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The Campus Trilogy #3
Nice Work
When Vic Wilcox, MD of Pringle's engineering works, meets English lecturer Dr Robyn Penrose, sparks fly as their lifestyles and ideologies collide head on. But, in time, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds - and about themselves.
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
89 people are currently reading
2808 people want to read
About the author
David Lodge
152 books922 followersDavid John Lodge was an English author and critic. A literature professor at the University of Birmingham until 1987, some of his novels satirise academic life, notably the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988). The second two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another theme is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays. After retiring, he continued to publish literary criticism. His edition of Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1972) includes essays on 20th-century writers such as T.S. Eliot. In 1992, he published The Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on literary techniques with illustrative examples from great authors, such as Point of View (Henry James), The Stream of Consciousness (Virginia Woolf) and Interior Monologue (James Joyce), beginning with Beginning and ending with Ending.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 352 reviews
October 31, 2010
In this witty novel, Lodge engineers a confrontation between Robyn, a young, left-wing female literary theorist, and Vic, an older, conservative, senior manager type. There's a government initiative where Robyn is supposed to "shadow" Vic one day a week, an arrangement that initially neither of them can stand. Each of them thinks the other's world is absurd and pointless. I liked the book partly because I have also spent my professional life flitting between industry and academia. I can absolutely understand Vic's criticisms of academics. They're helplessly disorganised; most of what they do makes no sense and is just empty posturing; they're trapped in a rigid power structure, where the people in charge are mostly tenured professors whose minds atrophied long ago; and why are they inflicting all this pain on themselves anyway, when there's no money to be made? But Robyn's criticisms of the business world also make sense. They're equally trapped by the constant requirement to turn a profit, so they never have time to reflect on whether things could be different. Ultimately, what they do makes no more sense than academia.
It's amusing to see each character's life through the other's eyes, and I particularly liked the ironic presentation of Robyn's feminist views on sex and relationships. (She can explain to you, with footnotes from Lacan, why "love" is just a bourgeois construct, and she thinks penetrative sex is wrong on theoretical grounds). But the passages that have most firmly struck in my memory have to do with literary theory. Lodge just adores literary theory, and he is so ingenious about working bits of it into his novels so that you can also appreciate what a fun game it is. There's a discussion near the end about the technical concept of "aporia". Robyn is explaining it to Vic, and she quotes the following line from Tennyson's Locksley Hall:
I thought of this discussion the other day when we watched Despicable Me. My favourite scene was the one where Gru, the supervillain with the well-hidden heart of gold, has been persuaded to read Sleepy Kittens to the three little orphan girls. The text, presented in its entirety, is purposely constructed to be as idiotic and saccharine-sweet as possible. Gru starts reading:
Is this another example of aporia? Damned if I know: my knowledge of literary theory is pretty much limited to what I've gleaned from David Lodge novels. But I wished Robyn and Vic had been sitting next to us, so I could have listened to them bickering about it on the way out.
It's amusing to see each character's life through the other's eyes, and I particularly liked the ironic presentation of Robyn's feminist views on sex and relationships. (She can explain to you, with footnotes from Lacan, why "love" is just a bourgeois construct, and she thinks penetrative sex is wrong on theoretical grounds). But the passages that have most firmly struck in my memory have to do with literary theory. Lodge just adores literary theory, and he is so ingenious about working bits of it into his novels so that you can also appreciate what a fun game it is. There's a discussion near the end about the technical concept of "aporia". Robyn is explaining it to Vic, and she quotes the following line from Tennyson's Locksley Hall:
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.As she says, the line brilliantly exploits the novel image provided by railways, which had just been invented. (Stevenson's "Rocket" was built in 1829; Tennyson wrote the poem in 1835). But there's a problem. Trains don't run in grooves, but on rails, so the image is fatally flawed. Despite this, it's still a great line! Robyn has clearly used the example many times before in academic settings. But Vic asks whether Tennyson might not have been thinking of trams, which do run in grooves? Hm! That hadn't occurred to her.
I thought of this discussion the other day when we watched Despicable Me. My favourite scene was the one where Gru, the supervillain with the well-hidden heart of gold, has been persuaded to read Sleepy Kittens to the three little orphan girls. The text, presented in its entirety, is purposely constructed to be as idiotic and saccharine-sweet as possible. Gru starts reading:
Three little kittens loved to play"This is GARBAGE!" growls the supervillain. "You LIKE reading this?" It is garbage. But the film shows you how the little girls see it, and for them it's the story they've had read to them every day at bedtime. They view it uncritically, and for them it's full of love and comfort. Gru unwillingly continues to read, stroking the kittens' fur and making them drink their milk as instructed, and by the end he's been won over. Even so, it's still garbage.
They had fun in the sun all day
Is this another example of aporia? Damned if I know: my knowledge of literary theory is pretty much limited to what I've gleaned from David Lodge novels. But I wished Robyn and Vic had been sitting next to us, so I could have listened to them bickering about it on the way out.
April 19, 2022
Rating: one disgusted star of five
The Publisher Says: Vic Wilcox, a self-made man and managing director of an engineering firm. has little regard for academics, and even less for feminists. So when Robyn Penrose, a trendy leftist teacher, is assigned to "shadow" Vic under a goverment program created to foster mutual understanding between town and gown, the hilarious collusion of lifestyles and ideologies that ensues seems unlikely to foster anything besides mutual antipathy. But in the course of a bumpy year, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds--and about themselves.
My Review: Annoying git meets termagant. They hate each other, they...oh what's the difference, everyone knows what happens, and frankly who the hell cares? I detested this book, I thought the author's pseudo-arch (how's that for a horrid combination?) faux Firbank twaddle was the literary equivalent of thorazine.
Do not purchase. If given as a gift, get the fireplace tongs and remove it from your living environment. DO NOT BURN as the miasma could prove lethal to small children.
Not recommended.
The Publisher Says: Vic Wilcox, a self-made man and managing director of an engineering firm. has little regard for academics, and even less for feminists. So when Robyn Penrose, a trendy leftist teacher, is assigned to "shadow" Vic under a goverment program created to foster mutual understanding between town and gown, the hilarious collusion of lifestyles and ideologies that ensues seems unlikely to foster anything besides mutual antipathy. But in the course of a bumpy year, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds--and about themselves.
My Review: Annoying git meets termagant. They hate each other, they...oh what's the difference, everyone knows what happens, and frankly who the hell cares? I detested this book, I thought the author's pseudo-arch (how's that for a horrid combination?) faux Firbank twaddle was the literary equivalent of thorazine.
Do not purchase. If given as a gift, get the fireplace tongs and remove it from your living environment. DO NOT BURN as the miasma could prove lethal to small children.
Not recommended.
