sim” is a hard novel to review without talking about, and thus spoiling the ending. As soon as you finish the last sentence you want to immediately turn to the person closest to you and begin discussing it. If it does nothing else, it certainly inspires you to consciously think about the writer for a change. Most of the time they’re the transparent guy or gal that’s always there in the background, but as you get invested deeper and deeper into whatever he or she has written they become invisible and inconsequential to the story at hand. Yeah, they may be the one that wrote what you’re reading, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything or affect you in any way while you’re reading.

With “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim” Coe attempts to change the dynamic between the writer (himself) and the reader (his audience) in an unexpected way which will probably either leave you feeling confused, angry, impressed, or some combination of all three. It’s a bold idea, but it’s not one that’s entirely original.

Back in 2009 Coe wrote an amazing biography titled “Like a Fiery Elephant” about a somewhat obscure British poet/novelist from the 1960s named B.S. Johnson. Johnson believed in naturalism, the idea that everything he wrote needed to be truthful and pure and that making up stories as a writer was just another way of telling lies. You can read my full review of the biography by clicking here.

In “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim” Coe borrows pages directly from Johnson’s real life and weaves them into his fictional character’s tale. He even goes so far as to write his own version of Johnson’s most famous literary moment near the conclusion.

The ending aside, what is “Maxwell Sim” really all about? The novel focuses on the state of the world which we currently inhabit, a place where technology enables us to be closer than ever to one another, but at the same time makes us feel equally disconnected, alone, and further apart from our fellow man then at any other point in recorded history.

The character of Maxwell Sim is a hopeless romantic who in all likelihood is clinically depressed and possibly suicidal. We’re fed the story of Maxwell’s life by Maxwell himself, but we’re also privy to the way in which others view him thanks to short stories, essays, diary entries and other writings that he uncovers as he treks cross-country in his sleek and efficient new hybrid on a mission to sell eco-friendly toothbrushes.

If it sounds absurd, it’s only because it’s supposed to. The protagonist of this tale may be down in the dumps, but the novel itself is flat out hilarious. Coe has a gift for writing realistic humor and a knack for looking at the world through fresh eyes and pointing out the obvious flaws of living one’s life as a slave to technology. In this regard, every misstep or tragedy throw in Maxwell’s way is laced with effortless laughs.

It’s a tragedy that Coe’s work continues to be ignored by the mainstream here in the United States. The only knock I can make against him is that his novels can tend to be a little too British in their use of locations, history, and politics, but in Maxwell Sim he’s crafted a character that is all to universally relatable.

Thankfully “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim” is no longer private and is now at last finally available in the United States. Enjoy the journey, discuss the ending.

[Margherita Dolcevita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non so bene cosa scrivere (e quando inizio una recensione così probabilmente sarà lunga come la Quaresima).
Impressione finale: mi è piaciuto. Ho chiuso il romanzo, 362 pagine, e sono rimasta abbastanza soddisfatta.
Ma partiamo dall'inizio. Inizia male, sarà che mi aspettavo qualcosa d'altro (ovvero che iniziasse quasi dalla fine, oh d'altronde la sinossi presente ovunque parte da quella!) ma ho fatto molta fatica a leggere le prime 30 pagine, che di per sé sono poche ma se non ti convincono sembrano eterne.
Poi incomincia la vicenda quasi picaresca (e anche per oggi ho usato una parola difficile, yay!) di questo Maxwell Sim e da lì tutto è andato meglio. Lui mi è piaciuto, l'ho trovato molto simile a me in molti aspetti (quando elogia la resa, quella pagina avrei potuto scriverla io), è un gran bel personaggio questo Maxwell Sim. Intraprende un viaggio che onestamente ha poco senso, ci crede molto poco lui per primo e quindi si intuisce che non finirà come dovrebbe. Per di più il parallelo con Donald Crowhurst (persona che merita approfondimenti) è molto azzeccato e calzante.
Chiunque abbia una Toyota moderna è in grado di capire il rapporto che instaura con Emma, il navigatore satellitare. Mio padre ha una Auris con appunto tutto l'impianto (e confermo, il manuale di istruzioni è più lungo di quello delle istruzioni dell'intera vettura) e il navigatore è una bella compagnia, infonde sicurezza ed è sicuramente meglio di una qualsiasi voce femminile che starnazza farneticando a proposito di indicazioni stradali alla cazzo (questa di solito è la mia parte).
Comunque, nel delineare il protagonista, oltre al viaggio, Coe usa anche documenti posticci scritti da altri personaggi nel passato, ed è un espediente che funziona.
C'è un problema: il finale. Io non l'ho capito. E mi fermo qua. Di buono c'è che l'ho trovata una cosa tutto sommato di poco conto nel valutare il romanzo nel suo complesso.
Riassumendo: inizio così così, svolgimento favoloso, finale mbohmasticazzi.


