A41764

England

by Julian Barnes

Published 20 April 1999
Flamboyant tycoon Sir Jack Pitman has an idea. Since most tourists are too lazy and unlettered to travel from landmark to landmark, why not simplify things and shrink all of England to the size of a theme park?

Unfortunately, Pitman turns out to be right. Located on the Isle of Wight, his reconstituted "England, England" is everything you imagined the original to be, but cleaner, friendlier, and more efficient. That is, until the King (the real King, on contract to Sir Jack, living with the rest of the Royal Family in a scaled-down version of Buckingham Palace) is suspected of sexual harassment, a smuggling ring begins to wreak havoc with the island economy, and Robin Hood and his Merrie Men decide to unionize.

In true Barnes style, England, England is a savage but outrageously funny examination of the search for authenticity and truth in a fabricated world.