December 12, 2022
Suben al ring, en el rincón de la derecha con calzón verde está el defensor del capitalismo salvaje, del liberalismo económico agresivo y de la autorregulación del mercado sin intervención ni moderación estatal, lleva chistera, puro y frac. En el rincón de la izquierda con calzón morado la progre defensora de la sanidad y enseñanza pública y fondos públicos ilimitados, cultureta ella, proviene de familia de docentes como ella misma y tiene un concepto idílico del mundo empresarial, lleva collar y diadema de flores.
Atención, segundos fuera, comienza el combate…. (que nadie se ofenda ni se sienta aludido).
Me acerqué a este libro un poco accidentalmente, lo tenía apuntado desde hacía años, tomé su referencia a través de alguno de los clásicos británicos contemporáneos, creo que fue Kingsley Amis. A priori pensé que se trataría de una comedia bien escrita, divertida, de enredo y poco más pretendía tras haber tenido una lectura dura con la Casa Verde de V. Llosa. ¿Qué me he encontrado? Un libro entretenidísimo que opone posturas políticas radicales en el contexto de la crisis británica de los 80 con el thacherismo, los recortes públicos en educación, el desmantelamiento industrial y un fuerte conflicto social de fondo.
Para nada es una comedia ligera sino un enfrentamiento de posiciones muy alejadas que resulta interesantísimo y muy simpático entre la posición conservadora y la progresista en todos los campos, principalmente en la empresa y la educación, pero también en lo político, relaciones afectivas y de pareja, personales y hasta de percepción del mundo en su conjunto. Disecciona ambos extremos, te hace tomar partido y enfadarte con ambos protagonistas por momentos (principalmente con el prota masculino, con Mr. Wilcox). Todo ello con un toque de humor tan peculiar como el británico, irónico e inteligente. No le pongo 5* por el final que me pareció un poco conciliador y apresurado, y algún devenir de la historia me pareció predecible, pero aun así se trata de una buena novela para limpiar la mente tras lecturas más sesudas, con un fondo sutil. De esos libros fabulosos que hace un par de décadas publicaba Anagrama.
Atención, segundos fuera, comienza el combate…. (que nadie se ofenda ni se sienta aludido).
Me acerqué a este libro un poco accidentalmente, lo tenía apuntado desde hacía años, tomé su referencia a través de alguno de los clásicos británicos contemporáneos, creo que fue Kingsley Amis. A priori pensé que se trataría de una comedia bien escrita, divertida, de enredo y poco más pretendía tras haber tenido una lectura dura con la Casa Verde de V. Llosa. ¿Qué me he encontrado? Un libro entretenidísimo que opone posturas políticas radicales en el contexto de la crisis británica de los 80 con el thacherismo, los recortes públicos en educación, el desmantelamiento industrial y un fuerte conflicto social de fondo.
Para nada es una comedia ligera sino un enfrentamiento de posiciones muy alejadas que resulta interesantísimo y muy simpático entre la posición conservadora y la progresista en todos los campos, principalmente en la empresa y la educación, pero también en lo político, relaciones afectivas y de pareja, personales y hasta de percepción del mundo en su conjunto. Disecciona ambos extremos, te hace tomar partido y enfadarte con ambos protagonistas por momentos (principalmente con el prota masculino, con Mr. Wilcox). Todo ello con un toque de humor tan peculiar como el británico, irónico e inteligente. No le pongo 5* por el final que me pareció un poco conciliador y apresurado, y algún devenir de la historia me pareció predecible, pero aun así se trata de una buena novela para limpiar la mente tras lecturas más sesudas, con un fondo sutil. De esos libros fabulosos que hace un par de décadas publicaba Anagrama.
Read
October 3, 2018In Nice Work David Lodge introduces the campus novel to the 19th century industrial novel.
The excuse for this unnatural pairing is a work exchange scheme and true to the late 1980s setting the basic assumption is the Lecturer from a thinly disguised Birmingham University English department has plenty to learn from industry, while the opposite, not not never, could be so. Lust, however, intervenes to shake up all the best laid plans of mice and men...
Background splashes of colour from the industrial setting make an interesting contrast with 19th century industrial novels like North and South or Hard Times. Here that earlier boundless self confidence has been replaced by a rearguard action fought against seemingly inevitable industrial decline. Ah, actually due to the almost divine intervention of Melvin Bragg. I had a thought about this. To wit the 19th century took notice of the emergence of industrial Britain and novelists including a Bronte, Gaskell, Dickens, among others sought to explain it and give warning to the rest of the country dozing in its rural idle watching herds of yokels fumble with steam machinery.
Lodge, true professor of English literature that he was, applied North and South to the boundless faith of the Thatcher era in entrepreneurship in the face of the realities which determined the experience of asset stripping and being out performed on a quality basis by more or less everyone. On which basis it amuses me here that the male main character - or hero- drives a Jaguar, a former boss of mine did too, it would be an exaggeration to say that his car was constantly broken down, seen plainly it was occasionally sufficiently functional for him to be able to drive it to the nearest garage. It gave every indication of consuming replacement parts as I do bread, except with slightly less mercy.
The lead female character - or heroine is a southerner, she functions as his muse or perhaps Athena to his Odysseys, she is certainly to read as divine in her beauty and temper, this is however a literary joke since her narrative function is to be the Deus ex machina in a 'realistic' ie believable way in a modern novel by virtue of an inheritance which as a good Goddess out of the machine should saves the day for British industry and allows for the revival of fictionalised industrial Birmingham.
Cunning reworking of Lizzie Gaskell's novel with added literary jokes and a university. But rather like the Borges story of the man who rewrote Don Quixote dragging North and South into the late 20th century casts a grim light on the Thatcher era, while Gaskell felt that romance could unite the country and love lead to mutual respect and understanding, Lodge offers divine intervention as the only hope for manufacturing revival putting me in mind of the Phoenix consortium - although that came much later.
The excuse for this unnatural pairing is a work exchange scheme and true to the late 1980s setting the basic assumption is the Lecturer from a thinly disguised Birmingham University English department has plenty to learn from industry, while the opposite, not not never, could be so. Lust, however, intervenes to shake up all the best laid plans of mice and men...
Background splashes of colour from the industrial setting make an interesting contrast with 19th century industrial novels like North and South or Hard Times. Here that earlier boundless self confidence has been replaced by a rearguard action fought against seemingly inevitable industrial decline. Ah, actually due to the almost divine intervention of Melvin Bragg. I had a thought about this. To wit the 19th century took notice of the emergence of industrial Britain and novelists including a Bronte, Gaskell, Dickens, among others sought to explain it and give warning to the rest of the country dozing in its rural idle watching herds of yokels fumble with steam machinery.
Lodge, true professor of English literature that he was, applied North and South to the boundless faith of the Thatcher era in entrepreneurship in the face of the realities which determined the experience of asset stripping and being out performed on a quality basis by more or less everyone. On which basis it amuses me here that the male main character - or hero- drives a Jaguar, a former boss of mine did too, it would be an exaggeration to say that his car was constantly broken down, seen plainly it was occasionally sufficiently functional for him to be able to drive it to the nearest garage. It gave every indication of consuming replacement parts as I do bread, except with slightly less mercy.
