Review: Jonathan Coe’s The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim From The San Francisco Chronicle — Review by Martha McPhee The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim By Jonathan Coe (Alfred A. Knopf; 314 pages; $26.95) At the beginning of Jonathan Coe’s beguiling new novel, “The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim,” Max, in Australia visiting his estranged father, observes a Chinese woman and her young daughter at a restaurant. They are enjoying a game of cards, “bonded to each other, with a strength and an intensity” while the other diners distract themselves with cell phones and Nintendo DS devices – the protective wall of modern technology that keeps the other out. Read more.
MARTHA McPHEE 