This story was told through flashbacks. Returning to the days when Fedora is in the making of a film with the famous director Billy Wilder.
The story is written beautifully, and the authors writing style really brings the story to life in your mind.
Full of intriguing characters, a satisfying plot and a truly heart warming feeling throughout, this book was an absolute joy to read.

It was a wonderfully conceived idea of a young woman's journey through parts of her life reflected through a chance meeting with Billy Wilder and how it changed her forever. Loved reading about old Hollywood and cinema.

The 'me' in this novel is Calista Frangopoulou, a film and TV music composer, who we first meet as a middle-aged women struggling to complete a new project and concerned about her teenage daughters, one of whom is pregnant and the other moving overseas to study. The reader then meets the teenage Calista as she herself travels across America and meets, through an acquaintance, the film director Billy Wilder. The novel moves back and forward in time throughout both these lives. It is centred largely on the making of his film 'Fedora' in Greece and Germany. The most tender and heart-breaking aspects are those recounting Billy Wilder's time in the US Army as a Colonel in the Psychological Warfare Division where he edits the film footage of the concentration camps, partly to record the atrocities and partly to try to find out what happened to his mother and grandmother. The sections between the fictional Calista and the very famous Billy Wilder are balanced extremely well as each strive to produce great art based on lived experience.

A well written, interesting and fascinating mix of fiction and historical facts.
Mr Coe is a talented storyteller and delivers a novel that I thoroughly enjoyed even if it's a bit slow at times.
Excellent character development, a well researched and vivid background.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is the story, told in flashback, of the making of the film Fedora and its famous director, Billy Wilder. Through a quirk of fate, Calista meets Wilder and his circle and is taken on as a translator. Moving around Europe and America, Calista grows to love the movie world and the people she works with. A lovely coming-of-age story told by a convincing and appealing narrator. A quiet book, almost wistful - well worth a read.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful for the opportunity.

The essence of the tale is a sort of Bio-novel about the work of Billy wilder and more particularly the filming and development of his film"Fedora". It is told through the eyes of a woman who, as a girl, had been hired as interpreter for the film.

The problem for me is the then and the now appear to have nothing to connect them - Why is she suddenly reminiscing in this way - any connection is tenuous int he least and seems to be simply because our narrator's children are a similar age to herself at the time of filming. I struggled to work out why any of the current events were indeed necessary.

The whole thing lacked something to bring the times and places to life. It needed much more characterisation, instead it just felt dreadfully dull

Beautifully written and impeccably researched. "Mr Wilder and Me" whisked me from a cold, rainy Dublin to Hollywood, Greece and other glamourous locations, a much needed journey in this Covid year! A fascinating story

Enjoyable read. I love Billy Wilder already so was keen to read this as soon as I heard about it. Was the perfect tonic for current times when we cannot travel!

I've always been a fan of Jonathan Coe and this book doesn't disappoint! Loved the setting, loved the characters, and the storyline had me hooked from the first page.

Travelling across the USA in the mid 70s, Calista is introduced to the Hollywood director Billy Wilder and his partner Mr Diamond. When their latest film project locates to her native Greece, Calista is employed as an interpreter. She then follows the filming across Europe, acting as personal assistant to the pair.

Mr Wilder and Me is an interesting insight into the film era of Billy Wilder and IAL Diamond. At times, it did drag a little, but overall it was a good read. Told mostly in flashback, as Calista struggles with her family life and the lack of direction for her work. Written in the first person, it’s a slow paced book, moving across Europe during the filming of Fedora, one of Wilder’s last films,

A gentle story, not a major blockbuster, but still worth a read.

I'm afraid that this one just didn't work for me, which was a massive surprise given that I'm a huge fan of both Billy Wilder's films and Jonathan Coe's novels. My main issue with the book is that it just didn't seem to go anywhere. Obviously, Coe chose this story for a reason, but even after finishing the book I have no idea what it was. It was also incredibly pretentious at times - for example, approximately 15 of the book's 270-ish pages were given over to the subject of brie (very cheesy), and there was the occasional use of French words and phrases that I was unable to translate. All in all, a frustrating book, with no apparent purpose

Coe's novels are always well written but vary dramatically in subject matter. This is a short, fun novel about a girl who meets Billy Wilder by chance and ends up working on one of his last films. I really liked the main character, and it gives an interesting glimpse in to Wilder, who I didn't really know much about other than that he directed one of my favourite films, and the glamour of the film industry at the time.

Whilst this is well written I just didn't feel that I could get in to the story and eventually gave up halfway through, not something that I do very often.

I really enjoyed the cinematic setting! Loved how it mixes true people with an invented story. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital copy of the book!

Callista's voice grabs you right from start as we track her career frim guest meeting Billy Wolder, legendary film maker (and it doesn't matter of v you don't know him in the 'real'world although the added frisson if you do know him makes this novel into a splendid meta-fiction. Sharp dialogue and satisfying encounters between an innocent young woman and older film director .. almost mythic ... and his cohorts make this utterly readable. The whole Hollywood experience seems underpinned by failures of recognition and hubris accompanied with a comic melancholy. Really enjoyable read.

Because of the timing of the books’ release, I couldn’t help but think of this as derivative of A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson: a woman looks back at a golden summer spent in Greece in the orbit of a famous man (Leonard Cohen there; Billy Wilder here). I’m a Wilder fan, but had never heard of the film he was making in 1977, Fedora, and didn’t know any details of his personal life. I found the overall plot a little lite, particularly the framing story about Calista in the present day, and was thinking I’d give 3 stars, but my opinion shot up all because of a 50-page sequence modeled on a film script (with scene directions, voice overs, etc.) in which Calista records Billy’s experiences in Europe before and after the Second World War, making a documentary on the concentration camps. I also liked the detail of Al Pacino ordering a cheeseburger wherever he goes, even if it’s not on the menu. (3.75 stars)

A beautifully written treat for cinophiles and for those who love stories about/set in that world.
Thank you to Netgalley for ARC in exchange for review.

Back when she was in her early 20s Calista met Billy Wilder, the Hollywood Film Director - this is the story of what happened.

As a big fan of Jonathan Coe, the premise of Mr Wilder and Me appealed to me - and I wasn’t disappointed. The story focuses on the narrator looking back at her life - and how she met Billy Wilder, fortuitously, when travelling with a friend in California.

The novel explores how a relationship can develop in unexpected ways. The narrator ends up working with Mr Wilder as a translator and assistant - and she travels with the crew to Greece, then to Germany and onto France. Aside from being immersed in the stories of her youth, readers learn about her current life - as a mother, wife and music composer in London.

Much of this book is based on truth which gives it an interesting slant. Despite the story being well-written and thought-provoking, I found it a little pedestrian and lacking in some ways - but maybe my views are influenced by Coe’s last novel, which I loved: Middle England.

This is a good read - and probably particularly interesting for readers who are film buffs and those who are fans of Billy Wilder.

Mr Wilder and Me - Jonathan Coe
Publishers Penguin
Publication date 5/11/20

An enjoyable well written and original read. Not as savagely funny as the authors previous works, but some great lines which made me chuckle. I had heard of Billy Wilder but knew little of him. What I learned from this book I found extremely interesting and, at times, very moving particularly the references to the Holocaust.

Thanks to the author, publishers and NetGalley for this advance digital copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion opinion.