Calista, a young Greek girl, has a chance encounter at a dinner with the great film director Billy Wilder and his great friend and fellow screenwriter Iz Diamond. Knowing nothing about cinema, she nevertheless makes an impression and is offered a role as translator on Wilder's latest film, an opportunity that leads to her immersion in the film industry, first love and ultimately a career writing film music. This is a charming, bittersweet account of a young girl's coming of age and a portrait of a titan of film at a time when his fame was on the wane and his films were no longer a success. The insight into old-style movie-making is fascinating, and we see Wilder and Diamond as they face their vulnerabilities- old age, illness, becoming irrelevant. It also becomes clear how much their world view has been influenced by their backgrounds as Jews who have fled the Holocaust, but have lost family members. That sense of nostalgia for times past is also present in the contemporary Calista, now a mother whose daughters are flying the nest and whose own film commissions have now dried up, and yet the future has more in store for her. A must for film fans, but an engaging, poignant read even for those with little knowledge of Wilder 's work.

As I read this book I became convinced that it was non fiction. It was only when I got to the end and found all the acknowledgements and sources that I realised it had been pure fiction! The author had woven a completely believable tale.

The central character in this story is Calista Frangopoulou, a young Greek girl and talented musician who, through a series of coincidences, becomes some kind of assistant and interpreter to the filmmaker Billy Wilder. This is when he is making a film called Fedora – one of his last and probably least successful movies. Calista is fictional but the other characters in the world where she lands, including Wilder’s co-writer Itec Diamond, their wives and the stars of the film, are real. So too, are the events which the book recounts from first funding and then shooting the film in Greece and Germany.

Clearly, the book has been well researched and refers to a number of authentic and first-hand sources and in many ways the story seems to be harking back to the days of the classic filmmakers although the film in question was made in the late 1970s. It’s hard to say if it is a tribute to those times or simply a character study of Wilder and his relationship with his films.

Calista tells the story from the perspective of the 21st-century looking back at a time when she was young and gauche. Sometimes this works but at others it seems a little bit contrived. Calista seems a little bit too smart at times while at others overly innocent but the story rolls along and she is the sole source. You might think also that she was a little too well-informed for an innocent young Greek although she claims to have learnt all about Wilder’s films from reading Halliwell guides!

Something else odd happens in the modern story. Calista’s daughter Ariane is pregnant and awaiting an abortion but revisiting the story leads Calista to perceive that her daughter might prefer to keep the child and to realise that she and her husband can be capable grandparents. Maybe it’s a good outcome but it seems a bit by chance that she comes upon this revelation.

And, that’s it really. The book contains no stunning and engaging themes, no character insights which were not already in the biographies and really no catharsis or dénouement. What remains is an engaging reimagining of filmmaking in the last days of Hollywood glamour before what the book calls the young men with beards stole the scene. It’s entertaining as well and Jonathan Coe is a skilled writer but I suppose in the end I wanted a bit more.

This is the story of how a young Calista who is Greek/English meets film director Billy Wilder and writer Iz Diamond by chance. She amuses Wilder with her naive boredom as at this point she has no idea who he is. As ‘Fedora’ is to be part filmed in Greece she gets a job as an interpreter. Calista is looking back on this youthful experiences, reflecting on the experiences she gained.

This is a captivating and enthralling read which I rapidly became totally absorbed in. I knew little about Wilder beyond his legendary status as this has definitely piqued my interest to know more and I’m sure that people who are film buffs will enjoy this portrayal. Fedora is being made as Wilder’s sun is descending and he hopes it will restore some of his reputation lost to the ‘bearded ones’ - the new breed of directors like Spielberg and Scorsese. I love the insights, I find what Iz Diamond, their respective wives say about Wilder enlightening and fascinating and the director comes across as meticulous, compassionate, kind and perceptive. It’s nostalgic too as Calista looks back on this early adventure as she also reflects on her daughters who are now the same age as she was then. It’s dark too and bitter for Wilder as parts of the book are set in Germany which he finds difficult. The settings are superb and the film scenes shot in various places are colourful and as intriguing as some of the actors. This is a coming of age story for Calista, she learns so much about herself, about people and the world so for her it’s an awakening whereas it’s the reverse for Wilder. He is ageing and has the acquired wisdom and a multitude of experiences, some good and some bad.

Overall, a very entertaining, well written and delightful story which is also very thought provoking. I loved it.

Oh my God, I LOVED this. Having started my year with Jonathan Coe's 'Middle England' (to be honest, I never thought anyone could write something so funny about Brexit) this was a delightful way to sort-of-end the year, even if we have two months to go. Mr Wilder and Me is the story of a naive, unassuming Greek girl raised in 1970s Athens under military occupation, with a gift for music and translation. After a chance meeting in LA while backpacking with a friend, she becomes 'the Greek interpreter,' part of Billy Wilder's entourage in the dying days of his career.

