Writer Jonathan Coe: Biography and Creativity

In modern literature there are many names of talented writers who have made an invaluable contribution to its development. Among those, an honorable place is rightfully occupied by Jonathan Coe. He became famous as a master of satirical prose and detective stories. Let's get acquainted with his biography and creativity.

Biography

Jonathan Coe was born on August 19, 1961 in Birmingham (United Kingdom). There he graduated from the school of King Edward. The future writer was a rather purposeful young man with ambitious ambitions. He was always interested in the history and political life of his native country and the situation throughout the world. He read a lot and studied the archives to speak on social topics with knowledge of the matter. More than once later, in his interviews, he admitted that he did not doubt a second when he chose the philological, and not any other direction.

Jonathan Coe graduated in Trinity College (Cambridge). From his childhood he was attracted by the word and how with his help one can create magnificent works of art that change the consciousness of a person. Perhaps, that's why he followed the literary path. In the 1990's, Coe defended his thesis on English literature on the novel by G. Fielding's "The History of Tom Jones" and began teaching English poetry at the University of Warwick. Later, Coe changed his teaching career to work as a proofreader and freelance journalist in British publishing houses. Until, finally, finally did not go into the world of literature.

Creation

According to the author himself, he has been writing for about 50 years. But he felt the desire and readiness to publish his works much later. The first work was written by him in 8 years. It was a detective story "Castle of riddles". An excerpt from it, the writer later placed in the novel "What a trick".

Critics Kou long recognized as a master of satire. In this, by his own admission, anger and an acute sense of humor helped. In his works, in a caricature-dramatic vein, he assesses the political system of the Great Britain of the last century, the confrontation of world leading states, etc. In addition, he created fascinating detective and philosophical subjects.

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

However, one can not deny the genre movement of the British writer from satire to tragedy. This is what Jonathan Coe himself says, his books and critics' reviews.

Books

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

The first serious published work is the "Casual Woman". Jonathan Coe, not without the inherent irony, explores in him the relationship of chance and regularity, trying to answer the question of whether a person has a choice in life or whether fate decides everything for him. The main character - Maria - is both simple and mysterious. She swims along the course 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: "Touching Love" (1989), "Dwarfs and Deaths" (1990), "Cancer Club" (2001), "The Circle Closed" (2004). All of them affect different social issues and are distinguished by virtuosic author's style of narration. But the most significant, in the opinion of critics, the novels are "What are the cheats" (1994), "The House of Sleep" (1997) and "Number 11" (2015).

The first truly glorified his author. Not only the readers paid attention to him, but also professional critics.

"What a swindle"

This is a vivid social-social satire on English society during the reign of Margaret Thatcher. Of course, all this, according to the rules of the genre, is served veiled. The focus of the family is Winshaw, followed by a not very 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, as the reader guessed, is a prototype of the hero Michael. He is an outsider and critic of those events that occur before his eyes. Family ties are rather unsteady, since greed has devoured every member of the family. They launch their tentacles into all spheres of social life, losing their own landmarks. In the historical canvas, detective threads are suddenly intertwined, and the finale turns out to be both funny and bloody.

"House of Sleep"

In 1997, the work of Jonathan Coe "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 narrates about the intricate relationship of heroes with sleep. They sleep a little, then a lot, then do not sleep at all, then they see strange dreams. And the heroes of this novel were a narcoleptic girl and three guys (a film 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, fall into a huge gloomy mansion on top of a cliff that is occupied by a clinic for patients with disturbed sleep. And then the spring of the plot is launched. The skill of Coe is manifested not only in the virtuoso narrative, but also in the careful elaboration of the details. Even the most insignificant, short dialogue or chance encounter in the novel has a profound meaning and is reflected in the finale. "House of Sleep" in the assessment of critics is a simultaneous combination of energy and tenderness, warmth and comic.

«Number 11»

One of the latest works, which Jonathan Coe introduced in 2015, is "Number 11". This is a novel for the author's favorite social theme. It shows hundreds of subtle connections, of which the society is woven. The author reveals the modern reality and proposes to look at the world in its true light. A little girl named Rachel comes to her grandmother and meets there a strange Bird Woman, on the next visit she finds sinister things in the forest. The older Rachel becomes, the more mysterious and terrible her environment becomes, the situation. She understands that she was in a web, but in whose?

The work is created in the ruthlessly mocking, attractive and carefully thought out style, which is so masterfully owned and enjoyed by Jonathan Coe. "Number 11" is a novel that, according to critics, grew out of the author's previous known works, and therefore accumulates in himself all the previously mentioned issues, revealing the abscesses of modern society. Politics and comedy are struggling here. And what will win? The final is open!

Biographies

Creativity of the writer today is estimated as one of the most interesting and significant in modern English literature. However, it is difficult to fully appreciate the genius that possesses Jonathan Coe. His biography is connected not only with fiction, but also with science. Do not forget that he is a philologist with a scientific degree. And scientific research is not alien to him. Peru Coe has three major non-fiction works. These are detailed biographies with the author's comments of two prominent American actors Humphrey Bogart (1991) and James Stewart (1994), as well as British avant-garde writer and filmmaker-experimenter Bryan Johnson (2004). Why Coe drew attention to these artists, is not known. His works are published in English and are of great importance for science and world art.

Awards

Undoubtedly, the writer Jonathan Coe is a significant figure in contemporary literature. And seven awards for achievements in the field of literature serve as a confirmation of this. Among them: the English award Mail on Sunday for the novel "What a swindle" in 1995. This 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 Medici Award as the best foreign book. For the biography of B. S. Johnson Coe received the prize of Samuel Jones in 2005.

Interesting Facts

• All his life, Jonathan Coe adhered to atheistic convictions.
• Three works of the British writer were filmed. This is the detective story "Dwarfs and Deaths", which was embodied in a movie called Five seconds to spare in 2000. The novel "The Club of Cancer" formed the basis of the eponymous series in 2005. And, finally, based on the story of Maxwell Sim's "Incredible Privacy," the film was shot in 2015.
• At the dawn of his creative career, Jonathan Coe worked as a writer and performer of jazz and pop music.

• At the age of 15, the young writer attempted to publish his work by sending a comedy to the publishing house. But there was no answer. A few years later, being a student-philologist, Coe found an old manuscript. After reading it, he was embarrassed and burned a comedy.
• Once Coe decided to write a work in six volumes. However, I realized that I just can not live with my characters for so long. Therefore, they wrote only two books: "Club of Cancer" and its continuation "Circle closed."