Status
Available
Description
An English public employee becomes embroiled in a Soviet plot while he oversees the construction of an authentic British pub being showcased at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels.
User reviews
LibraryThing member SandDune
I've enjoyed [[Jonathan Coe]] books before, but this one didn't hit quite the right note for me. Thomas Foley, a young civil servant working in London, is sent to Belgium to oversee the operations of The Britannia, a replica pub forming a key part of the British exhibits for the Brussels World Fair
But somehow the tone of this book just didn't seem right to me. Much of the comedy derives from looking at what it means to be modern in 1958, but it's done in much too heavy heavy handed a way. It's almost as if Coe has got a checklist of whatever was new in Britain in the late fifties and is ticking items off it one by one. Coffee with froth on top - check (not cappuccino yet though, not for a long time) .... Continental quilts or are they called duvets? - check (personally I don't remember the word duvet coming in until the 1970's at least) ... toothpaste with stripes - check. And I understand that in the 1950's you could smoke everywhere, in the office, on the tube, on a plane, I don't need to have it sledgehammered into me by descriptions of fug filled rooms on every other page.
There are some amusing characters, in particular the two secret agents (shades of the Thompson twins in Tintin) but most of the characters seems strangely grey. I didn't find myself engaged with Thomas very much at all whether in his exploits in the world of espionage or in his clandestine romantic entanglements. And the ending, which brings the story up to date, is something of a mystery to me. I just don't understand what it was for at all ...
So overall, a somewhat unsatisfactory book but one which has had good reviews elsewhere. So maybe it's just me.
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in 1958. With a wife and young baby at home he is initially reluctant to take the post, for which he has no qualifications other than being half Belgian and having had a father who ran a pub, but as his wife pays more and more attention to the baby he realises that the six month assignment might provide rather more excitement than the dull domesticity of his home life. And excitement he certainly finds, rather more than he was bargaining for, as a pair of cheerful secret policeman seem to follow his every move, and the mixing of nationalities at the Fair means that he's spending his spare time with a Russian journalist who seems remarkably interested in the exhibition on atomic energy in the British pavilion.But somehow the tone of this book just didn't seem right to me. Much of the comedy derives from looking at what it means to be modern in 1958, but it's done in much too heavy heavy handed a way. It's almost as if Coe has got a checklist of whatever was new in Britain in the late fifties and is ticking items off it one by one. Coffee with froth on top - check (not cappuccino yet though, not for a long time) .... Continental quilts or are they called duvets? - check (personally I don't remember the word duvet coming in until the 1970's at least) ... toothpaste with stripes - check. And I understand that in the 1950's you could smoke everywhere, in the office, on the tube, on a plane, I don't need to have it sledgehammered into me by descriptions of fug filled rooms on every other page.
There are some amusing characters, in particular the two secret agents (shades of the Thompson twins in Tintin) but most of the characters seems strangely grey. I didn't find myself engaged with Thomas very much at all whether in his exploits in the world of espionage or in his clandestine romantic entanglements. And the ending, which brings the story up to date, is something of a mystery to me. I just don't understand what it was for at all ...
So overall, a somewhat unsatisfactory book but one which has had good reviews elsewhere. So maybe it's just me.
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LibraryThing member ngoldfdf
The perfect read in the back garden under the pleasant summer sun. Thomas Foley, all to easily trading his mundane suburban life in London for the fantasy of a Fleming style adventure at the Brussels World Fair. His doting wife, and newborn swept to the back of his mind, by the potential romance of
A fun breezy read, though you certainly feel like you are 10 steps ahead of the main character - with a few cliched characters, but some very redeemable ones as well that help draw away from Thomas's ignorance. Though silly at times, and some eye-rolling ego's floating around - the descriptions of the beautiful setting of Brussels and the very neatly tied together character relationships makes it a quite satisfying read. Not one for the the 'Where are they now?' final chapter, but it certainly kept me outside long enough to get some colour. ;)
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two exotic young women, who of course are more than what they seem. But behind the novelty of trench coats, and code names are conspiracies that Thomas couldn't even start to fathom - it is this naivete that bursts the bubble of his future in a world that he never truly belonged to. A fun breezy read, though you certainly feel like you are 10 steps ahead of the main character - with a few cliched characters, but some very redeemable ones as well that help draw away from Thomas's ignorance. Though silly at times, and some eye-rolling ego's floating around - the descriptions of the beautiful setting of Brussels and the very neatly tied together character relationships makes it a quite satisfying read. Not one for the the 'Where are they now?' final chapter, but it certainly kept me outside long enough to get some colour. ;)
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LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
In 1958 Thomas Foley, a mid ranking Civil Servant in his early thirties, is asked to go to Belgium to be part of the British delegation to the World Fair being held in Brussels. At first he is reluctant to leave his wife Sylvia and their new born baby Gill, but as soon as he arrives in Brussels and
Thomas quickly finds himself immersed in a new routine supervising The Britannia - a pub created on the World Fair campus designed to represent everything British - and makes friends among the fellow delegates. However, he is also unable to shake off the attention of Radford and Wayne, two hilariously-depicted secret agents who are concerned about the abundant opportunities for international espionage that the fair provides.
