Jerusalem

by Patrick Neate

In the first year of the 20th Century, a young Englishman returns home from the Boer War. Disillusioned with Empire and fearful for the soul of Albion, he sets out on a pilgrimage into the West Country, determined to identify the key elements of the English character that they may be forever preserved. In the present day, a young London entrepreneur, owner of the 'cultural consultancy' Authenticity™, defines his contemporaries through their consumer choices with bewildering accuracy, wallows in money and contemplates his growing sense of dissatisfaction. His father, meanwhile, a junior minister in a failing government, is sent to Africa to deal with the continent's latest tin pot despot. He is as confident of success as he is ambitious of what that success will mean for his career. Unfailingly relevant, politically astute, moving and funny, Jerusalem is a loving portrait of Englishness as it never was, isn't now and, hopefully, never will be.

Genres: Fiction

408 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2009

Reviews

[Shane_finnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story. Part three of the trilogy. I read the trilogy in order of 2-1-3. I would love to hear from another reviewer who has also read them in this order.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling and I wish there were some characters I could empathise with.

[Strider · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember when I found "Musungu Jim..." on a shelf in a bookstore. I immediately liked the book and the author, actually I have loved them ever since.
Neat is a complex and wise writer on one hand and an interesting and great story teller on the other hand.
In this book we see the highly advanced phase of English-African relations, a clinch of cultures, often deadly. Yet there is ever present background hope that things should resolve somehow. That hope is present in all the books of the trilogy, so powerful in the first book and so elegiac in the third one.
But Neat's trilogy is not only about Africa. He examines the structure of the myths, creating myths of his own as well as his complex, interwoven streams of stories, since one of the central points of Neat's mythology is certain hyper-connectedness of people, events...
I need to find more writings of his.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Patrick Neate ever since Twelve Bar Blues. His latest shows off his fabulous storytelling and comedic prowess and also provides a forum for him to skewer representations of race, class and colonialism. The book is divided into different strands, narrated by an ultra-cool London media type, his MP father, a war veteran in turn-of-the-20th-century England and an incarcerated shaman in the fictional country of Zamibia, among other characters. These strands all eventually come together, but each stands as an engaging, funny and no-holds-barred story.

[Angel Serrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corrosiva crítica de la hipocresía británica con respecto a sus antiguas colonias africanas y al latente racismo de la sociedad contemporánea. La política, la prensa, la industria son ridiculizadas con sus grandes principios, que no corresponden con los hechos, y la facilidad del público para ser manipulado.

[Lizbuf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting ideas, made me think, amusing but took a while to get into all the different narratives. Liked how they were all brought together at the end.

[Ta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining but nothing more.

[Simon Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A joyous read, I'm feeling that rock steady beat