![]() ![]() ![]() This one has all of Barnes’ sharp observation, filled with greedy developers, pompous intellectuals and conniving business tycoons. This story is a satirical swing at all things English, with Barnes exhibiting a mischievousness I never expected from him. The theme park envisioned in Barnes’ story is Disneyesque with building replicas and hordes of park staff kitted out in costume, role-playing for the paying public. Julian Barnes delights us with a novel that is at once a philosophical inquiry, a burst of mischief, and a moving elegy about authenticity and nationality. But when things go awry, Martha develops her own vision of the perfect England. ![]() Martha Cochrane, hired as one of Sir Jack's resident "no-people," ably assists him in realizing his dream. This is precisely what visionary tycoon, Sir Jack Pitman, seeks to accomplish on the Isle of Wight, a "destination" where tourists can find replicas of Big Ben (half size), Princess Di's grave, and even Harrod's (conveniently located inside the tower of London). Imagine an England where all the pubs are quaint, where the Windsors behave themselves (mostly), where the cliffs of Dover are actually white, and where Robin Hood and his merry men really are merry. From the internationally acclaimed bestselling author The Sense of an Ending comes a "wickedly funny” novel ( The New York Times) about an idyllic land of make-believe in England that gets horribly and hilariously out of hand. ![]()
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