Pamela Norris
Off The Radar
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
By Jonathan Coe
Viking 344pp £12.99
For Maxwell Sim, in Jonathan Coe’s new novel The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim, a game of cards played by a Chinese mother and her young daughter in a restaurant becomes a symbol of desirable intimacy. Its opposite is Sim himself having dinner with the daughter he rarely sees, each too busy sending and receiving messages on their mobile phones to talk to one another. In a world dominated by systems intended to facilitate communication, Sim’s privacy is indeed terrible. Inarticulate and conventional, he has become isolated from human warmth and affection and, at the age of forty-eight, has failed to understand his own nature and desires. Eventually, despite his more than seventy friends on Facebook, his only confidante is Emma, the voice on his in-car SatNav system. In this very funny, very sobering book, Coe tenderly traces the fall and redemption of a mediocre man.
The novel begins with Sim being found, partially clothed and suffering from hypothermia, in a car in a remote part of Scotland. Sim then takes over as narrator, explaining how he arrived at this crisis. A salesman whose modest career in a London department store depended on his
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm