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The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
7 posts | 4 read | 6 to read
Maxwell Sim cant seem to make a single meaningful connection. His absent father was always more interested in poetry; he maintains an e-mail correspondence with his estranged wife, though under a false identity; his incomprehensible teenage daughter prefers her BlackBerry to his conversation; and his best friend since childhood is refusing to return his calls. He has seventy-four friends on Facebook, but nobody to talk to. In an attempt to stir himself out of this horrible rut, Max quits his job as a customer liaison at the local department store and accepts a strange business proposition that falls in his lap by chance: hes hired to drive a Prius full of toothbrushes to the remote Shetland Islands, part of a misguided promotional campaign for a dental-hygiene company intent on illustrating the slogan We Reach Furthest. But Maxs trip doesnt go as planned, as hes unable to resist making a series of impromptu visits to important figures from his past who live en route. After a string of cruelly enlightening and intensely awkward misadventures, he finds himself falling in love with the soothing voice of his GPS system (Emma) and obsessively identifying with a sailor who perpetrated a notorious hoax and subsequently lost his mind. Eventually Max begins to wonder if perhaps its a severe lack of self-knowledge thats hampering his ability to form actual relationships. A humane satire and modern-day picaresque, The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim is a gently comic and rollickingly entertaining novel about the paradoxical difficulties of making genuine attachments in a world of advanced communications technology and rampant social networking. From the Hardcover edition.
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review
Minervasbutler
Minervasbutler
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
post image
Pickpick

The protagonist of this book follows in that long British tradition of self-deluded comic narrators which includes Pooter, Bertie Wooster, Adrian Mole and Alan Partridge though the laughs are darker here and Coe is excellent on our need for human contact amidst the scary marvels of technology. The descriptions of contemporary Britain are spot on and although the ending may irritate some I actually thought it worked pretty well.

63 likes1 stack add
quote
Minervasbutler
Minervasbutler
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
post image

Lol

CSeydel 😂😂Although, in his defense ... there IS a rabbit in Watership Down. But it‘s not American, so no points. 7y
Minervasbutler @CSeydel lol. More than one tbh ;) 7y
49 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
Sarah83
Sarah83
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
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Mehso-so

Ein schönes Buch über das Leben & seine Probleme. Ein Mann wird von seiner Frau verlassen & begibt sich danach auf psychische & physische Reise auf der Suche nach sich selbst. Er begegnet Menschen, die ihm bei dieser Entwicklung helfen und das ganze kommt nicht ohne Augen zwinkern aus. 😊 Das Ende hat mir letztlich aber nicht so ganz gefallen, daher nur ein so-so. Auf jeden Fall ein Tipp für alle Harold Fry Fans.

Ein weiteres Buch für #LitsyAtoZ

Sarah83 @BookishMarginalia 7y
Sarah83 A lovely book about life and its problems. A man is left by his wife, after that he starts a psychological and physical journey through his life. He meets several people on this journey, who all help him, to get through this development. 7y
Sarah83 The story is cheated with little winks, so the story is most of the time quite funny and nice to read. For me it ended up with so-so, because I didn't like the end of the book. But I must say, I really recommend this book to readers, who loved Harold Fry. 😊 7y
See All 8 Comments
Bambolina_81 What are those gorgeous books in the background? 😍 7y
Eyelit Nice review! That owl is adorable! 7y
Sarah83 @Bambolina_81 It is a special edition of Meyer's encyclopedia. 😊 7y
Sarah83 @Eyelit thank you. 😉 7y
BarbaraBB Sounds like a real Coe, nice! 7y
40 likes8 comments
blurb
Sarah83
Sarah83
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
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Sonntag Nachmittag auf Couch 😍

Sunday afternoon on my couch 😍

Bambolina_81 Perfect 😊 7y
Sarah83 @Bambolina_81 yes it is and it's a book of my #litsyatoz challenge and not another book like the weeks before. 😇 7y
51 likes2 comments
quote
Sarah83
Sarah83
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
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"you are a person, who doesn't change his life because of a book." "Why should I change my life because of a book?", I asked. "Real things change life. A marriage, a child's birth." " I talk about reaching new horizons." she replied. " The extension of the awareness." ???

35 likes
blurb
Sarah83
Sarah83
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
post image

Ich liebe es, wenn er laufende Erzählfluss aufgebrochen wird, um einen Brief oder Zeitungsartikel oder oder einfließen zu lassen. 😍

I love it, if the story is interrupted by a letter or by a newspaper article or something like that. 😍

46 likes
blurb
Sarah83
Sarah83
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim | Jonathan Coe
post image

So nachdem ich rumgetrödelt habe, muss ich mal endlich mit #LitsyAtoZ voran kommen, das Jahr ist ja nicht mehr so lange. 😉 Bin gespannt, ob es im Stil von #HaroldFry ist. 🤔

I haven't done much for #LitsyAtoZ in the latest time, so I have to hurry up, as the year doesn't last long any more. 😉 I'm excited, if this book will remind me of #HaroldFry. 🤔

#LetterU
@BookishMarginalia

52 likes