England England! by Julian Barnes.

England England! is a satire about worldly problems, interpreted from the

English point of view.

It's writing is really clever as the author utilises a lot of really subtly used
figures of speech to put across his points, which will be discussed further. It is
also divided in three parts that tell three different stages of the main
character’s, Martha Cochran, life. The first part, about Martha’s childhood,
conveys a feeling of ignorance from Martha towards hers or the country’s
identity, as her father leaves her. This is just an introduction and buildup for
the main character’s role.

The middle section, which I imagine must’ve been very controversial when the
book first came out, is where the story unfolds, the whole point of the book is
this one section.

Here Martha works as the manager for the amusement park called England
England! This amusement park is a literal replica of England’s greatest tourist
attractions. But England England! is not just an amusement park, it starts to
become its own country, its own State. The creator of the park, Sir Jack
Pitman, bases the construction of the park on the best of and about England.

Here, the author utilizes the concept of the park to taunt England and
‘englishness’, implying that England, except for some minor industries, is in
itself a sort of amusement park, catered also towards the elite tourists.

After the park actually opens to public, it becomes so popular that it actually
becomes autonomous and joins the European Union. Martha blackmails Sir
Jack, in order to become CEO of the project and England (now called Old
England) dies. Not long after Martha is ousted as CEO, and there she is
again, trying to find herself.

The third and final section, takes place years after the events of the second
section happened. Martha’s been travelling for years and, decides to return to
‘Old England’, now called ‘Anglia’.

She discovers the entire country has regressed, with even less industries, with
the economy relying on agriculture, while England England is still thriving.
Eventually Martha dies without having completely found herself, still uncertain.

Conclusion.
The book is extremely well, and smartly written, giving of what seems like the
author’s main points in a very clear, yet rhetorical manner. Also throwing in a
lot of irony and ultimately funny paradoxes (like the tourists of England
England merely demanding the authentic, when, well, it is not actually
authentic).

Barnes really puts into perspective the immense fragility of realness and
authenticness, and the snobness behind that.

He is basically warning us of a modeled and pre-packaged world, much like

the one we already living, where societal norms and programming dictate
trends and in general, ways of life.