The lead female character - or heroine is a southerner, she functions as his muse or perhaps Athena to his Odysseys, she is certainly to read as divine in her beauty and temper, this is however a literary joke since her narrative function is to be the Deus ex machina in a 'realistic' ie believable way in a modern novel by virtue of an inheritance which as a good Goddess out of the machine should saves the day for British industry and allows for the revival of fictionalised industrial Birmingham.
Cunning reworking of Lizzie Gaskell's novel with added literary jokes and a university. But rather like the Borges story of the man who rewrote Don Quixote dragging North and South into the late 20th century casts a grim light on the Thatcher era, while Gaskell felt that romance could unite the country and love lead to mutual respect and understanding, Lodge offers divine intervention as the only hope for manufacturing revival putting me in mind of the Phoenix consortium - although that came much later.
October 25, 2019
Fondly dedicated to Manny.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if I'll have time to finish this review as you waited this Friday, but I'll make an effort. My passion for collecting Catholic writers took me to the track of Englishman David Lodge, I came to him online, but I remember a very sympathetic anecdote, that Jack Valero https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
, who was very present at the canonization of St. John Henry Newman https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
came to Valladolid, specifically to the Faculty of Medicine to present a Catholic apologetic movement due to the dialectical defeat that Catholics suffer in a television program in which Cardinal Pell, Anne Widecombe, against Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... of defeat was resented as a phoenix, and a Catholic Voices Group founded by Austen Ivereigh was formed earlier https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... and Jack Valero went to that conference, not only to see how Catholicism was doing in England, but also to expand my collection. The second goal was a sound failure :-(. When I asked jack Valero about the current writers, and I told Piers Paul Read https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Sara Maitland https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... or David Lodge did not seem to know them, or considered them inferior to the writers of the Catholic Renaissance, although she confessed to me that she liked Evelyn Waugh https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... the evidence seemed to give her the reason Maitland, maybe she was too feminist for me, and Lodge belongs to these cultural Catholics, who do not practice their faith . Non-practicing Catholic. As a priest in a sermon said, it was like saying an athlete who doesn't run. It was an oxymoron that was proposed. Nor did my vision of Lodge improve when I read him his book "The Art of Fiction" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... because for me to like certain writers I had to stop liking some. More than half of the writers i was telling me about, it's not that I was disliked, it was that I directly hated them. It was in the embodiment of everything I fought against. So my soul fell to my feet. But when I saw this book in a second-hand bookstore, I remembered Lodge and decided to give it a try. In addition this novel "A nice work" was recommended by two writers who I am passionate about at least one of them Anthony Burgess https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and Kingsley Amis had long wanted to read "Lucky Jim" although he did not support your child https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Besides, the story was very interesting. A struggle of the sexes between a conservative entrepreneur named Vic Wilcox and a university professor Robyn Penrose (as the scientist of the same surname) feminist, atheist, poststructuralist, and socialist follower of Lacan, Saussare, Derrida, and a lot of impostors and false factories that have been to me the way of seeing those responsible for the decline of Europe, and western civilization, and hopefully, that they will soon fall into oblivion All this was happening in 1980s England in the Tatcher era in a fictional county, as barchester could be https://www.goodreads.com/series/5671... is curious, because while I read it and thought of Vic Wilcox, I couldn't stop think he bore many similarities to Babbitt https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... Sinclair Lewis. Both middle-class members, living in a fictional town (Zenith in the case of Sinclair Lewis's novel) conservative, religious, but not too much, Protestants, and though they don't seem like it they both felt a certain weary about the situation, and were kind of tired about the situation, and were kind of tired routine, marriage, and children. My sympatheticities were logically with Vic, although as a member of the university stuff I also understood Robyn Penrose's position. It's funny Paul Johnson shrewdly targeted England was more focused on class struggle, and America on sex struggle, as he noted brilliantly in "Humorists" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... so it seemed very rare to find a novel like this. But what can I say, it was hilarious satire. As Tintin's famous twin cops would say, I'd say more transcinde the satire. Lodge not only attacks the ferocious capitalofy of Vic Wilcox Pringle's company, it does so without falling into the demagogues of Robyn Penrose, also Lodge, who is a university professor is reflective about the situation of universities, and whether the welfare state has failed , also reproaches them, that they have moved away from the real world. This debate is very much alive. Wilcox's children are not very different from the ninis, or the millennials, also the atmosphere that describes and the crisis of Tatcherism is very similar to the economic crisis that we have experienced, and that has already warned sailors will return and with greater force. But most of all one of the things, which I liked most about this novel, besides the current thing that it is (since it ages very well) is to show one thing, and is that, although one may have an opposite political tendency with another person one can come to agreement , to understand oneself with a person, and even to become friends. He watched with sadness, as one of the evils, that I observe apart from secularism is the enormous crunch of the people, and how politicians take advantage of the population, to divide them, and to confront them. It is what the great writer Juan Manuel de Prada has defined as Demogresca (I don't know how it will be translated into English perhaps demoquarrel) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and then it turns out that between them they agree to raise their pay, and benefit themselves, and the population as divided or bipolarized lets them continue with their dirty handling, and thus they gain power, and they break among the common people friendships , alliances, courtships, and tensions grow within one's family (already quite punished with divorce, and with the steril war of the sexes that we want to impose through the law of sexist violence, or gender). What they are least interested in is protecting women, what is sought is to create hostility between the sexes, and that people do not marry, and do not have children so that they can be exploited more easily. It is very interesting the attack that Lodge makes, against pornography, and the cosification of women. Even if it's through the feminist Robyn Penrose. Who would say it now who is more pro-pornography to liberals is the left itself who is supported by sex lobbyists supports pornography, and uses it in the campaign, as it is a way of controlling society (this is seen in the character of Marion Russell , and Vic's secretary's daughter). The characters are well described, both Robyn Penrose's lover, who live free anti-bourgeois love and if she were an Alexandra Kollontai with Charles. Also well portrayed is the brother broker of her and the snoblous of the left. Look at Robyn's prejudices toward Debbie for talking Cockney. Rector Swallow, Rupert Sutcliffe, Busby, are very well portrayed. On Vic's side is very well portrayed the character of Brian Everly. It is also very interesting to compare the evolution of Mr. Wilcox, and as pringles' business world dehumanizes Penrose to say that it is like a mutt fight for a bone. Perhaps the least interesting thing is the predictable romance between the protagonists, which was the least i liked, downbringing it down to a vulgar "Salmon Fishing in Yemen" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... which is the embodiment of political correctness couple indifferent to religion, liberality with adultery being able to solve the symbol of marriage, and break up with a boyfriend, who is a war hero, not to mention the political choreography embodied by the prince Yemeni with his understanding, benevolent Muslim mysticism. I recognize, there was a moment, that I was about to fail "Nice work" but here's Lodge's genius. As Chesty would say https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... "He's big as Napoleon" despite this the characters never stopped being interested, and loved ones. It's true that I would have liked to see Wilcox more in college. But I, who suffered a loving disappointment, know how a man who has had his heart broken feels, and that's what happened to Wilcox, it's awesome what he does to get Penrose's attention, and try to win her back. In the end, each of them reverses their personality, and brings out the best in the other. Apart from that Lodge who is also a University Professor, in fact, they say that when he talks about literary theory he is a Jekyll, but that he transforms into a Hyde, when he writes his novels, and that's when I love it. In the conversations between Robyn Penrose and Penny Black he has captured the woman with her greatness, and her miseries. It is also wonderful as interleave and puts Victorian writers into his novel without squealing the novel. To contrast The utilitarian, conservative, and capitalist world of Wilcox, and the communist, feminist and sixty-yochist of Robyn Penrose. I can't say lodge's mastery prevented a sung suspense, and gave it the right ending, which reminded me of the one who gave Piers Paul Read to his characters in "The Professor's Daughter" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... e . It also gives a worthy ending to some characters, which the reader never ceases to want, although I professed ideas opposite to that of the characters. It would be nice, that the Lodge formula will be copied, and a Shadow project will be devised. This novel should be admired and appreciated by all kinds of audiences especially by entrepreneurs, and responsible academic world. A masterpiece for all time.
Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if I'll have time to finish this review as you waited this Friday, but I'll make an effort. My passion for collecting Catholic writers took me to the track of Englishman David Lodge, I came to him online, but I remember a very sympathetic anecdote, that Jack Valero https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
, who was very present at the canonization of St. John Henry Newman https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
came to Valladolid, specifically to the Faculty of Medicine to present a Catholic apologetic movement due to the dialectical defeat that Catholics suffer in a television program in which Cardinal Pell, Anne Widecombe, against Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... of defeat was resented as a phoenix, and a Catholic Voices Group founded by Austen Ivereigh was formed earlier https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... and Jack Valero went to that conference, not only to see how Catholicism was doing in England, but also to expand my collection. The second goal was a sound failure :-(. When I asked jack Valero about the current writers, and I told Piers Paul Read https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Sara Maitland https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... or David Lodge did not seem to know them, or considered them inferior to the writers of the Catholic Renaissance, although she confessed to me that she liked Evelyn Waugh https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... the evidence seemed to give her the reason Maitland, maybe she was too feminist for me, and Lodge belongs to these cultural Catholics, who do not practice their faith . Non-practicing Catholic. As a priest in a sermon said, it was like saying an athlete who doesn't run. It was an oxymoron that was proposed. Nor did my vision of Lodge improve when I read him his book "The Art of Fiction" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... because for me to like certain writers I had to stop liking some. More than half of the writers i was telling me about, it's not that I was disliked, it was that I directly hated them. It was in the embodiment of everything I fought against. So my soul fell to my feet. But when I saw this book in a second-hand bookstore, I remembered Lodge and decided to give it a try. In addition this novel "A nice work" was recommended by two writers who I am passionate about at least one of them Anthony Burgess https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and Kingsley Amis had long wanted to read "Lucky Jim" although he did not support your child https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... Besides, the story was very interesting. A struggle of the sexes between a conservative entrepreneur named Vic Wilcox and a university professor Robyn Penrose (as the scientist of the same surname) feminist, atheist, poststructuralist, and socialist follower of Lacan, Saussare, Derrida, and a lot of impostors and false factories that have been to me the way of seeing those responsible for the decline of Europe, and western civilization, and hopefully, that they will soon fall into oblivion All this was happening in 1980s England in the Tatcher era in a fictional county, as barchester could be https://www.goodreads.com/series/5671... is curious, because while I read it and thought of Vic Wilcox, I couldn't stop think he bore many similarities to Babbitt https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... Sinclair Lewis. Both middle-class members, living in a fictional town (Zenith in the case of Sinclair Lewis's novel) conservative, religious, but not too much, Protestants, and though they don't seem like it they both felt a certain weary about the situation, and were kind of tired about the situation, and were kind of tired routine, marriage, and children. My sympatheticities were logically with Vic, although as a member of the university stuff I also understood Robyn Penrose's position. It's funny Paul Johnson shrewdly targeted England was more focused on class struggle, and America on sex struggle, as he noted brilliantly in "Humorists" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... so it seemed very rare to find a novel like this. But what can I say, it was hilarious satire. As Tintin's famous twin cops would say, I'd say more transcinde the satire. Lodge not only attacks the ferocious capitalofy of Vic Wilcox Pringle's company, it does so without falling into the demagogues of Robyn Penrose, also Lodge, who is a university professor is reflective about the situation of universities, and whether the welfare state has failed , also reproaches them, that they have moved away from the real world. This debate is very much alive. Wilcox's children are not very different from the ninis, or the millennials, also the atmosphere that describes and the crisis of Tatcherism is very similar to the economic crisis that we have experienced, and that has already warned sailors will return and with greater force. But most of all one of the things, which I liked most about this novel, besides the current thing that it is (since it ages very well) is to show one thing, and is that, although one may have an opposite political tendency with another person one can come to agreement , to understand oneself with a person, and even to become friends. He watched with sadness, as one of the evils, that I observe apart from secularism is the enormous crunch of the people, and how politicians take advantage of the population, to divide them, and to confront them. It is what the great writer Juan Manuel de Prada has defined as Demogresca (I don't know how it will be translated into English perhaps demoquarrel) https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and then it turns out that between them they agree to raise their pay, and benefit themselves, and the population as divided or bipolarized lets them continue with their dirty handling, and thus they gain power, and they break among the common people friendships , alliances, courtships, and tensions grow within one's family (already quite punished with divorce, and with the steril war of the sexes that we want to impose through the law of sexist violence, or gender). What they are least interested in is protecting women, what is sought is to create hostility between the sexes, and that people do not marry, and do not have children so that they can be exploited more easily. It is very interesting the attack that Lodge makes, against pornography, and the cosification of women. Even if it's through the feminist Robyn Penrose. Who would say it now who is more pro-pornography to liberals is the left itself who is supported by sex lobbyists supports pornography, and uses it in the campaign, as it is a way of controlling society (this is seen in the character of Marion Russell , and Vic's secretary's daughter). The characters are well described, both Robyn Penrose's lover, who live free anti-bourgeois love and if she were an Alexandra Kollontai with Charles. Also well portrayed is the brother broker of her and the snoblous of the left. Look at Robyn's prejudices toward Debbie for talking Cockney. Rector Swallow, Rupert Sutcliffe, Busby, are very well portrayed. On Vic's side is very well portrayed the character of Brian Everly. It is also very interesting to compare the evolution of Mr. Wilcox, and as pringles' business world dehumanizes Penrose to say that it is like a mutt fight for a bone. Perhaps the least interesting thing is the predictable romance between the protagonists, which was the least i liked, downbringing it down to a vulgar "Salmon Fishing in Yemen" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... which is the embodiment of political correctness couple indifferent to religion, liberality with adultery being able to solve the symbol of marriage, and break up with a boyfriend, who is a war hero, not to mention the political choreography embodied by the prince Yemeni with his understanding, benevolent Muslim mysticism. I recognize, there was a moment, that I was about to fail "Nice work" but here's Lodge's genius. As Chesty would say https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... "He's big as Napoleon" despite this the characters never stopped being interested, and loved ones. It's true that I would have liked to see Wilcox more in college. But I, who suffered a loving disappointment, know how a man who has had his heart broken feels, and that's what happened to Wilcox, it's awesome what he does to get Penrose's attention, and try to win her back. In the end, each of them reverses their personality, and brings out the best in the other. Apart from that Lodge who is also a University Professor, in fact, they say that when he talks about literary theory he is a Jekyll, but that he transforms into a Hyde, when he writes his novels, and that's when I love it. In the conversations between Robyn Penrose and Penny Black he has captured the woman with her greatness, and her miseries. It is also wonderful as interleave and puts Victorian writers into his novel without squealing the novel. To contrast The utilitarian, conservative, and capitalist world of Wilcox, and the communist, feminist and sixty-yochist of Robyn Penrose. I can't say lodge's mastery prevented a sung suspense, and gave it the right ending, which reminded me of the one who gave Piers Paul Read to his characters in "The Professor's Daughter" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... e . It also gives a worthy ending to some characters, which the reader never ceases to want, although I professed ideas opposite to that of the characters. It would be nice, that the Lodge formula will be copied, and a Shadow project will be devised. This novel should be admired and appreciated by all kinds of audiences especially by entrepreneurs, and responsible academic world. A masterpiece for all time.
