This is an amiable novel that felt a bit inconsequential through much of its length as almost-sixty year old Cal recalls her youth when she fell into a job working for Billy Wilder. Film buffs will probably lap up all the insider gossip and details as Wilder is making Fedora.

It's only quite near the end that some kind of deeper meaning came into focus for me as two types of film-making, or creativity more generally, are brought into tension with each other: the turning away from pain approach of Wilder who used frivolity, comedy and humour to hold tragedy at bay, and the contrasting embracing of anguish, epitomised in the book specifically by Spielberg's Schindler's List, though directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are name-checked too.

The 'now' story of Calista feels rather superimposed on the more interesting tale of her youth, and this is notably less funny than other books of Coe's that I've read: there's a whimsical moment when Wilder makes fun of Hollywood's obsession with sharks following the box-office success of Jaws but generally this is more warm and generous in spirit than hilarious.

I have read and loved everyone of Jonathan Coe's novels. I found it incredibly moving.
Calista is looking back on the formative experience of her life with the legendary movie maker Billy Wilder. Calista is mentored by people from a kinder and civilised age. It is an affectionate look at their world at a time when the 'young turks' of cinema were breaking through. At first, the film Wilder is struggling to make seems as irrelevant as he fears he has become. The more you read, you realise it is a quest for meaning and for something vital that has been lost. A beautiful novel. It has resonated with me since I finished it.

A very interesting book that is brilliantly written by one of the best writers in the UK today. Deserves a wide audience.