Not quite up to the high standard of his earlier novel "The Rotters Club" this was still very enjoyable. The edition that I read was specially prepared for Waterstone's and included a note on how Coe came to write it which referred to an earlier novel and short story in which distant relatives of Thomas had already appeared and hinted that further associated books might follow in the future. I hope so!
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sees the Atomium, freshly-minted centrepiece of the World Fair and symbol of a scientific and technological revolution just around the corner, he is utterly entranced. Thomas quickly finds himself immersed in a new routine supervising The Britannia - a pub created on the World Fair campus designed to represent everything British - and makes friends among the fellow delegates. However, he is also unable to shake off the attention of Radford and Wayne, two hilariously-depicted secret agents who are concerned about the abundant opportunities for international espionage that the fair provides.
Not quite up to the high standard of his earlier novel "The Rotters Club" this was still very enjoyable. The edition that I read was specially prepared for Waterstone's and included a note on how Coe came to write it which referred to an earlier novel and short story in which distant relatives of Thomas had already appeared and hinted that further associated books might follow in the future. I hope so!
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LibraryThing member jayne_charles
I tend not to be able to follow the plot of proper spy novels, so it’s always nice when something like this comes out – spy fiction even I can understand. I even guessed part of the twist, so felt doubly chuffed by the end. It’s neatly packaged spy-lite, well written, and set against the
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interesting background of Expo 58, something I’d heard of but knew next to nothing about. Show Less
LibraryThing member bodachliath
Another enjoyable novel from Jonathan Coe, very readable with a lot of humour and interesting subject matter.
LibraryThing member isabelx
I started this with high hopes but gave up just after Thomas Foley arrived to oversee the Britannia Pub, which was part of the British exhibit at the exposition. Thomas is not an engaging character and I could tell that he would find an excuse to cheat on his wife while he was away and get up to
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tiresome antics on behalf of the British secret service, and I just couldn't face carrying on. Show Less
LibraryThing member camharlow2
A highly amusing and readable novel, “Expo 58” features the World Fair in Brussels in 1958. In it, Jonathan Coe explores the British attitudes to Europe at the time (and even today), through the eyes of Thomas Foley, who is selected from the Central Office of Information to oversee the
Coe pokes fun at the persona of the spy as portrayed at the time by Ian Fleming with his character, James Bond, as Thomas is inveigled into assisting two rather comic secret service agents, Radford and Wayne (named after the actors playing the bumbling detectives in the film “The lady vanishes” by Alfred Hitchcock), although their task is a serious one, to stop secrets reaching the Russians. After all, this was the middle of the Cold War. This humour is also tempered by Thomas’ relationship with a Belgian Expo hostess and his suspicions about his wife, who remains in London during his six month assignment. Hesitations are deftly handled leading to lasting regrets.
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Britannia pub which is a major par of the British exhibit.Coe pokes fun at the persona of the spy as portrayed at the time by Ian Fleming with his character, James Bond, as Thomas is inveigled into assisting two rather comic secret service agents, Radford and Wayne (named after the actors playing the bumbling detectives in the film “The lady vanishes” by Alfred Hitchcock), although their task is a serious one, to stop secrets reaching the Russians. After all, this was the middle of the Cold War. This humour is also tempered by Thomas’ relationship with a Belgian Expo hostess and his suspicions about his wife, who remains in London during his six month assignment. Hesitations are deftly handled leading to lasting regrets.
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LibraryThing member thorold
Expo 58 has the young civil servant Thomas Foley being sent to Brussels for a few months to supervise the "British Pub" at the International Exposition in Heysel, only to find himself caught up in a Cold War spy-drama. London in the late fifties is filmed in gritty Ealing Studios black and white, a
Coe seems to have got a bit carried away by the excitement of the Expo: the story is fun, but it's not much more than an Ealing Comedy, really, and the book's centre of gravity is in the descriptions of the unreal world of fifties scientific optimism that the Expo was tapping into. And perhaps laying a foundation for Coe's later books about the odd British attitude to the mainland.
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place of gripe-water, corn plasters and nappies on the washing-line, whilst Brussels is full of technicolour modern buildings and futuristic ideas. Thomas is seduced in more ways than one, and it starts to look as though his marriage may be in serious trouble. Coe seems to have got a bit carried away by the excitement of the Expo: the story is fun, but it's not much more than an Ealing Comedy, really, and the book's centre of gravity is in the descriptions of the unreal world of fifties scientific optimism that the Expo was tapping into. And perhaps laying a foundation for Coe's later books about the odd British attitude to the mainland.
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2015)