Jonathan Coe's film geekery has shown up before in some of his best works. The House of Sleep and What a Carve Up! include exhaustive analysis of minor films that no one has seen in years, like Wilder's bizarre-sounding late-career film Fedora, which this novel focuses on. One of the characters in The House of Sleep is an obsessive insomniac film reviewer, and Coe's pastiches of the stuffy Halliwell's Film Guides in this book are absolute genius. My only concern is that you might have to be as nerdy as me to get some of the jokes. There is a great one about a bidet which Wilder (and Coe) repeats three times, but it is *very* good. Coe is back on top form and this will be going on a few Christmas lists. Come to think of it, it might also make a good movie!

Gene Wilder? Thornton Wilder? Turns out it’s Billy Wilder but I didn’t know that before I began reading this book. I do like films (but I don’t think I’m a cinephile, a pretentious word that crops up repeatedly in the book) but I’m not a fan of fictionalised biography: I like my fiction straight, entirely invented characters with perhaps the odd reference to a real person. So I didn’t enjoy this imagining of the great film director, seen through the eyes of Calista, a fictional middle aged composer of film music, remembering her encounters with Wilder in her youth. She is a two dimensional character and completely unengaging. Wilder and his colleague Diamond are the only interesting characters in the book, which has clearly been thoroughly researched but to me remains a puzzling undertaking, very unlike the author's earlier books which I have enjoyed.
The electronic ARC I received from NetGalley contained several errors and inconsistencies which didn’t make the reading experience any more pleasurable. Thumbs down, I’m afraid.

Having galloped through Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe, I now have two strong urges - to watch all of Billy Wilder’s films, and to travel through Europe. Well, at least one of those is achievable during a global pandemic.

This multifaceted novel is framed by a contemporary London family's domestic drama but really, of course, it’s all about Mr Wilder. ‘Me’ is Calista, a composer who recalls a chance meeting with the famous director in 1976 which led to a summer working on his last major movie, Fedora, filmed on location in Corfu and France with pre and post production in Munich.

These settings provide the backdrop to a further reach into the past, when Wilder fled pre-war Nazi Germany, first to France and then to America where he became Hollywood’s best known film director.

The subtle comparisons between Wilder’s place in cinematic history and that of Steven Spielberg, the next greatest movie maker, draw to a poignant close with their respective contributions to safeguarding the horrific truth of the Holocaust.

And then there are the thematic reflections on ageing and creative output; the role of cinema itself - and, perhaps best of all, French cheese.

I hope all my friends and book clubs read this novel, not just because it is wonderfully written, but for the wealth of related topics which I'd love to discuss - and that’s before you even start on the accompanying filmography (seriously, that’s my viewing for the rest of the year sorted; can't wait to watch Fedora).

Jonathan Coe’s love of cinema pulses through the narrative - his knowledge is abundant yet never superfluous to the story; the two are blended together in perfect harmony.

Mr Wilder and Me is a stunning tribute to the golden age of cinema; to an older, wiser generation we are lucky to have known in our lifetime, and to those who follow, reverently, in their footsteps.

This was such an unexpectedly lovely read. I say that only because I knew nothing of the person behind the well-known name of famous director Billy Wilder before I picked up this book.

The entire plot is a combination of fact blended with fiction, one that follows a young Greek woman called Calista as she navigates her first job working as a personal translator for Mr Wilder.

I was hooked into the story in so many different areas, by Calista’s relationships mostly - with her colleagues, her employers, their families, her friends, her will-they won’t-they love interests and then also later in life with her husband and twin daughters. I really like her and I feel like I miss her now that I’ve finished the book. Truly brilliant character writing.

I also learned a lot about older movies and felt such a pang in my heart when classics started to lose their magic. Stupid modern plots and shock-factors started to take over, and I hadn’t realised before how important scripts used to be. In fact, I spent the next few days watching my favourite classics and added The Shop Around the Corner to my collection after it was mentioned in here, and watched with a new appreciation.

If you’re a movie lover or enjoy coming-of-age tales, this is a really lovely story to add to your read list.

Favourite quote:

“I asked him to get a bidet for our bathroom and he wired back, ‘Unable to obtain bidet - suggest you do handstand in the shower.’ Honestly, how can you not be in love with a man who sends you a telegram like that?”

Mr Wilder and Me will be released on the 5th of November, thank you to Penguin General for the arc.

I found this novel really interesting as I’m fascinated by the film industry and how it’s changed over time. Sensitively written and told from the perspective of a young, naïve female narrator, we follow the shoot of one of Billy Wilder’s last films Fedora and get some touching insights about Wilder and his collaborator Diamond. The convincing first-person dialogue really brings these characters to life and transports the reader to the era. The novel, I feel, did a really good job at capturing the spirit of Billy Wilder with one of my favourite Wilder quotes from the novel being ”Whatever else life throws at you, life will always have pleasures to offer and we should take them”.

