I enjoyed this book hugely. Some of the quotes from Mr Wilder took my breath away. Some were laughaloud funny - others shocking rebuttals of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
Before Billy Wilder enters the story, the book seemed to be rather dull, with an overdescribed ascent up some stairs from the London Tube . As soon as Wilder appears the book takes off like a Porsche 911 driven by a hooligan.

Calista was born and lived in Athens. She now lives in London with her husband Geoffrey and their twin daughters Francesca and Ariane. Ariane is leaving to go to University in Sydney. Francesca also want to go to Oxford University but has a problem, she is pregnant!
Calista is a working mother, she writes music. She has recently composed some film related music calling it "Billy".
Back in 1976 Calista was twenty one and flew to the USA backpacking. Whilst in Los Angeles she met an english girl Gill who's father knew the film Director Billy Wilder. They are both invited to join him and his wife Audrey and Iz. Diamond who writes film scripts,and his wife Barbara for dinner in a Beverley Hills exclusive restaurant.
Calista knows little about films but learns quickly, so taken up with her famous friends. Back in Athens she is amazed to be invited to join the film crew which is working on the film "Fedora" Which is initally filmed in Greece,. This turns into an amazing adventure which is extended as they all get on so well. The Billy Wilder the author describes is nearing the end of an illustrious career. He reluctantly acknowledges that he is being overtaken by the young beards ( as he calls them ) like Stephen Spielberg. Very poignant with humour also. The book ends with Calista and her husband making a significant and long reaching decision.
If you enjoy films like "Some like it hot", music and books like I do, then this is the ideal book. Well written, interesting, the author is a brilliant storyteller. I loved it and didn't want it to finish. I would strongly recommend this excellent book..

This is a tale of the film producer Billy Wilder as he makes one of his final films. The story is told hindsight by Calista, who as a teenager was a PA on the set.
Present day Calista is facing the future as her children leave home. She looks back at a time when she fortuitously met Billy Wilder and his friend and co-writer Iz Diamond.
An interesting enough topic but without the frisson that makes you eager to turn the page.

I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This unusual book is mainly about the end of Billy Wilder’s career. Told through the character of a young Greek woman, it gives an interesting story and taught me quite a bit about the making of movies. I particularly enjoyed the scenes at the beginning of the book set on the Greek islands. Parallels are then drawn between the end of the composer’s career and Wilder’s own.

Wonderful. Thought I would miss Coe’s wry insight into contemporary Britain but this is a total joy.

My thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher, for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have to admit that Jonathon Coe is a 'must read' author for me and this novel did not disappoint. It follow the life of Billy Wilder during the making of the movie 'Fedora', seen through the eyes of the very young translator on set, Calista. He is coming to the end of his creative life while for Claista, new to the world of film and, at first, completely unaware of Mr Wilder's fame, the creative part of her life is at it's very start. The novel is very evocative of the time of the making of the film, with the relationship between Calista, Wilder and his circle being well drawn and interesting. This is a gentle, sympathetic novel which will send you away to check up on facts, maybe even to consult Halliwell and provides insight into the creative process of movie making.

Calista is a successful film composer. As she deals with the imminent prospect of an empty nest as her daughters leave home she looks back on her life, specifically the summer of 1977. An accidental introduction to Billy Wilder leads to summer working as an interpreter on the movie set of “Fedora”, Wilder’s last film, in Athens and Munich.

This is a very different book to Coe’s recent State of The Nation novels. It is clearly inspired by a subject he has great passion for, and knowledge about. Calista’s adventures on the film set is a lovely coming of age story contrasting with Billy Wilder’s growing awareness that his time as a famed director is almost past. Within the novel there is another story, around the halfway point. During a dinner young German suggests that maybe the deaths due to the Holocaust may have been exaggerated, Billy Wilder’s response is written partly as a movie script, covering his time from when he fled Berlin in 1933 aware of the growing threat of Nazism to when he finally ended up as Colonel Billy Wilder, helping the German film industry back on its feet while making sure the Nazi’s didn’t get any work, and reviewing the horrific films that have come from the concentration camps.

This is such an interesting novel, I knew next to nothing about Billy Wilder, what a fascinating life he led. The story of Calista works beautifully as a framing device and, as always, Jonathan Coe writes women so well. Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for allowing me to review this preview copy.

An insight into the fascinating world of movie making and a coming of age story of a young Greek girl. Her personal journey and how she comes to work on the movie set of Fedora, directed by Mr Wilder, captivates the reader.