October 6, 2022
The best of Lodge's novels that I have read to date. It sounds like the stuff of reality TV shows: pampered academic woman shadows crass businessman. But the result is completely convincing. It comes off without stereotypes and melodrama. Lodge has done his homework on industry and uses it deftly, never becoming showy or obvious. It is refreshing to read a novel that shows its characters actually working.
Never understood why Lodge bothers with all the subterfuge about the setting. It's Birmingham in all but name.
Never understood why Lodge bothers with all the subterfuge about the setting. It's Birmingham in all but name.
November 3, 2023
Nothing nice about it
July 28, 2019
Απολαυστικό μολονότι μετά τον Joyce και τον Pynchon μου φάνηκε λιγότερο ενδιαφέρον ως προς τη γλώσσα ή ακριβέστερα την πολυπλοκότητα της γραφής. Ωστόσο, το σύνολο των χαρακτήρων, η πολιτικοκοινωνική κατάσταση στην Αγγλία, όπως και οι δύο κόσμοι της βαριάς βιομηχανίας και τη διανόησης που είναι καταδικασμένοι στο μη συγκλίνουν (κι ας έρχονται τόσο κοντά) παρουσιάζονται με ρεαλισμό και χιούμορ, ώστε τελικά το βιβλίο να γίνεται αρκετά αξιόλογο.
April 29, 2015
The last in what is loosely termed "The Campus Trilogy" by David Lodge. The books are only distantly linked, it's nice to read them in order but not strictly necessary, and each can stand on it's own two feet, I believe.
This time we follow two very different characters. Robyn is an idealist: a feminist professor of literature, in a non-relationship with her long-time partner, Charles. Vic is a man's man: a managing director of a factory, macho, hard-working, a laborer who has money because he's in management. He's married with three kids and drives a company car. They meet in a fiery clash of wills.
Robyn's University signs her up for a shadow program - once a week she travels to the factory as Vic's shadow. She follows him everywhere and watches him work. They immediately get into numerous arguments about work, wages, unions, strikes, working conditions, and labor laws. At first put off by her staunch, loud, in-your-face feminism, Vic slowly finds himself increasingly charmed by her intelligence, courage, brashness, and independence.
For her part, Robyn is receiving a crash course on 'the real world', away from the vaulted towers of intellectualism. She learns some hard lessons about industry and cutting corners and looking at the big picture. In turn, Vic is learning to value the individual, and see that justice and learning are valuable things.
This isn't some sappy romance. Even though Vic and Robyn start falling for one another, they are real people with real lives and real problems. Vic is married, Robyn is with Charles in an 'open' relationship that isn't so open since they're both only seeing each other. Both characters have to struggle with having their worldview altered, and have to go through the pain of rethinking long-held beliefs.
Not only do they share viewpoints, looking at the world through each other's eyes, but they also (by the end of the novel) switch financial statuses.
I really like how Lodge treated his characters, making them stubborn and vulnerable. Neither was anywhere close to perfect, and seeing their small drama played out was very realistic and touching. No Mary Sues, Gary Stus or pat endings here.
This is also a comedy, of sorts. While this is not nearly as funny as some other books by Lodge, this book has a kind of lighthearted tone that makes it easier to read than if Lodge were preaching to us.
THERAPY is still Lodge's best novel and the one you should read if you have to choose one.
This time we follow two very different characters. Robyn is an idealist: a feminist professor of literature, in a non-relationship with her long-time partner, Charles. Vic is a man's man: a managing director of a factory, macho, hard-working, a laborer who has money because he's in management. He's married with three kids and drives a company car. They meet in a fiery clash of wills.
Robyn's University signs her up for a shadow program - once a week she travels to the factory as Vic's shadow. She follows him everywhere and watches him work. They immediately get into numerous arguments about work, wages, unions, strikes, working conditions, and labor laws. At first put off by her staunch, loud, in-your-face feminism, Vic slowly finds himself increasingly charmed by her intelligence, courage, brashness, and independence.
For her part, Robyn is receiving a crash course on 'the real world', away from the vaulted towers of intellectualism. She learns some hard lessons about industry and cutting corners and looking at the big picture. In turn, Vic is learning to value the individual, and see that justice and learning are valuable things.
This isn't some sappy romance. Even though Vic and Robyn start falling for one another, they are real people with real lives and real problems. Vic is married, Robyn is with Charles in an 'open' relationship that isn't so open since they're both only seeing each other. Both characters have to struggle with having their worldview altered, and have to go through the pain of rethinking long-held beliefs.
Not only do they share viewpoints, looking at the world through each other's eyes, but they also (by the end of the novel) switch financial statuses.
I really like how Lodge treated his characters, making them stubborn and vulnerable. Neither was anywhere close to perfect, and seeing their small drama played out was very realistic and touching. No Mary Sues, Gary Stus or pat endings here.
This is also a comedy, of sorts. While this is not nearly as funny as some other books by Lodge, this book has a kind of lighthearted tone that makes it easier to read than if Lodge were preaching to us.
THERAPY is still Lodge's best novel and the one you should read if you have to choose one.
August 7, 2011
Don't take my four stars as a wide endorsement -- I recognize that not everyone would enjoy this as much as I did (especially with the tiny print -- I really am getting old). But I'll tell you about the book, and about why I appreciated it.
