Middle England is a 2018 novel by Jonathan Coe. It is the third novel in a trilogy, following The Rottersâ Club (2001) and The Closed Circle (2004). The novel explores the experiences of characters from those earlier novels against the backdrop of the major events taking place before, during and after the Brexit referendum.
Other characters from Coe's previous works appear in the novel including author Lionel Hampshire and his assistant Hermione (from his short story "Canadians Can't Flirt", collected in Tales from a MasterâÂÂs Notebook), while characters from The Rottersâ Club and The Closed Circle, such as Cicely Boyd and Paul Trotter, are mentioned in passing.
In an author's note at the end of the novel, Coe states that there were two main inspirations behind his desire to revisit the characters from his earlier novels. After an interview with the novelist Alice Adams, in which she praised The Closed Circle, he entered into a correspondence with her, and âÂÂher enthusiasmâ persuaded him that he âÂÂshould revisit these abandoned charactersâÂÂ. In addition, after seeing Richard Cameron's theatrical adaptation of The Rottersâ Club, he became aware of the importance of Benjamin and Lois's relationship to the series of novels, and felt the desire to explore it further. In addition, Coe states that the character of Emily Shamma is named after a woman who made the winning bid to have a character in Coe's next novel named after her at an auction for the charity Freedom from Torture. Coe incorporated information about the origin of Shamma's name into the novel.
In an article he wrote for The Guardian a few days before the publication of the novel, the author stated that he âÂÂwanted to convey a strong and specific sense of the texture of English public life in the last eight yearsâÂÂ. Although he had many doubts about whether or not this would affect the longevity of the novel, he ultimately concluded that it was important for novelists to focus on contemporary events, since their works become âÂÂvital resources in trying to understand what happenedâÂÂ.
Alex Preston, writing for The Guardian, felt that Coe's use of characters spanning multiple generations, covering almost a decade in British history, made him âÂÂthe first author to address our current crisis of national identity using the form that feels most suited to the taskâÂÂ, contrasting the novelist's work with contemporaneous efforts by Ali Smith and Amanda Craig. In The Irish Times, John Boyne ended his review by saying: âÂÂMillions of words have been and will be written on Brexit but few will get to the heart of why it is happening as incisively as Middle England.â A number of reviewers compared Coe's series of novels to the works of Anthony Powell, with Ian Sansom calling it âÂÂthe closest thing we have to a contemporary middle-class, middle-England Dance to the Music of TimeâÂÂ.
Both Preston and Sam Leith, however, felt that the novel's closeness to contemporary events created flaws in the narrative, with the former saying the ending felt âÂÂslightly cobbled togetherâÂÂ, while the latter described the novel as a whole as âÂÂless than completely successfulâ in its attempt to depict the state of the nation. Some reviewers questioned how relevant the more overtly political aspects of the novel would be outside the time of its publication, with Leith saying that âÂÂcertain passages of exposition feel clunkyâ as a result of Coe's attempt to explain topics like the rise of European populism or the Kalergi plan conspiracy theory.
Regarding Coe's political stance, Leith felt that it was a âÂÂgreat big Centrist Dad of a novelâ that only asks the reader to sympathise with people who voted Remain in the Brexit referendum. In his review for Prospect, Ian Sansom called it a âÂÂbrilliant Brexit novelâÂÂ, but noted that âÂÂeveryone who votes for Brexit in the novel [...] is portrayed as either mildly or explicitly racist, and at least a little bit stupid.â By comparison, Jonathan Derbyshire of the Financial Times noted that Coe's writing was interesting for its âÂÂambivalent embraceâ of Englishness despite the author's professed Eurocentrism, while Allan Massie in The Scotsman praised the author for showing âÂÂabundant sympathy for his charactersâ and recognizing that âÂÂmuch of the anger at political correctness and the resentment of people who feel no longer at home in their own country [isnâÂÂt] unjustified.âÂÂ
Many critics praised the quality of Coe's prose, plotting, characterization and humour. Leith called it âÂÂas smoothly accomplished as everâ and praised the humour of the author's set pieces. In his review for The Spectator, Jon Day commended Coe's âÂÂslick and preciseâ prose, along with the author's skill in handling transitions between scenes. However, he felt that while the novelist writes âÂÂcompelling, humane and funny novelsâÂÂ, the lack of experimentation in his otherwise pleasurable style âÂÂconfirms rather than challengesâ the reader's prejudices. By comparison, Mark Lawson, writing for Literary Review, felt that Coe had evolved from a more experimental mode to a âÂÂlow-key proseâ style with a âÂÂtalent for characterisation and captivating narrativeâÂÂ, and that this transformation is echoed in the scene in the novel where âÂÂBenjaminâÂÂs vast postmodern masterwork becomes, during an editing session, a conventional novellaâ that goes on to be nominated for the Booker Prize.