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Avg. Rating: 4.5
Standard Lodge
Standard Lodge: insight, humour, alternative forms, incorporated lecture (Keirkegaard), and an adulterous resolution. Lodge is consistent. His style reminds me a bit of Hornby (maybe I've got that backwards), the honesty I suppose. I relate particularly to his persona's reminiscences about his first girlfriend - how blithely horrible you can be. I don't think he needed to tie things up with a common technique of his (sex: cf. Out of the Shelter; Nice Work, Paradise News): it seems to be important to him to show how he's overcome his teenage Catholic morals, and he falls back on restoration bedroom farce perhaps cheaply.
Again he's wise to stick to areas he knows about - scenes from Television, Publishing - and from a Catholic Youth Group. He also ties in all this stuff about Keirkegaard - someone who hardly lends himself to a popular novel. He has to work hard to make it fit, but does so. I like his line about Keirkegaard being like flying through clouds: occasionally they clear and you have a moment of intense and profound clarity ... and then suddenly you're plunged back into utter obscurity.
Dry, dark humor-- well written
David Lodge is an extremely good writer, and his book is a joy to read. The British colloquialism make this story diffrent from the usualAmerican viewpoint. His jabs at the British medical system, rail system, etc are priceless. One note: the use of a "private consultant" physician led to unnecessary surgery, which perhaps is a backhanded compliment to the socialist "tincture of time" approach after-all.A good read by a good author.
Choosing oneself
This is an excellent novel by a master of the comic serious, David Lodge. The story is covered in the back cover and other reviews, but I would add that the meaning of this novel and its structure are among the most innovative and genuinely engaging I have seen. Many postmodern novels, a term at which no doubt David Lodge would wince, are structured to allow the reader to impose his own understanding of the facts through intricate structures; but rarely are they deeply engaging. The average comic novel, though entertaining, has little to say. This work has both an elusive structure and engaging comic touches. It also has something important to say. It has the potential to become a work read 50 to 100 years from now despite the topical references to mid 1990's Britain. I won't spoil it for you because all will be revealed. Suffice it to say that our protagonist chooses to live in the present rejecting the despair of the unrecoverable past and the hopeless future.
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