I've now read a few novels which would fall into a category I recently discovered -- a "novel of ideas." My sense of these novels is that plot, and certainly characterization, unfortunately tend to be secondary to setting up debates between characters representing particular viewpoints and having the two sides hash it out. I enjoy debates and ideas as much as the next person and probably more than some, but they're not what I read a novel for. I'm not opposed to including them as long as plot and characterization are done well. That has not been the case in most of the "novels of ideas" I've read.
This book was an exception. This was actually a story(!) about a struggling temporary professor who ends up shadowing a factory manager, each of whom had their own layered personality and set of circumstances, and about the complicated relationship which develops between them. Yes -- there was a focus on the relative merits and demerits of academia versus industry, a topic frequently debated by the central characters. At the same time, I never felt like I was reading a polemic rather than a novel. And unlike many other novels of ideas I've read, the debates were actually interesting and engaging in their own right rather than feeling like a boring-ish distraction from a non-existent story.
It's probably not the easiest book to get into, and it was written in the 80s which makes it a bit dated and quaint. But I ended up enjoying it, and I think others might as well.
I've now read a few novels which would fall into a category I recently discovered -- a "novel of ideas." My sense of these novels is that plot, and certainly characterization, unfortunately tend to be secondary to setting up debates between characters representing particular viewpoints and having the two sides hash it out. I enjoy debates and ideas as much as the next person and probably more than some, but they're not what I read a novel for. I'm not opposed to including them as long as plot and characterization are done well. That has not been the case in most of the "novels of ideas" I've read.
This book was an exception. This was actually a story(!) about a struggling temporary professor who ends up shadowing a factory manager, each of whom had their own layered personality and set of circumstances, and about the complicated relationship which develops between them. Yes -- there was a focus on the relative merits and demerits of academia versus industry, a topic frequently debated by the central characters. At the same time, I never felt like I was reading a polemic rather than a novel. And unlike many other novels of ideas I've read, the debates were actually interesting and engaging in their own right rather than feeling like a boring-ish distraction from a non-existent story.
It's probably not the easiest book to get into, and it was written in the 80s which makes it a bit dated and quaint. But I ended up enjoying it, and I think others might as well.
December 22, 2020
I loved this social comedy, sex comedy, academia vs industry political satire. I loved it in spite of or maybe because of the fact it couldn't have shouted 1980s any louder if it had bought a pair of leg warmers and a Jane Fonda workout video ( on Betamax, naturally). It also feels like it was Lodge's answer to an A level Sociology exam question. "Imagine a left wing academic and a right wing industrialist spending time together. What could they each learn from the other's diametrically opposed ideology?" Lodge obviously passed the exam with flying colours, especially as he added his own gender twist, making Vic Wilcox, the Midlands Engineering MD a conventional staid married man and Dr Robyn Penrose, the lecturer on Women's studies, especially the 19th century Industrial novel, a flame-haired, Pre-Raphaelite object of desire. Too cute for its own good at times, but it absolutely skewers so many of the issues of the time.
January 2, 2024
Δεν θα μπορούσε να έχει ξεκινήσει καλύτερα η αναγνωστική χρόνια! Δεν υπάρχει περίπτωση να με απογοητεύσει βιβλίο του Λοτζ. Υπέροχος!
December 30, 2020
1980’li yılların sonları İngilteresinde “başarılı” bir sanayici, beyaz erkek ile üniversitenin kadın araştırmaları bölümünde ders veren bir İngiliz edebiyatı doktoru feminist kadının yolları kesişirse ne olur? Bu iki dünya birbirini ne ölçüde etkileyebilir? Erkek statüsünü yitirdiğinde, konforlu dünyasından “atıldığında” bu bir şans mıdır, şanssızlık mı? Peki başarı başarı dedikleri ne menem bir şeydir? Sahi aradığımız , arzuladığımız başarı hangisi? Başarısızlıktan doğacak “başarı”ya ne demeli? Neo-liberalizmin , kapitalizmin insan ilişkilerinde ve yaşam biçimlerinde yarattıklarını, bu iki karakter üzerinden tartışan, toplumsal cinsiyet meselesine hem ilişkiler hem popüler kültür hem iş ve akademik dünya cephesinden bakan çok iyi bir roman.
May 1, 2025
Mul on magamistoas riidekapi peal üks raamatuvirn, kuhu kogun raamatuid hetkeks, kui päriselu peaks tõsiselt talumatuks muutuma. Et kui, siis võtan sealt, neid kõige kõigemaid ja ehk õnnestub ellu jääda. Kogumist alustasin ca 5 aastat tagasi ja esimese lugesin nüüd läbi. Ja mitte, et nüüd surm silme ees olnuks, lihtsalt tundus õige hetk millekski garanteeritult heaks. Nüüd on väike kimbatus, kahtlane hetk hakkab vist üle minema, aga „Väärt töö“ on Lodge’i Rummidge’i triloogia kolmas raamat ja esimene, „Väike maailma“, mis on mul samuti lugemata, aga asub samas virnas …
Kuigi kõige enam meeldis mulle selles raamatus kahe väga erineva inimese vahel juhtunud armastus, on see eelkõige suurepärane ülikooliromaan. Tegevus toimub küll suures osas väljaspool ülikooli, kuid probleemid, millest räägitakse, on selgelt ülikoolikesksed ja ehk isegi teravamad kui triloogia teises raamatus „Ühest kohast teise“. Veider personalipoliitika, kus eluaegselt kohale määratud ja juba raugastunud professorid ei lahku töölt. Töökohad ei vabane ja kui riik satub majanduslikesse raskustesse, tabab koondamislaine eelkõige noori ja andekaid õppejõude. Kõrvutatakse päriselust veidi kõrvale jäänud, põnevaid intellektuaalseid lahinguid pakkuva rahuliku ja mugavat ülikoolielu karmi nö päriseluga (metallurgiatehas). Juhitakse tähelepanu õppejõudude naeruväärsetele palkadele ja tohutule auditooriumivälisele koormusele.
Ühesõnaga, raamatus on kaks peategelast. Üks neist on naine, enam mitte eriti noor, kuid südikas inglise kirjanduse õppejõud, strukturalismi ja naisromaani spetsialist, feminist ja kaunitar, Robyn Penrose . Intellektuaal, kes mõtleb diskursustes, tsiteerib Saussure´i ning näeb freudistlike sümboleid nii tehase korstnas kui siidirullis. Vallaline ja suhteliselt vaba. Suhteliselt, sest tal on küll ametivennast seksisõber, kuid puuduvad mistahes paari heitmise plaanid. Puuduvad, sest milleks ja armastusse ta nagunii ei usu, usub, et see on puhtalt romaanikirjanike väljamõeldis. Ta pole kunagi armunud olnud ja isegi mitte eriti huvitatud. Sekski tundub pigem millegi igavana, kui üldse, siis pigem erootiline massaaž intellektuaalse vestluse kõrvale. Robyni tõeline kirg on tema töö, see on see, mis teda ülepeakaela köidab, milles ta on päriselt hea.