I did enjoy this book! It was funny, informative and I learned a few things! The novel was well written and transported you to a bygone age of film making. Calista finds herself in 1977, as an Greek interpreter for American filmmaker Billy Wilder, shooting a film in Greece. For me, Calista's naivety shines on every page. It was funny, sad and enjoyable.

I would recommend this book.

I give a 4 star rating.

I WANT TO THANK NETGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED COPY OF THIS BOOK.

A gently nostalgic glimpse of the movie icon Billy Wilder in his later years, told through the frame of his encounter with and ongoing connection to young Greek pianist Calista.

We begin in the present. Calista, now herself a successful player in the 'biz' - a composer for films - finds herself on the cusp of an empty nest, feeling a sympathetic irrelevance that she once saw in Mr Wilder at that juncture in his own career. Her reminiscence takes us back to 1977 and the exploits she was a small part of.

It's a simple device - the gateway to memory of things past - and the book follows a familiar classical structure,
There's nothing heavy, or satirical or allegorical about this heartfelt paean to the golden age of movie making the encroachment of modernity in the industry making way for the new breed of 'kids with beards'. The modern techniques and extra terrestial subjects of Scorsese and Spielberg leaving the once relevant Wilder in the dust. He fades away to Europe, no longer able to commandeer the studio advances and sweeping budgets of Hollywood. A pleasant incident of circuitry is Wilder's failed bid for the rights to Schindler's Ark; years later it is Spielberg who makes the film (Schindlers List) which Wilder concedes is pretty good.
Yes, it's not a challenging read, unrolling in a pleasant, easy register with only a tint of sadness, but I learned something of Wilders biography and a dose of easy storytelling was a much needed tonic in this destabilizing period.

In Mr Wilder and Me, Coe ventures down the path of historical fiction, using the backdrop of the golden age of Hollywood cinema to bring alive the life of legendary film director Billy Wilder, with an emphasis on his final years in the industry. It’s also a coming of age novel in terms of Greek born music composer Calista, now in her fifties with twin daughters about to embark on their adulthood. Taking in various European countries along the way besides Hollywood, this slender novel will be a joy to read regardless of whether you are a film/music buff or not.

The novel begins in London 2013 as Calista is preparing to say goodbye to daughter Ariane travelling to the other side of the world whilst twin Fran is pregnant though due to take up her studies at Oxford uni. That they are on the brink of life changing decisions and directions prompts Calista to reminisce over her own coming of age and this is when the novel starts taking shape. Her own life altering event is a trip to LA in 1976 when having befriended an English girl, she is invited to dinner with a friend of this girl’s father, who just so happens to be none other than Billy Wilder. Not that Calista is star struck since she is completely unaware of his legendary status much to the amusement of her fellow dining companions. However it’s a momentous occasion in which she inadvertently helps solve Wilder and writing partner Iz Diamond’s current storyline dilemma and the rest as they say is history. Fast forward to the summer of 1977 and Calista is invited to join the film production crew as an interpreter to Mr Wilder since scenes in his latest film, Fedora will be filmed in the Greek islands. At age 21, considering herself to be a child still, she leaves the protective arms of her parents and a smog filled Athens behind to enter this alien world of film making, opening her eyes to a world beyond her small life.

It is Wilder and his discussions with Diamond over the new generation of film directors that provide much in the way of the comic element in this novel. Coe, whilst bringing his trademark wit to the narrative is equally sympathetic to the plight of Wilder and his declining success, as the man reluctantly acknowledges the upcoming talented ‘bearded ones’( Spielberg and Scorcese) who are destined for stardom. Mostly the author has painted Wilder as a tragic figure, a subject for derision amongst the younger generation. Yet Billy is unstoppable despite his difficulty in procuring financial backing for the film Fedora, making him an interesting and likeable character. Fedora is Wilder’s attempt at one last hurrah in a golden age of Hollywood cinema that will soon be relegated to the past. His films now bear no relevance to a rapidly changing society which makes this attempt to turn Fedora into a box office success almost futile, tragic and bizarrely funny. Billy’s motivation for making this film mirrors his current state, that of an ageing film director no longer at the top of his game. There’s a poignancy to his own words “I was Spielberg once” that reflects Wilder’s own reluctant acceptance that perhaps now is the time to bow out, albeit not very gracefully. To me Wilder is an absolutely fascinating character and I loved the dynamic between himself and Mr Diamond, a lifelong partnership that is portrayed almost like a marriage. His own family history in relation to the war years, Nazi Germany and the concentration camps is a strand woven into the storyline that adds another tragic layer to this charismatic and sometimes enigmatic character.

