SOURCE: “O, Brave New Venture That Has Such People In't!,” in Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 1999, p. 19.

In the following review, Charles calls Barnes's England, England “an unsettling satire of corporate ambition gone wild in a culture that values convenience above all else.”

In the disturbing tradition of Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, fellow English writer Julian Barnes has produced the first classic dystopia of the 21st century.

England, England is an unsettling satire of corporate ambition gone wild in a culture that values convenience above all else.

Sir Jack Pitman thinks big. He rules his financial empire from a worldly cathedral of the most extravagant design. Subjects coming for an audience pass first through the Quote Room, where they can reflect upon a lavish description of Sir Jack chiseled into a monolith of slate.

Having conquered every field, he laments to his sycophantic minions, “What is there...