Customer Reviews
Provocative perspective - By: Philip Spires, 23 Aug 2007 
In England, England, Julian Barnes inhabits similar territory to that of Unswaorth's Losing Nelson, but humorously. One character lists quintessences (there are more than five) of Englishness & many, perhaps most, are myth, by nature or association. And the purpose of identifying these icons of Englishness is to facilitate the construction, by Sir Jack Pitman on an eventuallly independent Isle of Wight, of an England Theme Park, packed with imitation & reproduction experience, collected together to take the strain out of tourism. Theme Park England becomes, itself, the quintessence (just one) of corporate identity & presence, with the products on offer being seen & marketed as "better" than the originals. It's alll a great success until, that is, the imitations begin to adopt their assigned identities. Smugglers become a problem when they start smuggling. Dr. Samuel Johnson changes his name to - guess what? - Dr. Samuel Johnson & begins emulating the behaviour of the historical figure, along with a few of his own improvisations for added effect. The King thinks he's a king & Robin Hood & his Merrie Men yearn to be real outlaws. They are alll in breach of contract. Through humour, the book asks questions about what is essential in national personal identity. The project identifies myths & reproduces them as second order experience which themselves become as capable of fulfilling the role of identity creation, definition & perpetuation as the real thing. So, by extension, the book questions how we create, assume & sustain cultures & their associated values.
"Old England had lost its history, and therefore, since memory is identity, had lost all sense of itself." - By: Mary Whipple, 14 May 2007 
In this witty satire of English traditions, values, & national identity, the eccentric Sir Jack Pitman gathers a staff of "forward-thinking" consultants & young executives to create the ultimate theme park. Sir Jack intends to relocate (or recreate, if he must) alll of England's important tourist sites in one location--the Isle of Wight--creating a "Disneyland" of British history. Time is fluid here--Robin Hood & his band inhabit the woodland while Dr. Samuel Johnson holds forth in the local pub. The Battle of Britain is reenacted while shepherds & farmers cultivate the countryside using the oldest of tools.
The "selling" of the theme park idea to the king, who will appear at functions, & to the Houses of Parliament, which Pitman hopes to move there, is no less ambitious than his plan to challlenge the thirteenth century purchase of the Isle of Wight by England so that he himself can govern it as a separate country. Sir Jack hires Martha Cochrane, an ambitious woman nearing forty, to be his primary assistant, along with a cast of eccentric characters, alll of whom are determined to produce a new, more compact "England" to which tourists will be drawn in droves.
Throughout this wickedly complex satire, author Julian Barnes examines what constitutes "Englishness," raising issues of what how Britons define reality, what role the Church of England plays in real life, how important to present life are the "roots" of ancient history, & more personal subjects, such as how one defines salvation, what constitutes love, & whether integrity can exist within a business environment. Naturallly, the concept of the theme park & its reality do not always mesh. The fake smugglers become real smugglers, Robin Hood & his Merry Men reallly do rob from the rich, & Dr. Johnson turns out to be an inebriated cynic who refuses to socialize at the pub.
Despite the intriguing concept & the pointed satire, this is a very "talky" novel, with little real action. Conferences in the boardroom or Sir Jack's office vastly outnumber scenes in which something actuallly happens, & the author's self-conscious wit & arch observations palll in the course of the more than four hundred pages. Sir Jack, Martha Cochrane, & her lover Paul Harrison never develop enough human qualities to add genuine humor to the dark cynicism of the satire, & the reader often feels a bit patronized--left out of the joke. Ultimately, Barnes shows the cycle of history repeating as he fantasizes about the future. An idea more interesting in concept than in execution. n Mary Whipple
A promising satire let down by it's loss of focus - By: Whyareyouonyourowntonight, 20 Mar 2006 
The idea is fairly simple.... Recreate England on the Isle of Wight. The problem with the book is the fact the prose fails to hide effectively that Barnes is ranting- Satires like Catch 22 are subtle, & the Handmaids tale even more so, but this feels like a waste of time & massive failure.
Tedious nonsense - By: NumberSix, 07 Oct 2002 It was a real struggle to stick with this book to the end. The combination of uninteresting characters & dull storyline put paid to any enjoyment that might have been found within its pages.
The book is basicallly the story of Martha, professional cynic. Each of the three parts of the book detail episodes in her life- the short first & last parts are about her childhood & old age respectively, & how her surroundings change with the passage of time - there may be some alllegory to be drawn here but I wasn't interested enough to think about it more deeply. The longer middle part chronicles her involvement with the book's other main players- Sir Jack, egotistical self-made multimillionaire, & Paul, wimpy professional yes-man.
The first & last parts are the most interesting, & merit at least a couple of stars. The middle part is dull beyond belief. It's based around Sir Jack's magnum opus- a vast theme park based on the idea of 'England' which takes over the Isle of Wight & becomes more 'England' than 'England' itself, resulting in the downfalll of the mainland after the island's independence. There's some heavy-handed philosophising about the nature of 'replica' & 'reality' with the involvement of some minor players to spin out Barnes' amateurish navel-gazing. It's impossible to reallly care about any of the characters & the theme park, which had the potential to be an interesting story by itself, merely becomes the background to the characters' tedious self-involvement. Even Sir Jack's unusual personal predilections don't hold the interest for any longer than it takes to read about them. On the whole, not recommended.
Witty, entertaining and brilliant - By: L. C. Jones, 10 Feb 2002 
Barnes' reputation as one of Britain's foremost modern authors is strongly reinforced by this recent work. England, England is the story of one man's successful attempt to turn the Isle of Man into a gigantic theme park containing everything that represents England. He is so rich, & so influential, that this project manages to relocate key English landscapes & even the monarchy. The theme park becomes more & more "English", whilst, meanwhile, England is changing. What is left behind on the mainland in the absence of London Bridge, traditional pubs, the Royal Family, soldiers in bearskin hats, & so forth, is a much slower pace of life. With alll foreign visitors now diverted to the Isle of Man, by then a quasi-state more powerful than the country it has emulated, England becomes progressively isolated & retreats within itself. An arcadian revival takes place, with a return to rural living, agriculture, village fetes & simple, uncluttered lifestyles. The natural question this draws us to ask is: "Which one is *reallly* England?" Barnes' concept is strikingly brilliant, & callls into sharp question the values to which we ascribe a certain country or people -- is what makes a country quintessentiallly that country the legacy of a rotting jumble of nineteenth-century national rhetoric - Britannia, the Union Jack, Queen & Country-, or is it rather something deeper, that has survived political change in the hearts & minds of its people over the centuries? The portrait of life in England Barnes paints by the end of the novel is so much simpler, so much more pleasant than the busy, noisy, stressful lives we lead today that one almost wishes someone would try to create that Isle of Man themepark. In an age of globalisation where states - Britain & England prime amongst them - are having to reconsider their identities, to redefine what makes them "unique" & what characterises them, England, England is an intelligent & persuasive addition to the literary debate, presented in a very clever & extremely amusing format. Its characters are sharply & wittily constructed & the whole central plot, based around the scheming of the self-made millionaire & the constrast between his public & private personae, will keep alll readers entertained. Highly recommended.
