Surprisingly sensitive but didn't really grab me
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I liked Mr Phillips. He was struggling to cope with the strange situations that he found himself in during the day and could only manage by reverting back to his comfort zone - numbers!! He counts everything and seems to be able to even describe situations using statistics, and nothing more in some cases. Making him an accountant does feel a bit cliched but was an easy way to introduce his feelings of ease with numbers.
The attention to detail is very interesting and the precision of the descriptions is very powerful. So much so that I could really imagine myself thinking his thoughts.
Along with the narrative of the day is a bearly veiled panic about his future, which seems to ease as his experiences go from bizarre to down right scarey.
Having said all that, I can't say that I really enjoyed the book and thought that the emphasis on his sexual thoughts and the description of the film he sees was really unnecessary (and I don't think that I am a prude in any way).
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More of a nudge in the ribs than a poke in the eye
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An original, gently amusing and interesting take on the day-in-a-life genre, as a reluctantly redundant accountant attempts to come to terms with the reality of a world from which he has largely been shielded.
Lanchester has an impressively acute eye for detail and for the niceties of social norms; published in 2000, this book is prescient in its anticipation of the hegemony of the mobile telephone, to great comic effect. He makes much of the veneer of our lives and of the depths of depravity and fun whch lie beneath it, and there are a number of memorable one-liners as Mr. Phillips continues along his voyage of (self-) discovery.
While the book does seem to lose a little momentum towards the end, I suspect that is more an indication of the constraints of the structure than of any great failing on the author's part. Very enjoyable stuff.
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Mr Phillips
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One gets the impression that John Lanchester wasn't exactly straining at the leash here.Lanchester is a hyper talent, (if you've read his other stuff you'll know that) But this book is very modest in scope.The plot and characters are so underdone and tightly clipped that one is left feeling a bit cold by the end - Mr Phillips is simple man with simple tastes and habits,(his desire to get his end away leads acts is a constant theme) -theres nothing inherently wrong with that, provided he is being used as a metaphor for grander things. If this was meant to be a subtle muse on the vacuity of nine to five or the creeping paralysis of careers and getting old, or aspects of contemporary urban existence then fine but its just that its so subtle that you're wondering whether the author, or yourself is missing something. It almost reads like a short storey. I was felt a little frustrated by Mr Phillips,I would have prefererd it if there were a few more layers to him, beacuse if nothing else -he was impossble to escape from! He could still have been a mundane, pedantic loser and been a bit more complex. In underdevloping Mr Phillips he constricts the movement of so much else. (I guess this might have been Lanchester's intention, if so holding back like this gives it an overwelmingly icey feel)It's interesting to read some readers found it funny, there were attempts at humour by I personally didn't. Maybe it was the lack of humanity and warmth of Mr Phillips which made me unable to laugh. I did though feel drawn to the background narrative - Lanchester's writing, as usual, is absorbing, infact its more than that, its a bloody joy! This is what saves it, and ultimtately why when I was asked to give it marks out of five I couldn't give it 2 so I gave it 3. Possibly I'm being a little harsh because I enjoyed his first novel so much, there is after all so much rubbish around, and this certainly isn't that. If you were to judge the narrative in journalistic terms,(he's written some great stuff for the guardian and other publications)and in the weight of the writing then I'd have to give it 5/5. Im afraid it justn't really cohere as a particulary good novel.
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Nearly a masterpiece
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Mr Phillips isn't at work today, he's having a day off, a day out. In his pinstripe suit, briefcase in hand, he wanders around London striking up the occasional conversation, catching buses, taking his son unawares for lunch and witnessing various oddities including a robbery at the bank. Why is he out and about in this way? Because Mr Phillips was made redundant last Friday and hasn't told anybody. The book takes us through the rich landscape of everyday trivialities, as seen against his own sinking sense of futility and emptiness. It perfectly captures the beauty of the mundane, the fascination of other lives fleetingly glimpsed, the spotlight-on-the-moment magic of nothing in particular, the exotic and the banal. The book's only fault - and I would guess this is what kept it off the shortlists - is that we never quite understand the need for secrecy, why he has to hide his redundancy from his wife to the extent of getting suited and briefcased, and toddling off out of the house for the day. Granted, some men do exactly that under the same circumstances, but given that this is the novel's premise we need more of a clue - especially since we learn quite a bit about the wife, and she appears no less supportive than most. Still, it remains a wonderful read, deeply memorable and at times frankly hilarious. Worth four-and-a-half stars if the sytem allowed.
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Great start which fizzles out .........
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I purchased this book as it had an interesting story line and good reviews, well having read it it does have an interesting story line but sorry I got a little bored by the end (and its a short book) as the author doesn't really develop the character and his issues enough. As other reviews state Mr. Ordinary 40 knocking on 50 stereotyped accountant spends the day wandering around London, to begin with we are not sure why - as other reviewers have given the game away its because hes lost his job. This isn't though a reality show of emotions its simply Joe Bloggs wandering around London musing about life, in an aimless way. As he is an accountant hes quite mathematical and there are some amusing anecdotes for instance working out that there must be 14,000 women who pose topless for magazines and newspapers walking around the UK given x number of photos a day or week. However, after about a 100 pages I felt that something more should happen some character development, some interesting meetings, some life shattering event, something other than man walking around London. So whilst I enjoyed this book I felt that the second half of the book was much less interesting as the ideas dried up and the author didn't know where to go with the idea. So if you have some spare cash and some time its not a bad read but if you are really counting the pennies I'd recommend spending them elsewhere.
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