Coast to Coast

The Guardian

Terrifically hateful conversations.

New York Times Book Review

...[B]rittle verbal candy....The artfulness of the conversation delivers sly grown-up pleasure.

NY Times Book Review

...[B]rittle verbal candy....The artfulness of the conversation delivers sly grown-up pleasure.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"It's not a tragedy. It's not quite a comedy. My agent would not be surprised to discover that we're having difficulty placing it." It's also how late-middle-aged sit-com writer Barnaby Pierce describes his fraught marriage, and the way that the prolific British writer Raphael vicariously names the hybrid genre of his own serio-comic antiromance. Told mainly through the snapping, sparring dialogue between Barnaby and his wife, Marion, as they travel from New York to California in a '67 Jag, the novel maps the course of their life together. In crisis, the two reveal and revenge each other's infidelities, discussing divorce even as they make their way cross-country to attend their son's wedding in the vehicle they plan to give him as a nuptial gift. In jest, the couple is verbally dexterous and almost flirtatious, la Beatrice and Benedict; in anger, each is ruthlessly ad hominem. Barnie scorns Marion's desire for separation--yet there is real pathos in his provocative insistence that she doesn't love him anymore--as he struggles to find ways of keeping her in his life. Jealousies run deep: Marion slept with Barnie's best friend, Hal, with whom they stay on their way west; Barnie had an affair with a woman close to Marion. And of their four children, one has died, another is estranged from the family, yet another has surprised her rather conservative family with a black boyfriend. Playing push-me pull-you over even the most minor decisions, the couple recycle arguments in the terrifyingly relentless way of the truly intimate--so accurately, in fact, that some may find the lack of forward motion frustrating. Raphael's ear is pitched acutely to American speech, but the ferocious energy of the dialogue cannot carry the novel by itself; each episode remains a brilliant set piece in a linked dramatic structure. Already published and well-received in Britain, where Raphael is widely known, the novel succeeds as a graph of human volatility and a measure of a relationship's resilience. (May) FYI: Raphael's screenplay for Darling won an Oscar and his classic road-trip romance, Two for the Road, received a nomination. Most recently, he has collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on the already big-buzz forthcoming film, Eyes Wide Shut.

Library Journal

Bicker, bicker, bicker! Thats all screenwriter Barnaby Pierce and his partly estranged wife, Marion, do as they drive across the country for their sons wedding. Past and present are illuminated through brilliant dialog as they encounter old acquaintances and bare old wounds along the way. Frankly, after about five pages one starts hoping for a fatal collision, but utter dislike of the whining antagonists is transformed into morbid fascination as the story picks up speed and skids to a surprise conclusion. The Guardian described this book perfectly when it was first published in Britain as bleakly enjoyable, and filled with some terrifically hateful conversations. Recommended for medium to large public and academic libraries. [British author Raphael is also an Oscar-nominated screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for Stanley Kubricks forthcoming film Eyes Wide Shut.Ed.]Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico

NY Times Book Review

...[B]rittle verbal candy....The artfulness of the conversation delivers sly grown-up pleasure.

Kirkus Reviews

"Have you ever read a novel that's all dialogue?" "William Gaddis. But hardly any." "Well, this is. With a handful of descriptive paragraphs scattered about." "And Raphael's dialogue is famous. The British TV miniseries The Glittering Prizes, some 19 novels, including After the War (1989). Screenplays? The upcoming Stanley Kubrick movie, Eyes Wide Shut with the Cruises, Julie Christie's Darling (an Oscar for the script), and that feast of bickering, Two for the Road, with Audrey and Albert." "Good credits!" "Mmm. Coast to Coast is another road picture with a zinger from left field for an ending. A married couple, bound for divorce, drive an antique Jaguar from New England to Los Angeles to attend their son's wedding. Of course, they wound each other all the way, largely about the adulteries bringing on their divorce, and the bloodletting gets worse at each of several stops (Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle), particularly at one with Barnaby's old buddy and Marion's ex-lover Hal. Once they deliver the Jaguar to their son Benjamin as a wedding present, they'll split forever. Or will the drive help them work through their problems? The hero is retired sitcom writer Barnaby Pierce, who groaned through several seasons of writing Sergeant Bimbo scripts while his wife Marion stayed home and raised their four kids, growing ever more restive. The subtext to the Jaguar gift is that Benjamin was driving Barnaby's Chevy on an icy road when he crashed, killing their son Christopher, and now has survivor's guilt. Did the death do in Barnaby and Marion's marriage? Or perhaps it was their unbalanced daughter Zara/Zenobia? Well, when the wedding comes, it's the wedding from hell, with shocks that kill.""Hmm! Is the talk brilliant?" "Very much so, especially the LA shoptalk. As the anguish deepens, you adjust quickly to knitting all the details together from dialogue. And the jump-cutting between speakers has a Cubist sharpness that should delight." "All told, one of Raphael's most successful works."