I have previously loved Jonathan Coe’s novels but ‘Mr Wilder and Me’ didn’t hit the mark for me. I appreciate the book is a deviation from his normal storytelling but I prefer the style of his ‘RotterS Club’ trilogy. I didn't really take to the main character and perhaps wasn’t interested enough in the life of Billy Wilder.

I love everything that Jonathan Coe has written so knew that I was in for a literary treat with this! Its very different from his other books, mixing real life characters such as Billy Wilder and Spielberg with the fictional lead character Calista. Calista randomly meets Billy Wilder in her late teens, and their chance meeting sets her life and career turning in a completely unexpected way. Its an unusual story line, but an interesting insight into the life of a film director past their prime, and how they move on with their creative works.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book opens in London but takes the reader back in time to the US, Greece, Germany and France. It's a nostalgic look at cinema and what it was to be a great filmmaker back in the gold years of Hollywood.

Jonathan Coe knows his films and is clearly a big Billy Wilder fan. He focuses on the later years of the director's life, when many said the sheen of his earlier, funnier films had worn off. The novel is narrated by a female music composer who had the good fortune to meet Wilder in America when she was young. That meeting altered the direction of her life.

It's a very sweet and charming look at both growing up and learning about the world (and the film industry) and looking back on life from now. A really good read.

I haven’t read any of Jonathan Coe’s previous books so came to this one with no preconceptions.It tells the story of Calista, a young Anglo-Greek woman who meets the film director Billy Wilder in the late 70s and is hired as an interpreter on the film set of Fedora, one of his later films. The book starts and ends in the present as she looks back at her time on the set of the film Fedora .It also tells a lot about Wilder’s life story and his motivation for making films.
I enjoyed it enough to keep reading but was more interested in the story of the director and the film making process than in Calista, as I didn’t warm to her character.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review which reflects my own opinion.

Jonathan Coe’s state of the nation novels are always very engaging and thought-provoking. His characters are utterly recognisable and their predicaments always feel real. However, if this is what you most enjoy about his writing, perhaps you should be a little wary of ‘Mr Wilder and Me’.
Set in the decades of the Second World War, in the 1970s and in the present day, there is much to recommend if you are a Billy Wilder fan or an enthusiastic cinema goer. Coe’s depiction of Wilder both as he grows in fame and as his popularity declines is fascinating. We see more than just a damaged genius; Coe’s portrayal of quiet moments is also convincing.
However, the story that bookends the novel is no more than that. Calista, chosen as an interpreter on the set of Wilder’s ‘Fedora’ in the 70s, is also seen in the present as a middle-aged film composer whose teenage daughters are flying the nest. She has a difficult relationship with one of them and her life has become somewhat lacklustre. There are moments in Coe’s characterisation of her when the reader is hooked and would love to know more (other than her irritating passion for cheese!) but because she is a vehicle through which we see Wilder, this is not to be.
This is a homage to Wilder more than anything else and, as such, is a really interesting read. However, the overall effect is slightly discombobulating. Do we need Calista? Granted, through her Coe reminds us that late middle age can be a confusing time, just as it is for Wilder. Whilst this is a novel in which the business of accepting that times change, that the zeitgeist may make us feel out of touch, perhaps this subject would have been better explored through either Wilder or Calista, rather than through a slightly forced merging of two narratives.
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Jonathan Coe enters rather different territory from his usual fare with this historical blend of fact and fiction, set in the late 1970s, as he unpeels the layers of the life and times of the famous Hollywood director, Billy Wilder. An almost 60 year old troubled Calista, with twin daughters, is feeling increasingly unwanted, including professionally as a musical composer, she looks back with nostalgia on a pivotal time in her life, when as a young and naive woman she left Athens and found herself on a Greek island and on the film set of Fedora, one of Wilder's last films in what was a prolific and lauded career. She is employed as an interpreter and translator, embarking on an exciting and glamorous adventure, immersed in a world that she knew not, where everything is strange and new.

This coming of age phase of Calista's life contrasts sharply with the older Wilder coming to terms to the harsh realities of a Hollywood that no longer has any interest in him, the times they are a changing, and its now the time of adrenaline fuelled action packed movies and a greater focus on more serious and darker themes. This is epitomised for Wilder in the financing of his film coming from Germans, Calista travels with him to Munich to film scenes there. Wilder's roots are European and his traumatic and tragic personal history is laid bare, of trying to find out what happened to his Austrian Jewish relatives, a man carrying the all too real burdens and impact of the horrors and terrors of the Nazis. It is so understandable that an anguished Wilder would concentrate on the lighter and more entertaining themes of life in his filmmaking, leaving those who are not weighed down by personal traumas more able to make movies of humanity's significantly darker sides.