In contrast to Wilder’s sunset years, Calista is on the cusp of adulthood, that glorious summer of 1977 her coming of age, one that shapes her future. Gone will be her gaucheness and her introverted nature,her sartorial faux pas that mark her out as a child amongst adults. Her sexual inexperience and lack of opportunity to form relationships with the opposite sex will be a thing of the past thanks to her acquaintance with Matthew, her initiation into the reality of romance rather than that played out on the big screen. Calista’s earnestness in quickly obtaining an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things film related is both funny and another indicator of her childlike desire to please and garner praise. Calista couldn’t have imagined in her wildest dreams, rubbing shoulders with the beautiful, rich and famous talented people in that restaurant that a summer taking her from Athens, Corfu,Munich, Paris and London would beckon. Her love of music and composing, recognised during this glorious summer, plays an important role in her future and is a huge part of her individuality. Calista’s friendship with the rather gloomy Mr Diamond and the way in which he takes this young girl under his wing is an element of the storyline that is innocent and lovely to behold.

I confess to having no prior knowledge of the legendary Billy Wilder, rather like Calista herself, although am familiar with the many film references populating the pages. My lack of insight mattered not one iota to me, instead the author piqued my interest in this nostalgic piece of fiction which I found both fascinating and entertaining. As already stated, Coe brings his wit to the storyline on many occasions throughout this tragicomic coming of age novel so that I was riveted from start to finish. Scenarios such as the one in the restaurant where Calista is first introduced to Wilder, Diamond and their wives and when Calista is translating for the Greek interviews are just two examples of the comic undertones present in this novel but there are many, many more. Mr Wilder and Me may be short in terms of length and the time it will take to read but on this occasion less is definitely more. I absolutely loved it! My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

England, 2020: satire is dead and England’s literary satirist-in-residence, Jonathan Coe, has quite reasonably decided to take a break from addressing the state of the nation. For his latest novel he’s returned to his other chief obsessions of film and music. Well, I thought, lulled by the cheerful cover art and undemanding opening, if he’s decided to write a lighter, more lyrical work about the golden age of movies in response to current apocalyptic times, that’s totally understandable and fine by me. Who can blame him?

‘Mr Wilder and me’ is narrated by an older woman, Calista - Coe writes women really well, one of the many reasons I love him - looking back on her youth when she inadvertently became part of Billy Wilder’s filming entourage, employed initially as a translator during a shoot in her native Greece. It starts gently enough, with a middle-class London family doing their middle-class thing, albeit with a potentially traumatic event lurking in the background. Then on with Calista’s reminiscences of her earlier life in Athens, her developing interest in music, a US road trip, first romance and general coming-of-age stuff, all with the gently bittersweet nostalgia that he does so evocatively.

However…

If some authors are painterly, Jonathan Coe is composerly. The flow of his narratives have a composer’s sensibility (and he is indeed a composer of music) and his immersion in music shines in his pacing and dynamic. In compositional terms, ‘Mr Wilder and me’ starts with some pleasant slightly wistful melody, but some ominous minor chords quietly appear here and there, which then become increasingly dissonant until the dark crescendo erupts and we are suddenly staring into the abyss. This novel, like many of his previous works, blends fiction with real lives and real events, and in terms of real events, without giving away any of the plot, it really is the abyss. And although he doesn’t make a big thing about it, these are historical events that have a very immediate relevance now, as we sleepwalk into totalitarianism and glorify dictators. It’s not an overtly polemical novel but it’s certainly not apolitical.

It’s also about the need to create - Calista and her music, Mr Wilder and his films, even the anonymous French farmer and his memorable brie: ‘the urge to create, to keep giving something to the world - a fundamentally generous impulse’ on which hope-filled note the novel closes, resolving into a quietly optimistic major key. Whatever horrors befall, the human impulse to touch and inspire people though art and music remains, and the novel ends with a immense act of generosity and an anticipation of new beginnings. Which I was glad of, personally.

I love Jonathan Coe. I’ve read all his novels (this is his twelfth), most of them more than once; I’ve seen him do several events, and I’ve gone idiotically fangirly red and stammery when he’s signed a book for me. So I was all primed to enjoy this one - and I did, very much. It’s not up there with the scathing satire and brilliant literary theory games of ‘What a carve-up’ or the incisive social commentary of ‘The Rotter’s Club’ and sequels; it’s much more akin to ‘The house of sleep’ or ‘The rain before it falls’, less overtly clever and zeitgeisty, with a more muted reflective feel, and real emotional depth.

