MR Phillips

by John Lanchester

Book Overview

Mr Phillips wakes on the morning of July 31 in his modest, nearly mortgage-free home, in the bed he has contentedly shared with his wife of thirty years (though to be honest, at night he lies beside her and dreams of other women), ready to face another ordinary day. Except that for Mr Phillips, it is not an ordinary day, for on Friday, July 28, he was summarily sacked. Nonetheless, he rises at his usual hour and prepares himself as he has done his...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399146040
• ISBN13: 9780399146046
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

My day in London....

Whew. It's good to be back in my own consciousness. John Lanchester's "Mr Phillips" is the literary equivalent of that wonderfully quirky film "Being John Malkovich" a few years ago. From the first sentence, we are dropped in medias res into the curiously cool mindset of just fired ("made redundant" in his accountant's patois) Mr Phillips. It is Monday morning as we lie in bed with slumbering Mrs Phillips and drift into our various fantasies of other women, each meticulously "rated" in a manner befitting an ob-com CPA. Thus are the two central motifs ignited: women (and sex generally) and descriptive numeracy of all sorts.From here, fiftyish Mr Phillips, who has decided not to reveal his employment situation to his wife (or two grown sons,) goes through the typical work-a-day motions and finds himself wandering aimlessly for the first time in over thirty years. His observations and analyses place us squarely in London, which, as usual, becomes an outsized character per se, one which shapes and effects its teeming international amalgam. Throughout, we are treated to"number/probability/odds" rants about any and all things. Regarding the lottery frenzy, for example, we find that "proper" actuarial tables show that "in order for the probability of winning the jackpot to be greater than the odds of being dead by the time of the draw, one would have to bet no earlier than three and a half minutes before the draw." Put another way, death has a greater chance of finding us than does the lotto fairy. This is but one of hundreds of revelations, all put forth with a completely straight-face. The tics, eccentricities, inner symbols, fears, joys, memories, and fantasies - both light and dark -crowd the currents of this odd stream of consciousness. But, honestly, I now need to go shower to get the Underground's grimy Tube air off myself. Good to have been there, but also good to be home. A wonderful artistic accomplishment with the added treat of enabling one to take a holiday in London for a mere pence an hour (depending, of course, on your reading rate, the current rate of inflation, the cost of your book, the....)

A Great, Once-in-a-Decade Novel

MR. PHILLIPS is a recent inductee into my personal Pantheon of great modern literature. This is a terrific - indeed, incandescent - little book about a single day in the life of a very ordinary middle-class Englishman who has just lost his job and hasn't yet broken the news to his family. There's nothing, and yet everything to this seemingly inconsequential work. It reminds us, again, that even at its bleakest, life is more comedy than tragedy. As a writer, Lanchester is, in the English way, a precisionist. Most of his conceits are so economic, sharp, original and outrageous that you read the entire book (it can be done in a few hours) shivering with pleasure and wishing that you yourself were half as talented.

A funny, entertaining novel about London

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.

Seven Stars! : Funnier than "Catch 22"

"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.

Thoroughly Modern Mitty

Mr. Phillips chronicles the first day of unemployment for aredundant accountant in London. No one knows he is out of work; hegets up and goes into town, as he normally would. The fortunate reader gets to occupy the imagination of this middle aged ex-accountant as he ponders on sex, family, city life, and death. John Lanchester 's writing is droll and at times will make you laugh out loud. But there is a deeper story in this novel which will move the reader to a feeling of satisfaction and delight at the end of Mr. Phillip's day. Mr. Phillips remains with the reader long after the last page is read. A well written and entertaining novel.