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Ben Elton

Meltdown Paperback – 8 July 2010

by Ben Elton (Author)

4.1 1,009 ratings

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For amiable City trader Jimmy Corby money was the new Rock n' Roll. His whole life was a party, adrenalin charged and cocaine fuelled. If he hadn't met Monica he would probably have ended up either dead or in rehab.

But Jimmy was as lucky in love as he was at betting on dodgy derivatives, so instead of burning out, his star just burned brighter than ever. Rich, pampered and successful, Jimmy, Monica and their friends lived the dream, bringing up their children with an army of domestic helps.

But then it all came crashing down. And when the global financial crisis hit, Jimmy discovers that anyone can handle success. It's how you handle failure that really matters.

Print length

480 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Black Swan
Publication date

8 July 2010
Dimensions

12.7 x 2.54 x 19.69 cm
ISBN-10

055277510X
ISBN-13

978-0552775106
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Product description

Review

An entertaining, well-written, often very funny read, Daily Mirror [book of the week]

Bang up to date... Very funny... Emotionally engaging, Daily Mail

About the Author

Ben Elton’s multi-award winning career as both performer and writer encompasses some of the most memorable and incisive comedy of the past thirty-five years. In addition to his hugely influential work as a stand-up comic, he was co-writer of TV hits The Young Ones and Blackadder and sole creator of The Thin Blue Line and Upstart Crow. He has written fifteen major bestsellers, including Stark, Popcorn, Inconceivable, Dead Famous, High Society, Two Brothers and Time and Time Again, three West End plays and three musicals, including global phenomenon We Will Rock You. He has written and directed two feature films, Maybe Baby and Three Summers.

He is married and has three children.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Swan (8 July 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 055277510X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0552775106
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.7 x 2.54 x 19.69 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 74,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,347 in Love, Sex & Marriage Humour
- 10,210 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- 12,789 in Contemporary Fiction (Books)

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4.1 1,009 ratings

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4.1 out of 5

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Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 January 2018

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With the conclusion to my reading of this book, I am closing-in on my ambition to read all of the novels by the best-selling author Ben Elton. With the finishing of each novel I look forward to the next one - albeit realizing that, one day, there will be no more to read (until his mind conceives another). However, that does not detract from the worthiness of spending time reading Meltdown, the 13th of Ben Elton's output of fifteenth novels to date, with reach presenting a new pleasure in reading.
The story of Meltdown focuses on the high life enjoyed by City trader Jimmy Corby. For the amiable Jimmy, money was the new "Rock n' Roll".Life was a one big party, living life at the edge and fuelling it with drink and drugs, albeit tempered by the presence of his capable wife Monica. What was the case for Jimmy was also the case for his friends. Their stars burned bright, they lived the dream.
Meltdown is a biting satire of the contemporary credit crunch from this hugely popular and bestselling author. After the bliss of financial boom, Jimmy and his family are forced to confront the extreme possibilities of bust. When it all came crashing down, Jimmy discovered that "anyone can handle success, it's how you handle failure that really matters". How Jimmy and his family survive is a scintillating story and a realistic encounter with a life that goes awry.
The effects of changing fortunes in the lives of these city people is skilfully told by Elton, and not without a touch of sympathy for the manner in which wealth can blind persons to what is most important in life. The varying fortunes of Jimmy friends can be a mirror for those who are over-dependent on wealth and what it can bring.
This is a novel for our times, a time in which economics poses a threat to all other considerations of life.

5 people found this helpful

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oaktreeriser

Meltdown

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 October 2010

Verified Purchase

I read the first half of this book on my way to Madeira, having bought it at Bristol Airport. Unfortunately I managed to leave it at the airport in Madeira, so there was a gap of a two weeks before I finished it!

Like most of Ben Elton's books, this is very easy to read and contains very topical subjects. This one is about a group of people who met at university, and how they all got rich in the nineties and early noughties by becoming champagne socialists, before they hit upon hard times in the financial crisis at the end of the noughties. Rather than the crash of Northern Rock, it was the crash of Caledonian Granite that started the crisis!

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially as it gives a good insight into how greed was encouraged by the Blair/Brown government prior to the financial crash in 2008.

One person found this helpful

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Felix the cat

A modern day Pilgrim's Progress

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 2 November 2020

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I enjoyed the book. Interesting character, good plot and a few laughs along the way. If only be would stop preaching, patronising and moralising. Banking is an incredibly competitive industry. You don't just drift into the profession. He has obviously never stepped foot in a sink school. And his readers are grown adults who don't need educating about the financial crisis.

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Not life-changing, but unputdownable!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 26 July 2010

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Elton's novels are addictive reads, made of plain, easy-going, forward-moving prose. They're frequently funny, hard to put down and unerringly topical. "Meltdown" focuses on the credit crunch and its fallout. We follow the fortunes (literally) of a group of friends, from their bonding at university, through their glittering careers, and on into the crash landings they face when the bottom falls out of the British economy.

Our main protagonist is Jimmy, a hapless city trader who gets rich during the boom years almost in spite of himself, and who must then try to provide for his family when his investments fall apart. We also meet: Henry, a rising star in New Labour; Rupert, a ruthless banker; David, a cutting-edge architect; Lizzie, designer of middle-class fripperies; and Robbo, the bumbling but lovable heart of the group.

As usual, Ben Elton gets into every corner of his material, giving space to arguments on all sides, before - naturally - coming out against greed and for personal responsibility. He is nonetheless generous towards his characters - arguably a little too much so: most of his new-moneyed heroes lose everything, drawing our sympathies, whereas in reality there must have been plenty of rich folks whom the recession left only slightly less rich. Still, the book clearly articulates the disparities between the fantasy world of the absurdly well-off and the grinding domestic realities that most people face.

There's a slightly irrelevant crime-scene diversion towards the end, and I repeatedly wondered why Jimmy didn't sublet to ease his burdens; but these minor mechanics aside, Elton doesn't put a foot wrong in documenting the culture and disasters of high finance in recent years, and doing so in a disarmingly entertaining way.

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neil7760

Very realistic and a good insight into the lives of others

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 October 2020

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As always, Ben Elton has such an amazing perception of people and life in general and he puts his usual satirical spin on it, in a very accurate manner. The way he portrays people's lives is like 'putting you there' with them. A really good and enjoyable read, and a very good account of what happened in the first years of this century with the economic crisis. Recommend this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it

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Neil Bradshaw

Enjoyable without being exciting.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 14 November 2021

Verified Purchase

Enjoyed this book and wanted to find out how it finished. Love reading Ben Eltons books but think he has written more enjoyable reads. The Last Casualty, Time and time again and Two brothers I found were brilliant. This one was Okay.

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Antony James Quick

The Blair Years, 90’s & 00

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 August 2018

Verified Purchase

Good story of Blair years, along the lines of the Cold Feet tv drama, how hindsight can change your Perceptions of a period.
Ben can not resist putting his spin on these days, his right as the author, being a loyal Tony man so much was Achieved to be undone by some terrible mistakes. Worth a read.

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