Ps. io alle Shetland c'andrei anche in triciclo, altro che Prius, il fatto che io sia una persona piuttosto triste si evince anche dalle mie mete da sogno: chissenefrega delle Seychelles o delle Mauritius o delle Maldive, a me piacciono i posti freddi, piovosi, inospitali, lontani. Quindi evviva le isole Shetland, l'Islanda, l'isola di Skye, etc etc.

[Vi · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, I love Jonathan Coe. In fact, I think he is one of the greatest authors I've ever come across. There hasn't been another author who has managed to move me to the extent in which his writing has. Having said that, the Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is not one of Coe's gems, in my opinion.

The usual suspects are there: social commentary, wittiness, humour and sadness however, the juggling of these elements, which Coe normally does so well, does not quite work here. In fact, it was quite a jarring read. In one instance, you'll be bombarded with social commentary and the next paragraph you'll be hounded by the dogmas of the main character Max. Because of this, it was quite hard to get into this book, which is very surprising given that it is Coe.

There was also the usual plot twists as there so often is in a Coe book, however, even these were not executed with the usual finesse that Coe exhibited in House of Sleep or Rotter's Club. The entire story reminded me of his short stories- The Death of the Dwarves come to mind. As a whole, the story felt disjointed and was quite a jarring read.

I wanted to enjoy it but in the end I couldn't help but feel dissapointed.

[Yiota K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ήταν το πρώτο βιβλίο του Κόου που διάβασα και με συγκλόνισε, το τέλος ήταν λυτρωτικό όπως αναφέρθηκε και παραπάνω. Αυτήν την εξήγηση μπορεί να τη δώσει κάποιος μόνο αν αντιληφθεί ότι ο τίτλος του βιβλίου είναι The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim που καμία σχέση δεν έχει με τον ιδιωτικό βίο...Κατόπιν διάβασα και τη Λέσχη και το πλιάτσικο αλλά δε μου έμειναν τόσο πολύ όσο ο Σιμ. Σίγουρα θα τα ξαναδιαβάσω, ίσως στα αγγλικά κατευθείαν αυτήν τη φορά...Θυμάμαι ότι είχα κάνει πολύ μεγάλη έρευνα για το τέλος του Σιμ και στο site του Coe στο forum για το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο υπήρχε πολύ μεγάλη συζήτηση!

[Carolina Paiva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este foi o primeiro livro que li do autor, uma escolha impulsiva, feita maioritariamente com base no título do livro. Por vezes não há nenhuma razão específica para comprarmos um livro (e não tem que haver, não é verdade?). Não será um livro que me ficará na memória, penso que precisava de ser mais amadurecido antes de ser publicado. Não me senti envolvida e muitas vezes achei a trama artificial. Os acontecimentos mais interessantes do livro são colocados sem qualquer justificação, razão ou objectivo. Isto deixou-me confusa e sem qualquer motivação para continuar a ler.

Penso que tinha potencial para ser um bom livro (gostei especialmente da página inicial e esporádicos parágrafos) mas perdeu-se muitas vezes pelo caminho. O protagonista parece uma personagem de desenhos animados e não criei relação com ele. Comparo este livro a um carrossel desajeitado.

Apesar de ser classificado como divertido (e ao mesmo tempo abordar temas pertinentes como o suicídio e a homossexualidade) não me provocou nenhum momento de riso.

Fica a sensação desconfortável de algo me ter passado completamente ao lado.

[Jari Van den bossche · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won’t mince matters. The terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe is probably one of the best books I’ve ever read (that’s why I also gave it five stars). I have to admit that it’s had been a while since I enjoyed reading so much. To be honest, this books brought the pleasure of reading books, enjoying them, back to me.
It was so engaging and enjoyable though the book is actually not about subjects that’ll make you happy. It is about this middle-aged man who’s called Maxwell Sim (surprise surprise!)and he’s completely down. His wife and daughter have left him, he loathes his job, his mother has died and his poetry loving father lives in Australia. In short, he’s terribly lonely. Soon, you start developing this huge sympathy for him though he’s not the most innocent man of all. The sympathy you feel is because of the excellent writing of Coe. The plot might sound or be a bit odd but in my opinion, it’s just plausible. Multiple times, I had the feeling I was reading an odd but hilarious autobiography(Sim himself is the narrator). The things Coe wrote down are so clear and understandable.
His writing is not that basic but it definitely didn’t annoy me. I kept on turning the pages and I believe that’s what writers desire most. Good work, Coe!
As the days pass by, he just keeps on falling down, living his dull life. He’s being sucked into a downward spiral. But then, there’s light! A small flicker of light caused by … toothbrushes, environment friendly toothbrushes. Maxwell decides to give his life a vast switch and starts working for a new company promoting wooden toothbrushes. For a new publicity campaign, he has to travel to the Shetland Isles, promoting the toothbrushes on his way and making a video-diary. On his way, he starts visiting people from his past and rather quickly, secrets get unfolded, he starts regretting things and Maxwell starts discovering the TRUTH.
I won’t tell you anything more. Not because I’m as lazy as hell but because I don’t want to spoil anything of the exceptionally moving book.
The well-conceived plot is the first reason I was and am so fond of the book. The other reason is because it’s so hilarious. Page after page, you discover witty remarks, jokes and so on … That’s what he is known for. I terribly liked the parts where Max is on the road and starts talking to his Satnav, he names Emma. Because of his loneliness, Max starts hallucinating and he’s having these hilarious conversations with Emma. This just proves that Coe has this large imagination.

