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Title details for The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathan Coe - Available

The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim

by Jonathan Coe
Colin Buchanan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

While he may have 74 friends on Facebook, there is nobody in the world with whom Maxwell Sim can actually share his problems. Then business requires him to drive to the Shetland Isles, but the journey soon takes a more serious turn...

Maxwell Sim seems to have hit rock bottom. Estranged from his father, newly divorced, unable to communicate with his only daughter, he realizes that while he may have 74 friends on Facebook, there is nobody in the world with whom he can actually share his problems. Then a business proposition requires him to drive to the Shetland Isles. Setting out with an open mind and friendly voice on his SatNav for company, Maxwell finds that his journey soon takes a more serious turn.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 8, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792775232
      • File size: 330870 KB
      • Duration: 11:29:18

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 31, 2011
      Coe (The Rotters' Club) broadly satirizes the disconnectedness of modern life with the story of Maxwell Sim, who has 70 Facebook friends but no one he can turn to when his wife and daughter leave him. After a trip to Australia to reconnect with his estranged father leads nowhere, Trevor, one of Max's few real friends, offers him an unusual gig: drive a Prius to the northernmost tip of the British Isles as part of a promotion for a startup eco-toothbrush company. Max takes a meandering route that allows him to visit his ex-wife, check in on his father's long-empty apartment, and pay a visit to the parents of his childhood friends. He also develops a romantic fixation on the voice coming from his GPS, which he names Emma. True connection is elusive: Max gains insight to his marriage, but only after using a fake identity to befriend his ex-wife online; haunting incidents from his teenage years come into focus belatedly, and the clarity he finally achieves comes at the prompting of a stranger. Coe has a lot of fun skewering the way technology and social media have become buttresses of society, but the antic plot and unfortunately precious conclusion water down the thoughtful points.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Coe's novel is perfect for audio. Max is newly separated from his wife, unable to talk to his father, and depressed. He may have 70 friends on Facebook, but that just emphasizes his loneliness and lack of real friends. So Max talks--a lot--to himself or to the GPS (he names it "Emma") in his car. While flying from Australia to Singapore, Max launches into a monologue that is so long in its desperate attempt to connect with someone that he doesn't notice he has literally talked his seatmate to death. The gifted Colin Buchanan adapts his rhythm and tone to fully realize Max's loneliness and fear. GPS has never been so funny as it is with Buchanan's calm and feminine "Emma" telling Max to "continue on the current road." A.B. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 15, 2011

      Maxwell Sim is a lonely man, having botched his relationships with his father, his ex-wife, and his former best friend. He's trying to reach out to others but finds himself reduced to conversing with the voice of the GPS system in his car, one of many instances in which this satirical novel by multi-award-winning English writer Coe (www.jonathancoewriter.com) highlights the alienation common among today's technologically connected masses. The narration by talented actor Colin Buchanan is a joy; his enthusiastic Liverpudlian accent especially will charm listeners. However, the market for this recording may be small, and a metafictional twist near the end feels tacked on. Not a necessary purchase, but collections where literary fiction circulates might consider. ["This witty, sympathetic, and often painfully funny take on real loneliness in the virtual, socially networked world deserves a wide audience," read the review of the Knopf hc, LJ 4/1/11.--Ed.]--John Hiett, Iowa City P.L.

      Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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