Et siis, pidevas koondamishirmus elav Robyn saadetakse mingi täiesti lollaka programmi raames tehasesse tutvuma päriseluga ja kogemusi vahetama. Mu meelest on päris naljakas, et ülikooli poolt tehasesse päriseluga tutvuma saadetakse filoloog, tähelepanu – sest ta tunneb 19. sajandi tööstusromaani.
Siinkohal astub lavale raamatu teine peategelane, metallurgiatehase tegevdirektor Victor Wilcox, kes mõtleb ööd ja päevad, kuidas tehas majanduskriisi august välja tirida. Mitte eriti pikk ning veidi tüsedusele kalduv, väga enesekindel, võimukas ja hõivatud mees, no umbes nagu Karlsson, ainult, et propellerita. Ta juhatab talle usaldatud tehast, tal on oma maja, kodukitlit ja lokirulle kandev naine, lapsed (poiss ja tüdruk, peaaegu täiskasvanud), mugav olme, heal järjel oleva inimese harjumused ning selge ettekujutus sellest, kuidas asjad käima peavad. Kunagi ta armastas oma naist, kuid nüüd on lihtsalt harjunud ega tunne enam ammu tema vastu ei huvi ega mingisugust tõmmet. Kannab oma risti ega arva, et elu teda veel kuidagi üllataks. Ammugi siis nt armastusega, aga no …
Kõige põnevamad kombinatsioonid sünnivad inimestest, kes on väga erinevad. Just see erinevus on see, millest tekib sädemeid ja pinget, hingeliigutusi. Ühesõnaga sobiv pinnas armastuseks. Aga on ka teine pool – mida rohkem erinevusi, seda raskem kokku leppida, milles iganes ja leppida. See, mis ühe jaoks on suur ja siiras tunne, on teise jaoks mööduv huvi. Ja niimoodi kõiges. Valus, piinavalt valus. Aga ellu peab ju jääma. Veelgi enam – on vaja vaadata tuleviku ja meenutada mineviku tänutundega selle eest, mis oli. Alati ei õnnestu ja siis, pole olemas suuremat kubust.
Töövarju saabumise üle tehasesse Vic muidugi ei rõõmusta. Ei rõõmusta isegi veel teadmata, et Robyn on vasakpoolseid vaateid eviv intellektuaal ja kaunis naine. Alguses võtab lugu natuke hoogu, kuid Robyni ja Vici kohtumise hetkest peale on selge, ei igav nende kahega ei hakka. Nende kahe arutlused elu üle on täiesti suurepärased.
Lodge kirjutab hästi, täiesti suurepäraselt ja ma oleks raamatule rõõmuga viis tärni pannud, kui lõpp oleks olnud midagi muud. Ma kuidagi pettusin veits. Ma oleks tahtnud, et töövarjude programmis osalenud Robyn ja Vic oleksid mõlemad kuidagi … midagi, kuhugi. Kui Vic tegi selgelt sammu edasi mitmes erinevas mõttes, siis Robyn mu meelest ei õppinud mitte midagi. Aga eks seegi on väga eluline …
Kuigi kõige enam meeldis mulle selles raamatus kahe väga erineva inimese vahel juhtunud armastus, on see eelkõige suurepärane ülikooliromaan. Tegevus toimub küll suures osas väljaspool ülikooli, kuid probleemid, millest räägitakse, on selgelt ülikoolikesksed ja ehk isegi teravamad kui triloogia teises raamatus „Ühest kohast teise“. Veider personalipoliitika, kus eluaegselt kohale määratud ja juba raugastunud professorid ei lahku töölt. Töökohad ei vabane ja kui riik satub majanduslikesse raskustesse, tabab koondamislaine eelkõige noori ja andekaid õppejõude. Kõrvutatakse päriselust veidi kõrvale jäänud, põnevaid intellektuaalseid lahinguid pakkuva rahuliku ja mugavat ülikoolielu karmi nö päriseluga (metallurgiatehas). Juhitakse tähelepanu õppejõudude naeruväärsetele palkadele ja tohutule auditooriumivälisele koormusele.
Ühesõnaga, raamatus on kaks peategelast. Üks neist on naine, enam mitte eriti noor, kuid südikas inglise kirjanduse õppejõud, strukturalismi ja naisromaani spetsialist, feminist ja kaunitar, Robyn Penrose . Intellektuaal, kes mõtleb diskursustes, tsiteerib Saussure´i ning näeb freudistlike sümboleid nii tehase korstnas kui siidirullis. Vallaline ja suhteliselt vaba. Suhteliselt, sest tal on küll ametivennast seksisõber, kuid puuduvad mistahes paari heitmise plaanid. Puuduvad, sest milleks ja armastusse ta nagunii ei usu, usub, et see on puhtalt romaanikirjanike väljamõeldis. Ta pole kunagi armunud olnud ja isegi mitte eriti huvitatud. Sekski tundub pigem millegi igavana, kui üldse, siis pigem erootiline massaaž intellektuaalse vestluse kõrvale. Robyni tõeline kirg on tema töö, see on see, mis teda ülepeakaela köidab, milles ta on päriselt hea.
Et siis, pidevas koondamishirmus elav Robyn saadetakse mingi täiesti lollaka programmi raames tehasesse tutvuma päriseluga ja kogemusi vahetama. Mu meelest on päris naljakas, et ülikooli poolt tehasesse päriseluga tutvuma saadetakse filoloog, tähelepanu – sest ta tunneb 19. sajandi tööstusromaani.
Siinkohal astub lavale raamatu teine peategelane, metallurgiatehase tegevdirektor Victor Wilcox, kes mõtleb ööd ja päevad, kuidas tehas majanduskriisi august välja tirida. Mitte eriti pikk ning veidi tüsedusele kalduv, väga enesekindel, võimukas ja hõivatud mees, no umbes nagu Karlsson, ainult, et propellerita. Ta juhatab talle usaldatud tehast, tal on oma maja, kodukitlit ja lokirulle kandev naine, lapsed (poiss ja tüdruk, peaaegu täiskasvanud), mugav olme, heal järjel oleva inimese harjumused ning selge ettekujutus sellest, kuidas asjad käima peavad. Kunagi ta armastas oma naist, kuid nüüd on lihtsalt harjunud ega tunne enam ammu tema vastu ei huvi ega mingisugust tõmmet. Kannab oma risti ega arva, et elu teda veel kuidagi üllataks. Ammugi siis nt armastusega, aga no …
Kõige põnevamad kombinatsioonid sünnivad inimestest, kes on väga erinevad. Just see erinevus on see, millest tekib sädemeid ja pinget, hingeliigutusi. Ühesõnaga sobiv pinnas armastuseks. Aga on ka teine pool – mida rohkem erinevusi, seda raskem kokku leppida, milles iganes ja leppida. See, mis ühe jaoks on suur ja siiras tunne, on teise jaoks mööduv huvi. Ja niimoodi kõiges. Valus, piinavalt valus. Aga ellu peab ju jääma. Veelgi enam – on vaja vaadata tuleviku ja meenutada mineviku tänutundega selle eest, mis oli. Alati ei õnnestu ja siis, pole olemas suuremat kubust.
