Writer Jonathan Coe: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In modern literature there are many names of talented writers who have made an invaluable contribution to its development. Among these, Jonathan Coe rightfully occupies a place of honor. He became famous as a master of satirical prose and detective stories. Let's take a closer look at his biography and work.

Biography

Jonathan Coe was born on August 19, 1961 in Birmingham (UK). He graduated from King Edward's School there. The future writer was a rather purposeful young man, not without ambition. He was always interested in the history and political life of his native country and the situation around the world. He read a lot and studied the archives in order to speak on social topics with knowledge of the matter. More than once later in his interviews, he admitted that he did not doubt for a second when he chose philological, and not any other direction.

Jonathan Coe graduated from Trinity College (Cambridge). Since childhood, he was attracted by the word and how it can be used to create magnificent works of art that change the mind of a person. Perhaps that is why he wentliterary path. In the 1990s, Coe completed a dissertation in English literature based on G. Fielding's The Tom Jones Story and began teaching English poetry at the University of Warwick. Later, Coe changed his teaching career to work as a proofreader and freelance journalist for British publishing houses. Until, finally, he finally moved into the world of literature.

Creativity

According to the writer himself, he has been writing for about 50 years. But he felt the desire and readiness to publish his works much later. He wrote his first work at the age of 8. It was a detective story "Castle of Riddles". The writer later placed an excerpt from it in the novel “What a swindle.”

Koue has long been recognized by critics as a master of satire. In this, by his own admission, anger and a sharp sense of humor helped. In his works, he evaluates the political system of Great Britain of the last century, the confrontation between the world's leading states, etc. in a caricature-dramatic manner. In addition, he created fascinating detective and philosophical stories.

Sequentially analyzing the works of Jonathan Coe, one can find many intersections with each other in them. This feature of the writer's work gives grounds to assert that his novels are not separate, disparate works, but peculiar chapters of one branched narrative.

However, one cannot deny the genre movement of the British writer from satire to tragedy. Jonathan Coe himself, his books and critics' reviews speak about this.

Books

The writer's bibliography includes 12 works. All of them have been translated into several languages, including Russian, and are most popular in Italy, France and Greece.

The first serious published work is "Random Woman". Jonathan Coe, not without his inherent irony, explores the relationship of accidents and patterns in it, thus trying to answer the question of whether a person has a choice in life or fate decides everything for him. The main character, Maria, is both simple and mysterious. She swims with the flow of life without the desire to resist fate. And she, in turn, starts a strange game. This novel was published in 1987 and immediately drew attention to Jonathan Coe as an interesting and intelligent writer.

This successful work was followed by others: A Touch of Love (1989), Dwarfs and Deaths (1990), The Cancer Club (2001), The Circle Is Closed (2004). All of them touch upon various social issues and are distinguished by the virtuoso author's style of narration. But the most significant, according to critics, novels are "What a swindle" (1994), "House of sleep" (1997) and "Number 11" (2015).

The first truly glorified its author. It attracted the attention of not only readers, but also professional critics.

What a scam

This is a vivid social satire on English society during the reign of Margaret Thatcher. Of course, all this, according to the rules of the genre,served covertly. The focus is on the Winshaw family, overseen by a not-so-successful writer named Michael. He receives a tempting offer from Tabitha Winshaw - for a high fee to write a chronicle about her relatives. The author Jonathan Coe himself, as the reader guesses, is the prototype of the hero Michael. He is an outside observer and critic of the events that take place before his eyes. Family ties are rather unsteady, as greed has consumed every member of the family. They launch their tentacles into all spheres of public life, losing their own guidelines. Detective threads are unexpectedly woven into the historical canvas, and the finale turns out to be both funny and bloody.

Sleep House

In 1997, Jonathan Coe's The House of Sleep was published and became another author's bestseller. The novel immediately united four eternal literary themes: love, loneliness, loss and madness. The author ironically tells about the complicated relationship of the characters with sleep. They sometimes sleep little, sometimes a lot, sometimes they don’t sleep at all, sometimes they see strange dreams. And the heroes of this novel were a drug-addicted girl and three guys (a movie fan, a romantic and a guy with a manic disorder). All of them, after strange and mysterious events that happened either in a dream or in reality, end up in a huge gloomy mansion on top of a cliff, which is occupied by a clinic for patients with disturbed sleep. And this is where the story spring kicks in. Coe's skill is manifested not only in virtuoso narration, but also in careful study of details. Even the most insignificant, short dialogue or a chance meeting innovel have a deep meaning and are reflected in the finale. "House of Sleep" in the assessment of critics is a simultaneous combination of energy and tenderness, warmth and comedy.

Number 11

One of the latest works presented by Jonathan Coe in 2015 is "Number 11". This is a novel on the author's favorite social theme. It shows hundreds of subtle ties that society is woven from. The author reveals modern reality and offers to look at the world in its true light. A little girl named Rachel visits her grandmother and meets a strange Bird Woman there, on her next visit she finds sinister things in the forest. The older Rachel gets, the more mysterious and scary her environment becomes. She knows she's caught in a web, but whose?

Designed in the relentlessly mocking, compelling, and carefully crafted style that Jonathan Coe so masterfully wields and uses. "Number 11" is a novel that, according to critics, grew out of the author's previous well-known works, and therefore accumulates all the previously raised issues, revealing the abscesses of modern society. Politics and comedy fight here. What will win? The final is open!

Biographies

The writer's work today is rated as one of the most interesting and significant in modern English literature. However, it is difficult to fully appreciate the genius that Jonathan Coe possesses. His biography is connected not only with fiction, but also with science. Do not forget that he is a philologist with a scientistdegree. And scientific research is not alien to him. Peru Coe owns three major popular science works. These are detailed biographies with author's commentary of two prominent American actors Humphrey Bogart (1991) and James Stewart (1994), as well as the English avant-garde writer and experimental filmmaker Brian Johnson (2004). Why Coe drew attention to these particular artists is not exactly known. His works have been published in English and are of great importance for both science and world art.

Awards

Undoubtedly, the writer Jonathan Coe is a significant figure in modern literature. And this is confirmed by seven awards for achievements in the field of literature. Among them: the English Mail on Sunday Award for the novel "What a swindle" in 1995. The same work was recognized as the best in France. The novel "House of Sleep" in 1997 was awarded the Writers' Guild Award, as well as the French award "Medici" as the best foreign book. For his biography of B. S. Johnson, Coe received the Samuel Jones Prize in 2005.

Interesting facts

• Jonathan Coe has been an atheist all his life.
• Three works of the British writer were filmed. This is the detective story "Dwarfs and Death", which was embodied in a motion picture called Five seconds to spare in 2000. The novel "Club Rakali" formed the basis of the TV series of the same name in 2005. And finally, based on the story of "The Incredible Private Life of Maxwell Sim" was filmedfilm in 2015.
• In the early days of his creative career, Jonathan Coe worked as a songwriter and performer of jazz and pop music.

• At the age of 15, the young writer made an attempt to publish his work by sending a comedy written by him to the publishing house. However, there was no answer. A few years later, already a student of philology, Coe found an old manuscript. After re-reading it, he was embarrassed and burned the comedy.
• Once Kou decided to write a work in six volumes. However, I realized that I simply could not live with my characters for so long. Therefore, he wrote only two books: "The Rakali Club" and its sequel, "The Circle is Closed."