I'm reviewing this now, though I read it nearly 20 years ago, because the recent publication of a sequel of sorts in Number 11 seems an excellent opportunity to see if What a Carve Up! stands up as well in reality as it does in my memory. I read it at a time when I'd finally and unwillingly come to accept that polemically political novels don't work. This novel, which is (among other things, but primarily) a viciously funny excoriation of the destruction of British institutions, particularly the NHS, under Thatcherism, forced me to modify that opinion.
Originally posted on Goodreads, 28-Dec-2015