Maxwell Sim can't make a meaningful connection. His absent father is preoccupied with poetry; he maintains an e-mail correspondence with his estranged wife under a false identity; his daughter prefers her BlackBerry to his conversation; and his best friend won't return his calls. He has seventy friends on Facebook, but nobody to talk to.
Max tries to stir himself out of this rut by quitting his job to accept a strange business proposition: to drive a Prius full of toothbrushes from London to the remote Shetland Islands in a misguided promotional campaign for a dental-hygiene company. Instead, he makes a series of awkward, cruelly enlightening visits to figures from his past, falling in love with the soothing voice of his GPS system ('Emma' ) en route. Eventually he comes to wonder if perhaps it's his utter lack of self-knowledge that's hampering his ability to form actual relationships.
Jonathan Coe outdoes himself with this humane satire and modern-day picaresque, a gently comic and rollickingly entertaining story about personal attachments in the digital welter of instant communication.
Max tries to stir himself out of this rut by quitting his job to accept a strange business proposition: to drive a Prius full of toothbrushes from London to the remote Shetland Islands in a misguided promotional campaign for a dental-hygiene company. Instead, he makes a series of awkward, cruelly enlightening visits to figures from his past, falling in love with the soothing voice of his GPS system ('Emma' ) en route. Eventually he comes to wonder if perhaps it's his utter lack of self-knowledge that's hampering his ability to form actual relationships.
Jonathan Coe outdoes himself with this humane satire and modern-day picaresque, a gently comic and rollickingly entertaining story about personal attachments in the digital welter of instant communication.
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Used availability for Jonathan Coe's The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US
Hardback Editions
March 2011 : Hardback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-307-59481-5 / 978-0-307-59481-5 (USA edition) Publisher: Knopf Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
December 2010 : Hardback
| Title: Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim, The (Large Print Book) Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 1-4084-8786-1 / 978-1-4084-8786-0 (UK edition) Publisher: AUDIOGO Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
May 2010 : Hardback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-670-91738-9 / 978-0-670-91738-9 (USA, AU, or UK edition) Publisher: Viking Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Paperback Editions
March 2012 : Paperback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (Vintage Contemporaries) Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-307-74215-6 / 978-0-307-74215-5 (USA edition) Publisher: Vintage Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
June 2011 : Paperback
| Title: Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim, The (Large Print Book) Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 1-4084-8787-X / 978-1-4084-8787-7 (UK edition) Publisher: AUDIOGO Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
March 2011 : Paperback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-14-103392-4 / 978-0-14-103392-1 (UK edition) Publisher: Penguin Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
March 2011 : Paperback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-241-95078-3 / 978-0-241-95078-4 (UK edition) Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (UK) Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
May 2010 : Paperback
| Title: The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-670-91879-2 / 978-0-670-91879-9 (USA, AU, or UK edition) Publisher: Viking Availability: Amazon UK Amazon CA More details... |
Audio Editions
May 2011 : Audio CD
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe, Colin Buchanan ISBN: 1-60998-170-7 / 9781609981709 (USA edition) Publisher: AudioGO Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
March 2011 : Audio CD
| Title: Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe ISBN: 0-7927-7522-8 / 978-0-7927-7522-5 (USA edition) Availability: Amazon More details... |
Other Editions
May 2011 : Kindle edition
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe Publisher: Knopf Availability: Amazon More details... |
March 2011 : Kindle edition
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe Publisher: Vintage Availability: Amazon Amazon UK More details... |
May 2010 : Unknown
| Title: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim (Unabridged) Author(s): Jonathan Coe Publisher: BBC WW Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
May 2010 : Kindle edition
| Title: The Terrible Privacy Of Maxwell Sim Author(s): Jonathan Coe Publisher: Penguin Availability: Amazon UK More details... |
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