Blair's Reviews > Expo 58

It's 1958 and Thomas Foley, a civil servant who writes copy for government pamphlets, is unexpectedly given a new role: he is to travel to Brussels for the World's Fair - also known as Expo 58 - where he will be in charge of overseeing the Britannia, an old-fashioned 'English pub' which will form part of the UK's exhibition at the event. Thomas is a reserved, unassuming man, and doesn't relish the idea of spending six months in a foreign country, leaving his wife and baby daughter behind. However, once he arrives at Expo 58, he is captivated - by Anneke, a hostess who greets him at the airport; by his affable roommate Tony; by a charming Russian journalist who frequents the Britannia; and by the fair itself, with the futuristic Atomium as its centrepiece. This being the 1950s, however, relationships between the participating countries are uneasy, and Thomas finds himself drawn into a complicated situation involving his new Russian friend, a beguiling American girl, and a pair of bumbling British spies.

This new novel from Coe, an author whose work I have always enjoyed, has received some bad reviews in the press. When I started reading it, I wondered why: it seemed engaging and funny straight away, and I found the context interesting. All the other Coe books I've read have had modern settings, and I was looking forward to seeing how the author would apply his trademark style to historical fiction. By the time I reached the halfway mark, however, I had started to suspect that this would be nothing more than a middling book, and wasn't likely to live up my expectations. Part of the problem was that I didn't like Thomas, and although I found some of the minor characters pretty amusing, I wasn't really emotionally invested in what happened to anyone else, either. Anneke was barely developed, and there was no discernible chemistry between her and Thomas: meanwhile, the incident that (view spoiler)[supposedly confirmed Sylvia's infidelity was such an obvious way to set up and justify Thomas's own betrayal that it was almost insulting (hide spoiler)]. I perhaps wouldn't have been as bothered by points like this in a different book, but from a writer of Coe's calibre they just seemed sloppy. The plot was diverting enough, nothing much to dislike about it, but I'm used to Coe creating stories full of unexpected connections, coincidences, details that might be fact or fiction, and relationships that aren't what they seem: all of these were missing here, or at least very watered down and unsurprising. My favourite thing was the banter between the two secret agents - shades of Bunny and Blair in DBC Pierre's Ludmila's Broken English.

Expo 58 is essentially a gentle historical comedy: it's pleasant and amusing but doesn't really go anywhere, and lacks the satirical bite and complex interconnectedness I've come to expect from the author. If you are a Coe fan already, adjust your expectations accordingly: if you haven't read anything by him before, I wouldn't recommend starting here. It's fun, but fairly unremarkable, and that's all.