Coe pays a tender and affectionate homage to Wilder with this fascinating, intimate, well researched, knowledgeable and immersive picture of Wilder's inner and outer self, the personal and the professional, what it means to be affected by the ups and downs of being in the creative industries, that is later echoed by Calista's experiences as a music composer. Insights are given of him on the film set with its ups and downs, and his often witty relationship with the screenwriter, Iz Diamond. This is a lovely, emotionally heart tugging, informative, often humorous, engaging and entertaining read, of the film industry and major players within it in this historical period, of the ageing process, and the impact of the personal on the professional, and of how we can all face similar issues, irrespective of our status and wealth. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

Jonathan Coe did a sterling job in fooling the reader in to believing Calista may have been a real witness to events in 1977 and the making of a film. To get the most out of this novel I feel the reader should be a fan of Billy Wilder. There was insufficient content for me to keep interested throughout this coming-of-age story, although the brie tasting chapter was rather good. I must confess to not having much interest in the film industry and so I have to score the book based on its other content.

Beautifully Executed......
A new adventure for a young Calista when she meets with an aging Wilder on a Greek island turned Hollywood film set. Set in the 1970’s, an emotional, tender, nostalgic and gentle coming of age/meeting of old age theme which is beautifully executed, written and explored. A far cry from the authors’ norm and a fresh perspective, fabulously well done. First class.

I loved this book so much that it's hard to know how to begin writing a review of it. It is such a lovely story and so wonderfully written.

It begins with a woman, Calista, considering various worries she has about her twin daughters and trying to face up to the fact that one will soon be leaving to study in another country.

We learn that there is a mysterious problem with the other twin, Fran, and get to find out what this is later. It's a nice start to pull in the reader by putting us in the mind of what seems to be a fairly typical middle aged woman.

Very soon we find she is not typical. In fact, she has had a fascinating past involving a stint working with top Hollywood director Billy Wilder.

When Calista goes back to recount her past, I at times felt impatient to find out what was actually going on in her current life. But the backstory quickly draws you in.

There are lovely descriptions of being a young, ordinary person becoming awed by being in the presence of wealthy and famous people. But so much of the story is about how people experience similar troubles, regardless of their position in the world.

Wilder is trying to make a film, Fedora, about an ageing actress who is past her best. It's a metaphor for how he feels as a director, someone trying to make films that are "a little bit elegant, a little bit beautiful" in a world where more modern directors want films to focus on misery and despair.

And it's also a metaphor for how Calista feels, no longer needed by her daughters and no longer wanted for her music compositions.

The book is just a lovely story about how people deal with rejection, loss and the knowledge that your time has passed. There is a powerful scene where Wilder talks about the impact the Holocaust has had on him, and his painful search to discover what happened to his mother and other relatives.

And in the present day, Calista figures out how best to deal with the issues in her family, showing that for all her worries about being past it or of no use to anyone, she is still learning and growing.

I hesitate to use the description "life-affirming" but Mr Wilder & Me most definitely is. Read it if you want to feel better about humanity.

Mr Wilder and Me is both a coming of age novel and a coming of old-age novel. As the Anglo-Greek narrator Calista’s children grow up and fly the nest, she reminisces about the golden summer of 1977 where she met the ageing film director Billy Wilder and worked on one of his last films, Fedora.

I enjoyed the beautiful mixture of fiction and non-fiction in this well-researched novel. The young Calista felt very real and her gauche earnestness was appealing. There were bittersweet moments when Wilder was coming to terms with the end of his career: he amusingly bemoans the rise of the “bearded kid” directors eschewing intelligent character dramas in favour of action-packed shark movies. It was also nice to see famous actors such as Al Pacino turn up, with Wilder teasing him for ordering a cheeseburger instead of the local speciality dish.

All-in-all, this was a very pleasant reading experience, even if I couldn’t fully get all the 1970s nostalgia because I’m too young to have experienced it. I fully intend to seek out and watch Fedora now, and maybe some other Billy Wilder films too, to try to recapture the sunshine.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

Usually, I love Coe’s writing...but this mixed genre, I found underwhelming and a bit puzzling. What sort of book Coe is aiming for? Begins with promise when a chance meeting in Hollywood in 1977 between adventurous teenager Calista and film director Billy Wilder is life changing for the young girl.
Coe is an accomplished writer; polished, witty and ironic, and I enjoyed reading about social aspects of life in Hollywood, Paris and in Greece; but the real ‘meat’ of the novel held little interest for me personally.
Technical descriptions of musical composition, page after page of film script and the debate about the lukewarm reception to Wilder’s ‘Fedora’ ( which I haven't seen), had little appeal.
Nonetheless, I am grateful to #NetGalley and #PenguinGeneralUK for my pre-release download. And I will choose more carefully in future. Mine is an entirely personal response.