In May, we will be ready Changing Places by David Lodge.
Please share your thoughts and comments in this thread.
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In May, we will be ready Changing Places by David Lodge.
Please share your thoughts and comments in this thread.
Okay I borrowed this from the library a couple of years ago...one of the main reasons I know Lodge is he is one of the few literate authors libraries stock quite readily around here...seem to recall Lodge was a university lecturer in English (tho I think he's quit now to write full time) and this novel what I remember of it was it was about some hard nosed businessman who for some unlikely reason reverses roles with a woman who is into literature. He is not a nice character to begin with, basically he thinks literature is for sissy dreamer types, but partly because he fancies the woman he has swapped roles with like mad...well maybe I shouldn't say anymore because it gives away the plot and because I could be making a total fool of myself as it is awhile since I read it. I'm hoping it's still in the library. I feel obliged to read it again now as I voted for it.
I remember it as being an entertaining read but first is anybody else going to read this book because there isn't alot of point in continuing if nobody else is bothering?
I think you are thinking of Nice Work.
I am waiting for my copy to arrive. Will probably start reading it next week.
I wasn't planning to read this but I saw it in the library yesterday and borrowed it, so I might be joining you guys.
I saw a copy of another of David Lodge's books, called Ginger, You're Barmy, in the Oxfam charity shop. Then I saw Changing Places was there as well, so I bought that too.
I've been unable to track down a copy of this book so far.
Has anybody started reading yet? Any thoughts?
I've started reading it again. It has made me laugh out loud several times. It is almost too funny.
If Rummidge is Birmingham, England then I wonder where the Euphoric State University is based. I guess Euphoria is a mythical state between North and South California, and that Plotius is San Francisco. I was amused by the reference to Ronald Duck, the conservative, ex-actor governor of Euphoria. I wonder who he is modelled on?
One other observation is that the chapters are too long. I am currently two chapters through and half way through the book. So far I tend to think what I thought the last time I read it: it's funny but not as good as Small World or Nice Work. Small World was even funnier, but Nice Work was better. Nice Work is a really good book, but it is difficult to count it as part of the same trilogy because it has new characters and because the style is so different. Changing Places is a fun campus novel, but not particularly deep. From an historical point-of-view, I am interested that 1969 America is presented as some Shangri-La, while Britain is presented as some economically deprived back water. Also, that late 60s and 70s student politics was more interesting than it is today.
Excellent posts Kev. I'll try to get to a book shop this weekend and buy a copy, but unfortunately all the decent book shops are in town, otherwise I'd have it by now.
Ronald Reagan probably. He was the Governor of California between 1967-1975.Quote:
Originally Posted by kev67
I have just finished the first chapter. I find some parts funny but nothing you have never heard before if you hang around academics (though it might be a novelty at the time the book was written). I find Lodge heavy handed in his authorly control of the narrative and characters. He is definitely doing more "telling" than "showing".
Ideally, I would give it 3.5 stars, but I'd say it was a good book rather than average.
Finally bought this novel yesterday but couldn't get started on it until today, so I'm rushing a bit because I feel I'm behind on the thread and I haven't had much time for mulling over what I've read so apologies in advance for the inadequacy what I'm about to write after a reading of the first chapter.
I find the cynical contemplations about "the novel" vs "reality" a little stilted as seen by the American tutor as we follow his thoughts on the plane, especially as this is a campus novel which means the setting has a certain inbuilt insulation from "reality" anyway. Neither of the tutors who are changing places seem to enjoy their jobs much which doesn't endear either of them to me (I don't know if anybody reading this thread has ever been taught by an English tutor who was plainly bored by their job, but there's nothing worse in an educational situation than that in my opinion). What the American has got against Jane Austen (or discussions of Jane Austen) is not very clear.
Lodge can write much better than this, but there's still something readable about this despite my reservations, and I'd tend to agree with Kev about the 3.5 rating so far. I think that's about the level it's at.
I thought it highlighted his vanity (and superficiality) in a way. He specialises in a subject that he does not care about. Seems like it is only a subject he can pick and study without actually passion; the only thing he really care about is to have his name mentioned. His project to publish the "final word" in all Austen related issues is an indication of that, I believe.Quote:
Originally Posted by neilgee
The British lecturer on the other hand is driven by passion (not that it helps him). He is determined to find a topic he truly cares about to specialise in but fails to do so.
Finished the book; I have to admit I am quite disappointed. Was expecting something richer and more memorable than this... Something like A Confederacy of Dunces.
That's a very good analysis of the Jane Austen thing, thankyou, it keeps coming up in the novel: Morris Zapp suspects Philip Swallow of being the author of a cutting article about his own article about Jane Austen published in the TLS. I haven't finished it yet, although events seem to be moving beyond and eclipsing such literary worries.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
I would like to ask Kev what he thinks of the plunge into an Epistolary chapter and a newspaper articles chapter, too clever for his own good or do you think it works?
I noticed Kev said it was a funny novel but it's only been in the epistolary chapter that I really have found that so far.