John Lanchester
Capital
Synopsis: It’s the story of a street Pepys Road in London, and the inhabitants, who are targeted by someone, who sticks postcards with a simple message ‘We want what you have’ through their letterboxes. It also takes in the stories of those that work on the street.
The characters living on Pepys Road are Roger a banker, Roger’s wife Arabella, Roger’s nanny Matya, Petunia a elderly woman suffering a brain tumour,
It’s not a book that I found all that funny, despite the fact that the reviews on the cover seemed to focus on the humour. I didn’t really understand why certain of the characters were included to such a extent, either, as Lanchester dedicates a section to Quentina, a traffic warden who occasionally walks down the street, as well as including the story of Zbignew, a Polish builder who does work on the houses of two residents. I didn’t understand why there was so much dedicated to Petunia’s grandson- a artist who has copied Banksy’s anonymity, as he wasn’t a hugely likable character, although he does have a good deal to do with the mystery.
To me Lanchester would have been better just focusing on the lives of the residents, instead of shoehorning the mystery element into the plot as well.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Published by
hgolightly1982
I'm a thirty something woman who lives in the north of England. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, creating stories both written and verbal since childhood. While studying at Edge Hill College, I got several poems published by a small publisher in the USA, and in Europe. I have been part of several writing groups, and done quite a few courses in a attempt to hone my writing skills further. I love reading different genres of fiction, knowing that the best way to develop my own writing, and my vocabulary is by exposing myself to the different ways that other people choose to describe things.
The most recent writing course that I've been part of, run by a published author, included a exercise in which we were challenged to read things that we would never usually even look at.
It inspired me to take up a challenge. Namely to attempt to read at least one book by every author which is stocked in my local library. I soon realised that I was being far too ambitious, especially given the fact that every library rotates their stock too often for me to keep track.
I've decided to instead attempt to read a book every day, starting with a author whose surname begins with A, and ending with a author whose surname begins with Z. It doesn't matter what the topic of the book is, or if it's fiction or non fiction, everything is useful for me at the minute.
View all posts by hgolightly1982
Musings of a thirtysomething woman 