John Lanchester's episodic format in Capital works. On one level his portrayal of the 'haves' and 'have nots', living cheek by jowl on Pepys Road, reads almost like a 'soap ' with lots of colourful vignettes glimpsing into these disparate characters' worlds. At times there is a superficiality to what we know of their lives .By creating sinister undertones of what was happening on the street, Lanchester conveys the full impact of the credit crunch. No coincidence that this was set in a London street, not far from the city in 2009. His setting, his characters are the microcosm for society. His idea of the spectre looming over people's lives on the street is a clever metaphor. The book manages to be thoroughly readable but also a penetrating social comment in one.
A Dickens for the 21st century?
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