Mr Wilder and Me is one of the best novels I have enjoyed this year. This is a fictionalised biography of the unforgettable film director Billie Wilder and the story of a young woman, Callista, who part Greek is bilingual and who first meets Wilder, his wife and colleague at a dinner in Los Angeles during the seventies. Callista is on a gap year but returning to her family home in Athens is later invited to work as translator for Wilder on location in Corfu on the fascinating movie Fedora. There begins Callista's great adventure and Wilder's personal story. Callista tells the story and this lends an intimacy to this book as if we are there with her and evesdropping on her life as well as Wilder's. The locations, Corfu, Los Angeles, Paris , Berlin, Munich and London are beautifully written. Coe's characterisation is fabulous and relationships sensitively portrayed. Much is revealed about Wilder's war years, written like a screen play and atyishly recounted. I was absorbed by this novel from its modern day opening to the final sentence and the notes beyond. Above all I was enchanted by Callista whose sort of chance encounter with Wilder led her towards her career as a composer. I loved the idea of Malibu her composition based on their initial encounter and enjoyed being a fly on the wall as this wonderful novel revealed itself. It is a thoroughly researched novel, utterly delightful and beautifully written. Again, Jonathan Coe has written an outstanding book. My thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read it.

Following Coe's political and social look at Brexit in present day Britain, he returns to one of his loves - film.
The story follows the making of Billy Wilder's final film, Fedora: a white elephant of a project that is out of tune with new Hollywood and few people can see it being a success.
Keen to find out what the young people want from films he employs Calista, a young girl from Greece who knows nothing about film and who learns and quotes Halliwell's Film Guide in order to sound knowledgeable. The story is her experiences on the set. There is also a large chunk of the novel written as a script that serves almost as a filmic montage of flashbacks into Wilder's past.
I confess to knowing nothing about Wilder, so this story was an education to me. It built up a picture of an emigre and their continued yearning to be back in their past with happier memories. This seemed to link with the nostalgia of old Hollywood and the need for cinema-goers to have feel-good experiences and escape from reality. The stand-out memorable scene for me was the diversion to the French farm to sample brie, as the enjoyment and simple joys of baguette, cheese and wine are conveyed so well on the page.
"Whatever else it throws at you, life will always have pleasures to offer. And we should take them."

I adored this glimpse into the golden age of film making - all the glitz and glamour and larger-than-life characters with incredible tales of the Hollywood greats. All the while, it was incredibly poignant and heart-felt, packed with emotion and things unsaid.

Calista is just starting out, full of naivety and excitement, while Mr Wilder's star is fading, no longer beloved by Hollywood, and desperate for one last shot. A beautiful tale, full of tenderness and what might have been.

Who is 'Me'? Me is Calista; a Greek/English young woman, travelling Europe in the late 70's. Mr Wilder? is the famous Hollywood film director Billy Wilder.
This book tells the story of a chance meeting between them that leads to Calista working on the film set of 'Fedora' with Billy Wilder and his long term writing partner Iz Diamond.
Although the story is fictional, the book cleverly documents a window of time in the legendary directors life, at a time where his star iss fading and the industry is moving on.
Told by Calista, as she looks back on her life and prepares for her twin daughters to fly the nest. While you can feel that Calista's recollection maybe flawed; her memory not perfect, Jonathan Coe still manages to give you a captivating and enlightening insight into Billy Wilder - the man behind the legendary reputation.
I let this book wash over me; its characters found their way into my subconscious and have stayed there.
There were parts that felt a little clunky to me, but overall I loved it.
It is a coming of age story and at the same time it is a story that deals with that harsh realisation that you have done your best work, you have reached the top of your mountain and you are on the journey down. Whether it is your children leaving home or the knowledge that you have already made your final smash hit movie. The ageing process will impact us all, no matter our wealth, status or success; we will all face our own mortality and our shrinking usefulness.
A great book. Thank you Jonathan Coe for introducing me to Billy Wilder and a period of time that I know nothing about.

Oddly, I have never read anything by Jonathan Coe. As such, possibly this was not the best place for me to start – no film fan, I have difficulty sitting through anything and going to the cinema is tortuous for me (why watch something when you can read ?). However, I have seen, “Some Like It Hot,” as a child, so I was, at least, aware of who Billy Wilder was, which was a start.

This is the story of Calista, who first met Mr Wilder on a backpacking trip around the States, when a girl that she meets while travelling takes her to a dinner to meet a friend of her father’s. When her love-struck travelling companion leaves her in the lurch, literally in the restaurant, the two, older couples they are eating with, are extremely kind to her. Calista, who has shown no interest in Hollywood prior to the meeting, becomes a bit of a film obsessive – albeit in learning facts gleaned from books, rather than watching the movies themselves.

