Rating: 
Summary: Seven Stars! : Funnier than "Catch 22"
Review: "Mr. Phillips" has achieved the impossible: one-upping the most intelligent/hilarious book ever written: Joe Heller's "Catch 22". The "Minutes of the Wellesley Crescent Watch Comittee meeting" almost put me in the hospital. I was in laugh pain on every subsequent page. I was attracted to the book principally because of the title (being a Mr. Phillips myself, I thought it would look spiffy on my coffee table). Knew nothing about the writer. Never heard of the book. This was blind luck at its best. I now read excerpts aloud (to everone's delight) at work and dinner parties. I've become a John Lanchester evangalist. I hope he writes a lot more stuff. Makes me proud to be a "Mr. Phillips." Bravo.
Rating:
Summary: Horsemeat and Chips
Review: ... "Mr. Phillips" is a book in which almost nothing at all happens; it's one of those "he goes there and does this, then goes there and does that," stories, yet it succeeds and it succeeds quite well, not because of John Lanchester's experience (this is only his second novel) but because of his enormous talent (this is, after all, the man who wrote the wickedly creative "The Debt to Pleasure"). Mr. Phillips is a man approaching middle age who suddenly finds himself out of a job. Sure, it was a boring job, but Mr. Phillips counted on it...and so did his wife. Unable to tell her what has happened, and perhaps unable to admit it even to himself, Mr. Phillips dresses for work each day, leaves the house at the appointed hour and then fritters away his time until he can safely return home again. If this doesn't sound like much of a plot, you can be assured it isn't. If it sounds boring, you can also be assured it isn't. "Mr. Phillips" is a book that concerns itself with a single summer day in the life of the newly unemployed Mr. Phillips. Although there isn't much plot to speak of, we do get a very good look into the thought processes of Mr. Phillips, himself. By the time we finish the book we feel we know him better than we might know ourselves. Mr. Phillips seems to be a man to whom strange things simply "happen." While he sets out to do nothing more exciting than roam around London, he become a witness to a bizarre display of sexual exhibitionism (on the bus, no less); he is almost "picked up" by a strange woman in the Tate Gallery; he visits a porn shop; he foils a bank robbery; and he has an encounter with an elderly woman with whom he discovers a connection. Not bad for an unemployed, middle-aged man who, on the surface, appears more than a little colorless. These events are no more or no less than...events. But Lanchester is such a gifted writer and his insight into the psyche of Mr. Phillips is so witty and dead-on that we can't help but turn the pages eagerly, wanting to know more and more and more about this silly little man and why on earth he does what he does when he does it. I know some people have been put off by the extremely arch tone Lanchester affected in "Mr. Phillips." I've read that some people find it distancing and felt it kept us from really getting to know Mr. Phillips. I felt just the opposite. I loved it and I thought it was brilliant of Lanchester to write the book in that manner. Mr. Phillips is, of course, a man who would speak, and even think, in very arch tones, so Lanchester's choice made me feel I was getting to know Mr. Phillips even more intimately, not less. I have also heard complaints that the real "issues" in Mr. Phillips' life, e.g., his physical decline, the loss of his job, his emotional distance from his family and friends, are not addressed completely enough and intimately enough in this book. It's true, they are not addressed intimately, but once again, I have to applaud Lanchester's choice. Mr. Phillips is a man who is distanced from himself. His thought processes, which are what we're following in this book, simply would not, and could not, embrace his problems intimately. Here is a man who leaves the house and roams London day after weary day simply because he can't face the fact that he's been sacked. He certainly is not going to sit down and analyze the reasons why. The further Mr. Phillips can get from his problems, the better he likes it. In fact, he even entertains the notion of running away to Paris to eat "horsemeat and chips." I think Lanchester's decision not to address Mr. Phillips by his given name is also a wonderful one, although he does let us know he has one and what it is (it is Victor, by the way). While "Mr. Phillips" isn't quite the masterpiece "The Debt to Pleasure" is (that is a once-in-a-lifetime book), it is a book filled with writing and characterization that most authors can only dream of achieving. Lanchester is a man of enormous talent and creativity. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Rating: 
Summary: it's just not very interesting
Review: After reading "The Debt to Pleasure" I was eagerly anticipating Lanchester new book. Well, don't rush out and buy it. This book is boring, trite and mercifully short. The main character, Mr. Phillips, is uninteresting. I never felt any empathy towards him and if the book had been any longer I probably wouldn't have bothered to finish it. Mr. Phillips' mind is on sex a large part of the time, unfortunately, even that's not interesting. There are too many (old) lightbulb jokes "How many ... does it take ..." and British jokes which should have been edited out. I wouldn't say the book needed a better editor, it's just not substantial enough to be in print. Read "The Mezzanine", now there's a fabulous book about nothing!
