Bookworm
Jonathan Coe: Expo 58: A Novel
Unlike Coe’s other comedic novels, here the humor has a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of 1950s British films like Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes.
By Michael Silverblatt • • 28m ListenBritish author Jonathan Coe's marvelously funny Expo 58: A Novel (New Harvest/ Little A) takes us to the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, the first following WWII. Unlike his other comedic novels, here the humor has a nostalgic feel, reminiscent of 1950s films like Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes. While researching, he learned that the Soviet and American Pavilions were placed side-by-side, and that the British Pavilion was designed to be a pub: it's here he sends his hapless hero to work.