The book is not just about this person called Maxwell Sim and his horrible life where situations of coincidence pile up. Coe also captures about our f***** up society. The spirit of our world, how we live is processed multiple times in the book but … in a comical way. With these fantastic witty remarks about the way we handle and live, he slaps you right in the face … because, well … it’s just true.
Well, I hope I was loud and clear enough for you to run over to the closest bookshop, get this book, isolate yourself, get lonely and get carried away by the terrible privacy of Maxwell Sim.

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Desde la primera página, la novela de Jonathan Coe te atrapa: empezamos sabiendo que un vendedor ha sido encontrado al borde de la hipotermia en su coche, desnudo y rodeado de curiosos objetos, para pasar a continuación a la historia en sí, donde Maxwell Sim está en un restaurante de Sidney observando como una mujer y su hija juegan a las cartas, observando la intimidad que hay entre ellas, algo que Max echa en falta, y que le hace darse cuenta de lo solo que está.

‘La espantosa intimidad de Maxwell Sim’ está narrada por el propio Max, un hombre de cuarenta y ocho años al que su esposa hace ocho meses que abandonó llevándose a su hija con ella. Max, que se está recuperando de una depresión, se encuentra en Australia visitando a su padre, con el que mantiene una relación más bien distante. Tras su estancia en Australia, ha de regresar a Inglaterra, y en el aeropuerto es donde empiezan a sucederle cosas hasta el final de la novela.

Durante su viaje de regreso, y ya en Inglaterra, se cruzará con diversas personas que darán lugar a historias dentro de historias, así como a escenas tragicómicas que te dibujan una sonrisa en la cara pero que ocultan también una reflexión dramática de la realidad del personaje. Coe se sirve de múltiples recursos para contarnos su historia, entre ellos los ‘Cuatro cuartetos’ de T.S. Eliot que encabezan cuatro relatos dentro de la propia novela, con los títulos de los cuatro elementos, agua, tierra, fuego y aire, que nos ayudan a conocer y también a esclarecer el por qué del pasado de ciertos hechos del pasado y la memoria de Max.

La novela es muy agradable de leer, es divertida, delirante y profunda, y resulta una mirada bastante acertada de los tiempos que corren. Aunque parezca que el mundo haya empequeñecido y todos nos encontremos más cerca de todos gracias a las nuevas tecnologías y las múltiples formas que hay de relacionarse electrónicamente, en realidad estamos más solos que nunca y el contacto entre las personas empieza a ser algo obsoleto. Es una magnífica reflexión sobre la realidad social actual, que hace hincapié también en la crisis económica y financiera que se está viviendo, y todo ello desde el punto de vista de Max y las penurias por las que va pasando, no exentas de humor. La novela está llena de grandes momentos, como el viaje de regreso a Inglaterra desde Australia, o la odisea en la que se embarca cuando decide viajar en coche hasta las Shetland por motivos de trabajo. Pero hay muchos más en esta gran historia, difícil de resumir por otra parte.

‘La espantosa intimidad de Maxwell Sim’ es una lectura muy recomendable, y te deja con la clara sensación de querer continuar siguiendo los pasos a este querido antihéroe. El único pero que le pondría sería la solución, la salida que le da Coe al personaje en la parte final, que no me acabó de convencer.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is a strange beast as it starts off like a comic novel and the evolves into something else entirely.

The title character is an ordinary person, so ordinary that he is boring. Nothing interests him and has no motivation to really do anything. Plus he is stuck in a dull job, which he accepts. Weirdly enough the book begins with him trying to reconcile with his father in Australia.

As he returns a series of mishaps befall him, which are laugh out loud funny but then when Maxwell accepts a challenge to drive to the Shetland Islands, the book adds more elements and becomes better. Maxwell then start to discover himself and through the characters he meets he knows himself more and discovers secrets about his past which contribute to his personal development.

As always the usual themes crop up. There’s a lamentation on the gentrification of Britain and the role of love. As I’ve said Coe manages to add a new angle to his usual tropes so it is a pleasure to read.

Maxwell Sim is another great Coe novel. Maybe it doesn’t match his peak era novels but it is excellent and one of his more heartwarming books; An element which was also present in The Rain Before it Falls. Nine novels in and I haven’t tired of him, which is a good sign.