Capital by John Lanchester

I was very surprised by reviews that criticize this book for a lack of 'plot'.

The reader is introduced to a cast of characters who live in or work in one street, and they represent the global character of London. London attracts the world, because in London there is a chance to make a living - even for an illegal immigrant. And apart from the old lady who has lived there all her life, all the characters have a greed for money, for business, or for better chances, and a number of them are sick with envy.

The plot asks us to consider our relationships with money and with each other. The two people who end up with the happiest prospects are tested with a huge suitcase of money, (funnily enough, just like the people in The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed Out of the Window) but their decision sets them up for happiness.

In the banking world we are introduced to people who are neurotic about making money, and we glimpse where this leads in terms of shaping a warped personality and the far-reaching effects of neurotic reasoning.

On the domestic front there is one character who is not properly drawn, is a stereotypical rich man's selfish wife who has no inner life at all. Is this possible? She seems to have a kind of charm, but her sense of what she deserves in material terms has gone through the roof, for no reason at all. Yet such people exist, and we only need to look at pics of Victoria Beckham to get the general idea, and know that our reaction to such pics are what fuels the whole ghastly circus.

But in London there is also love, courage, resilience, family loyalty and decent behaviour.

I felt that the book did an injustice to Banksy. I think people look at the commercial items with Banksy's work on them and imagine that he makes money from them. He doesn't - he does try to make it clear to the world that these items are nothing to do with him - the whole point of his work is that it is political and provocative, not commercial. There is a character in the book who is sufficiently like Banksy to constitute a kind of libel. Also, Banksy is far funnier and more intelligent than the pseudo-Banksy in this novel.

 Banksy's works have dealt with an array of political and social themes, including anti-War, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, nihilism, and existentialism. Additionally, the components of the human condition that his works commonly critique are greed, poverty, hypocrisy, boredom, despair, absurdity, and alienation.^[110] 

 Although Banksy's works usually rely on visual imagery and iconography to put forth his message, he has made several politically related comments in his various books. In summarising his list of "people who should be shot," he listed "Fascist thugs, religious fundamentalists, (and) people who write lists telling you who should be shot."^[111] While facetiously describing his political nature, Banksy declared that "Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world, I can't even finish my second apple pie."

I found all the characters hard-going to start with but by a third of the way through I was drawn in and thoroughly enjoyed the book after that. I am sorry to finish it.