Rating: 
Summary: lovely
Review: i actually think that "mr phillips" could actually be a great read for someone visiting london for the first time. not that the city is always portrayed in the best light, but rather the small and subtle details that you miss when you live there are rather well illustrated in lanchester's novel. it's an all-too-short read... by the end i was hoping and wishing for a "mr phillips II" - i think a follow-up could work beautifully. it's certainly a subtle novel, merely one day in a man's life. but you get the feeling mr phillips is lost, and is trying to come to terms with it. it works beautifully in places, full of lovely moments that pull it all together so well. i think it can be read as something simple and not particularly significant, but thinking and analyzing it deeper, it's actually full of meaning... the only irritation is that many of the ideas and thoughts that mr. phillips has are rather hackneyed and not necessarily original - but that didn't stop me enjoying this novel a lot.
Rating:
Summary: A funny, entertaining novel about London
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely--but I have to admit a prejudice. In 1998, my family and I lived in south London for six months, in Wandsworth where much of the story takes place, in one of those south London neighborhoods that according to one guide book (I think it was the TIME OUT GUIDE TO LONDON) "are so obscure they don't even exist." We loved our six months there and Lanchester's book brought back so many memories. Some how he just has the feel and sense of London--not so much the London of the rich or the tourist but the "every day" London that we were so fortunate to live for six (and I think happily only six) months. I mean, for example, Lanchester's description of trains stopping is uncanny in its accuracy, humor, and insight. But if you haven't spent a lot of time riding the tube around London you might miss the whole point. Besides the quotidian, MR PHILLIPS contains a great deal of fantasy, which I also enjoyed. Perhaps the most telling aspect for me (also a fifty-something male--fortunately not yet quite redundant) was the mix of the mundane and the fantastic in the book. Are we to take the bank robbery, etc. as genuine events in the life of Mr Phillips or only his fantasy? This book is rich in questions, ideas, and insights without being difficult or overbearing. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Interested
Review: I haven't read John Lanchester's first book, and I'm sure it's really quite good. But please, don't tell me "Mr. Phillips" is "elegant," "delightfully humorous," or "great modern literature." I would like a plot, thank you, and at least one character I care about and not, as is really in the "story," a husband and wife sleeping together with descriptions of their farts mingling under the covers and her spermicide mixed with her natural smells combining to form blah, blah, blah in the morning. My apologies to the author, but give me someone I want to know about; interest me, uplift me, teach me, show me, break me, help me to understand, or at least make me feel something. There are already enough bad sit-coms on TV. Don't put one in a book. Please.
Rating: 
Summary: It started out well, but it ran out of steam
Review: I liked the voice of the novel, but unfortunately I lost interest very quickly at page 140.
Rating:
Summary: A Small Masterpiece
Review: I read this wonderful book several months ago after someone very close to me killed himself. It is a description of solitary sorrow and wit and magical incantations that is so precise and so poignant that it left me breathless. The intimacy of Mr. Phillips thoughts and the ability of Mr. Lancaster to reveal them to us is the special gift of great fiction writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Shlub City, here we come
Review: I still haven't gotten around to MRS DALLOWAY. (I'm too busy debating particle physics with Jeanette Winterson via her ouija board.) As far as I can tell, MR PHILLIPS is the fictional equivalent of the desultory "observational humor" that stand-up comedians do. (The stand-up material that invariably gets introduced with the phrase "Have you ever noticed that...?".) The main difference between this and THE DEBT TO PLEASURE seems to be that PLEASURE'S recipes have been replaced with tedious statistical calculations and sexual disquisitions. Here's my fave line: "Karen's accent, East London verging on Essex, is sexy too, but in a more straightforwardly sluttish way. And there is something about the limitless reserves of indifference she can express, the thrilling estuarine boredness of her 'Yeah'."
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: If you love the pessimism of George Orwell you will love this book. This is a good read.
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