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The Rain Before It Falls

Author: Jonathan Coe
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

25 reviews
Sales Rank: 315

Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9

ISBN: 0141033215
EAN: 9780141033211
ASIN: 0141033215

Publication Date: June 5, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Worn/used- good second hand reading copy. Fast dispatch from experienced British seller.

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - The Rain Before It Falls
•	Paperback - The Rain Before It Falls (Vintage Contemporaries)
•	Hardcover - Rain Before it Falls, The
•	Hardcover - The Rain Before It Falls
•	Hardcover - The Rain Before It Falls

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Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...

2 out of 5 stars

disappointing July 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Having read other reviews I expected a lot more of this book than it delivered. I felt it tried to cram too much into too small a space. Lacked depth and just felt dreary to me. Sorry. Haven't read any other Jonathan Coe novels. Wouldn't be put off completely as I believe this may not be typical of his usual writing. Rotter's club sounds like a good title!

2 out of 5 stars

Not as good as he thinks it is July 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've always had rather a soft spot for Jonathan Coe - "The Dwarves of Death" and "What a Carve Up!" are worth the price of admission alone. I gave this book a pretty decent chance, but it's flat, unengaging and ultimately pointless. The end - the denouement - is supposed to be shocking, but instead I just asked myself why he'd gone to the trouble of writing it. There are some lovely passages of description, and in places you think it might go somewhere interesting, but sadly it all just peters out with a whimper.

4 out of 5 stars

Charming and insightful, but flawed July 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

A lovely book, cleverly structured and lyrical. Coe has created well-rounded characters with warmth and insight, however I felt the end of the book was rushed and rather too neat, which was a shame, because he has a feeling for complexity.

5 out of 5 stars

The best novel I've read so far this year July 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The best novel I've read so far this year - and this year I've also read 'On Chesil Beach'.
I've loved Coe's recent novels -'The Rotters Club' and 'Closed Circle' and was apprehensive about reading his first 'non-funny' novel. But boy does he pull this one off!
Brilliant!

3 out of 5 stars

Exercise writing in unimpressive novel June 24, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

A real change of direction for Jonathan Coe, and it doesn't really come off. Though I found it enjoyable enough, I expected something better, something with more to say, given Coe's previous novels, particularly the classic What a carve Up (which those new to Coe should read before giving up on him).

As with rather too many books today, a moderately interesting story is spoiled by the insistence on telling it in a self-imposed arty style. The device here is to tell the tale based on a series of photographs, and after the first few you feel like skipping those pages and getting to the point - something it takes Coe ages to do! Much of it reads like a series of creative writing exercises given to a less than talented class.

The plot is the sort of family saga with skeletons revealed along the way that's probably been done to death, and these photograph devices were probably Coe's attempts to breath life into an outmoded genre. But I'd have preferred the story, without the padding. Not that it's a brilliant story; it's readable enough, and passes the time, but you don't really care much for the lead character, who is dead as the novel begins, thus destroying a possible source of suspense.

Okay, I suppose, but I suspect Coe fans will be disappointed.