WHAT A CARVE UP!

'What A Carve Up!' is a novel written by Jonathan Coe, first published in 1994.

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Plot summary

Plot summary

In this, Jonathan Coe's fourth and overwhelmingly most successful novel, Michael Owen is the hapless biographer of the Winshaw family, a gallery of monsters whose greed and unscrupulousness have enabled them to profit from, and indeed to have made possible, the Thatcherite climate of 1980s Britain. As we move from formative episodes of Michael's life to his account of the Winshaws' rise to positions of power and influence, we discover, along with him, that the family has determined the course of his life in unimaginably far-reaching ways. In the end, a traumatized Michael is transported to the Winshaws' family home, where he and they live out a Carry On movie spoof called ''What A Carve Up!'', in which Michael's dreams are fulfilled and the Winshaws, in turn, receive their just deserts.