Later, Mr Wilder contacts her and she finds herself on the set of ‘Fedora,’ first as an interpreter and later as something more integral and involved. This is the story of Billy Wilder’s personal history and of Calista’s attempts to come to terms with the fact she no longer feels relevant in either her career, or the lives of her children. A very warm and enjoyable read, which is very poignant. I received a copy of the book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

In 2018, one month after the publication of Middle England, the third in a sequence of novels following the lives of characters first encountered in Rotters Club (2001), Jonathan Coe, the popular and highly respected author of those novels, was invited by The Times to let their readers enter his 'cultural life', in response to certain questions. He would seem to have had little hesitation in replying, as follows, to the query about whom he would wish to invite to 'a fantasy dinner party':

'Four is the ideal number for dinner, so I'd invite Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock and Katharine Hepburn and just listen to them talk about Hollywood's golden age.'

It may be that, at that time, Jonathan Coe had already started writing Mr. Wilder and Me, or that the questionnaire had stimulated his choice of subject for this novel. Whichever may be the case, the reader should be grateful.

The 'Me' of the title is a female narrator, Calista, who is multi-lingual, having having been brought up in Athens with an English mother and a half-Slovenian father. As the book opens, she is now almost 60, and living in London. One of her daughters is following in her footsteps by being about to leave for the USA for what Calista hopes will be 'wonderful opportunities'. The thought of this makes her relive a most eventful period of her life, when, as a young girl herself backpacking in 1976 around the American West Coast, she had a chance meeting in Los Angeles with the famous film director Billy Wilder and his partner, Iz Diamond. Shortly after returning home, she had a totally unexpected call from one of their production team, offering her the job of being the interpreter while they are initially shooting scenes on location for a film called Fedora on Lefkada, a small island off the Greek coast near Corfu. She proves so useful that she continues to be employed by them when the filming moves to Munich and eventually to Paris.

The novel switches back and forth between insights into film-making, Billy Wilder's family history from his childhood in Berlin before the onset of the second World War, and his perpetual frustration at not having been able to ascertain what his mother's fate had been during the Holocaust. It also has elements of a bildungsroman, as Calista passes through stages of growing up, encountering her first boyfriend, and becoming a composer of film music. It all blends exceedingly well. There is something in it for everyone.

Fedora became the last and least known of Wilder's films; it was a stark offering from a director usually associated with comedies. So the writer of this review cannot resist ending by quoting probably the best known final line in Hollywood film comedy – from Wilder and Diamond's best known comedy, Some Like It Hot – “Nobody's perfect”.

A mother of 2 teenage girls (Calista), one about to leave for University and the other unexpectedly pregnant opens a box containing photos and letters from her earlier years . She had been on a visit to America and had befriended another lone traveller ,Gill, whose father was an old friend of Billy Wilder . Gill had been invited to dinner with Billy, , Is Diamond and other friends ,they both go and are out of their depth in the posh restaurant . Gill decides to leave to meet a teenage boy who she has fallen in love with and is about to leave town to continue his holiday . Calista stays and gets drunk , eventually staying on the couch at Billy and his wife's apartment for the night
Billy and Is are going to Greece to make a film and because Calista speaks Greek because her parents are Greek invite her to come along as interpreter for them . When filming in Greece ends she is invited to be Mr Diamonds assistant which brings her into the world of films for some years .A well written work of fiction based on the lifes of Billy and Is Diamond.

Calista, a young Greek girl, has a chance encounter at a dinner with the great film director Billy Wilder and his great friend and fellow screenwriter Iz Diamond. Knowing nothing about cinema, she nevertheless makes an impression and is offered a role as translator on Wilder's latest film, an opportunity that leads to her immersion in the film industry, first love and ultimately a career writing film music. This is a charming, bittersweet account of a young girl's coming of age and a portrait of a titan of film at a time when his fame was on the wane and his films were no longer a success. The insight into old-style movie-making is fascinating, and we see Wilder and Diamond as they face their vulnerabilities- old age, illness, becoming irrelevant. It also becomes clear how much their world view has been influenced by their backgrounds as Jews who have fled the Holocaust, but have lost family members. That sense of nostalgia for times past is also present in the contemporary Calista, now a mother whose daughters are flying the nest and whose own film commissions have now dried up, and yet the future has more in store for her. A must for film fans, but an engaging, poignant read even for those with little knowledge of Wilder 's work.