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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=All That Follows
|author=Jim Crace
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=320
|publisher=Picador
|website=http://www.jim-crace.com/
|date=April2010April 2010
|isbn=0330445642
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0330445642</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=<amazonus>0330445642</amazonus>|aznus=0330445642
}}
But Lennie does have self-awareness and his low-cost political gestures are as stark to him as they are to his readers - ''He carries an Amnesty credit card "Buy One, Set One Free"''. Ouch.
It's beautifully done in that gorgeous jingle-jangle prose of Crace's, which is utterly sublime - sometimes I even forget the sense of what I'm reading; it's all just so perfect and I get lost. Set in a near-future Britain, there are all sorts of sly, funny and alarming digs at current assaults on civil liberties and various bits of health fascism. There are some remarkable descriptions of jazz, and a wonderfully feisty, vivid young girl in Lucy, Maxie's estranged daughter, and Lennie's new friend. I loved her. Ultimately, though, it's about Lennie (Lessing''Less''ing) busily trying to prove less is more (than Maxie''Max''ie). Geddit? I'm not so sure he managed it, but that doesn't mean I didn't love this book. The fairtrade banana in my Waitrose trolley is an unnervingly similar reminder of my own agitprop youth and current lurch towards wrinklehood. Sigh.
My thanks to the good people at Picador for sending the book.
I think you might like [[The Hidden by Tobias Hill]] for another portrait of a man who wants in but can't quite get there. [[The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod]] is a very different near-future thriller. You might also enjoy [[His Illegal Self by Peter Carey]], for the equally wonderful prose.
{{amazontext|amazon=0330445642}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=69554330330445642}}
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[[Category:Thrillers]]
