A Kafka-esque allegory from the masterful McEwan which speaks urgently to the current febrile political climate, The Cockroach details an anthropomorphic metamorphosis which threatens the very fabric of democracy.
Kafka meets The Thick Of It in a bitingly funny new political satire from Ian McEwan
That morning, Jim Sams, clever but by no means profound, woke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature.
Jim Sams has undergone a metamorphosis. In his previous life he was ignored or loathed, but in his new incarnation he is the most powerful man in Britain – and it is his mission to carry out the will of the people. Nothing must get in his way: not the opposition, nor the dissenters within his own party. Not even the rules of parliamentary democracy.
With trademark intelligence, insight and scabrous humour, Ian McEwan pays tribute to Franz Kafka’s most famous work to engage with a world turned on its head.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781529112924
Number of pages: 112
Weight: 106 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 9 mm
A comic triumph… How do you make a show of people who are doing such a fabulous job of making a show of themselves? McEwan manages to do so with great style and comic panache. - Fintan O'Toole, Observer, Book of the Day
The Cockroach is a satirical novella for our times, sharply observed and often very funny… an entertaining read, confronting the reality of Britain today. - Eastern Daily Press, Book of the Week*
The latest instalment in his [McEwan’s] imaginative scrambling of English social history and of reality… [McEwan] finds room, amid all the Hansard send-ups and diplomatic silliness, to allude to more troubling physical-philosophical quandaries, while positing an alternative history of economic thought that culminates in a wayward version of our present. - Leo Robson, New Statesman
Brexit has such a camp, knowing, performative quality that it is almost impossible to inflate it any further… McEwan manages to do so with great style and comic panache… very funny… McEwan’s comic parable at least provides some relief from a political farce that has long gone beyond a joke. - Fintan O'Toole, Observer
A well-constructed novella by a master of the art. - Stephen Bush, Big Issue
Enjoyable. Fun. Relatable. About cockroaches who take over the government...should this be relatable? No. Is it though? Yes. 3.5 stars.
Echoing Kafka - disappointingly so - I found this book tendentious. The wit gets derailed by what - oftentimes - is little more than heavy-handed polemic. McEwan's politics are so intrusive that the book reads... More
So we are currently in a 'messy' political situation in the UK and this is a very timely publication.
This is a fabulously brilliant read which had me laughing so much.
Definitely recommended.
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