Töövarju saabumise üle tehasesse Vic muidugi ei rõõmusta. Ei rõõmusta isegi veel teadmata, et Robyn on vasakpoolseid vaateid eviv intellektuaal ja kaunis naine. Alguses võtab lugu natuke hoogu, kuid Robyni ja Vici kohtumise hetkest peale on selge, ei igav nende kahega ei hakka. Nende kahe arutlused elu üle on täiesti suurepärased.
Lodge kirjutab hästi, täiesti suurepäraselt ja ma oleks raamatule rõõmuga viis tärni pannud, kui lõpp oleks olnud midagi muud. Ma kuidagi pettusin veits. Ma oleks tahtnud, et töövarjude programmis osalenud Robyn ja Vic oleksid mõlemad kuidagi … midagi, kuhugi. Kui Vic tegi selgelt sammu edasi mitmes erinevas mõttes, siis Robyn mu meelest ei õppinud mitte midagi. Aga eks seegi on väga eluline …
August 20, 2024
Not my cup of tea... THOUGH I enjoyed the ending (the story finally started rolling lmao)
June 28, 2011
Funny, moving and, in the long run, feel good. Vic Wilcox a workaholic managing director of a small engineering firm who is opinionated, dismissive and seeking to be upwardly mobile for the sake of his wife ends up sharing his Wednesdays with a ' shadow' from the local University on a project to get business and university inter-relating. (A tad prophetic Mr Lodge). The shadow in question is a self-opinionated, elitist snob called Robyn Penrose who specializes in English literature but especially women studies. The stage is set but rather than it being a tired rehash of archetypes and obvious clashes this is a clever challenge; Well it was to me. It made me stop mid sigh or eyebrow raise at something one or other of them was saying when you suddenly start hearing them thinking or questioning themselves and then I found myself thinking oh actually you have a point or I found I began to warm to them as Lodge has created two really attractive personalities. A man and a woman with faults and frailties who came across as genuine seekers after the right thing to say and do. There were all sorts of issues raised; amongst them, the elitist use of language and concept, the blind alley of aggressive posturing in disputes, the need for continual exploration of relationships, especially those we think we have sorted. I really enjoyed this novel. Funny, thought provoking and oddly topical even though written almost 25 years ago
March 25, 2013
The cap to David Lodge's Campus Trilogy is neither as neat nor as funny as its predecessors, but Nice Work is not without its enticements. The melding of the Rummidge University with its grey industrial heart is a firm idea, and Lodge handles matters of class differences astutely.
The two lead characters are sympathetic in their own separate ways and are justifiably drawn together, and Lodge foreshadows their conclusions without being obnoxious about it. Probably the most interesting point that Lodge has to make is that neither of his leads approaches issues of immigration and race from the "right" angle, each condescending in their own separate ways. Lodge refuses to provide real answers for these character's prejudices and shows that even good intentions can be demeaning in their own way.
However, as a result we end up with a book that is more nice than it is sharp, whose ending is swathed in a blanket of possibly baseless hope rather than the harsh reality that had loomed over it from the start.
The two lead characters are sympathetic in their own separate ways and are justifiably drawn together, and Lodge foreshadows their conclusions without being obnoxious about it. Probably the most interesting point that Lodge has to make is that neither of his leads approaches issues of immigration and race from the "right" angle, each condescending in their own separate ways. Lodge refuses to provide real answers for these character's prejudices and shows that even good intentions can be demeaning in their own way.
However, as a result we end up with a book that is more nice than it is sharp, whose ending is swathed in a blanket of possibly baseless hope rather than the harsh reality that had loomed over it from the start.
June 30, 2010
Smart book. Very clever. Lots of moments of, 'ooooooh, I see what you did there!' Wildly feminist professor meets traditionalist industrial business man via crazy shadow scheme in time of state budget cuts and overall economic downturn. Riddled with literary references and social critique focused on academic life, industry, and business practices it also includes clever commentary on gender roles and family dynamics.
May 8, 2009
This book changed the way I thought about people in industry vs. academia. Definitely worth a read. Plus it's really funny.
May 3, 2018
http://www.hyperebaaktiivne.ee/2018/0...
1986, Rummidge. On tööstusaasta ning kellelgi tuleb hiilgav idee saata mõni ülikooli töötajatest kohalikku tehasesse töövarjuks. Valituks osutus Robyn, noor neiu, kes on ajutiselt tööl, kuid ihkab kogu hingest püsivat õppejõu kohta. Naine loodab, et hea käitumine toob talle Philip Swallow silmis plusspunkte. Varjutatavaks on Vic Wilcox, Pringle'si tegevdirektor. Kuigi Robyn on spetsialiseerunud industriaalromaanile, šokeerib tehasekeskond teda ning naine üritab sekkuda, põhjustades tööliste streigi. Tal õnnestub olukord lahendada, kuid on selge, et suhted Viciga jäävad keerulisteks. Muidugi ilmub raamatus välja ka Morris Zapp.
"Väärt töö" pakkus mulle kolmest raamatust kõige vähem huvi. Pidin end sundima, et teos ometi läbi saaks. Esiteks, jäid kaugeks käsitletud teemad ning teiseks, ei meeldinud mulle tegelased ega tegevusliin. Siiski suutis lõpplahendus mind positiivselt üllatada.
Soovitan raamatuid neile, keda huvitab eelmise sajandi lõpu akadeemiline maailm. Minu jaoks jäi küll enamik käsitletud teemasid kaugeteks ning raske oli süveneda, kuid silmaringi laiendamise mõttes oli igati vahva lugemine ja mõnest naljast sain ikka aru ka.
1986, Rummidge. On tööstusaasta ning kellelgi tuleb hiilgav idee saata mõni ülikooli töötajatest kohalikku tehasesse töövarjuks. Valituks osutus Robyn, noor neiu, kes on ajutiselt tööl, kuid ihkab kogu hingest püsivat õppejõu kohta. Naine loodab, et hea käitumine toob talle Philip Swallow silmis plusspunkte. Varjutatavaks on Vic Wilcox, Pringle'si tegevdirektor. Kuigi Robyn on spetsialiseerunud industriaalromaanile, šokeerib tehasekeskond teda ning naine üritab sekkuda, põhjustades tööliste streigi. Tal õnnestub olukord lahendada, kuid on selge, et suhted Viciga jäävad keerulisteks. Muidugi ilmub raamatus välja ka Morris Zapp.
"Väärt töö" pakkus mulle kolmest raamatust kõige vähem huvi. Pidin end sundima, et teos ometi läbi saaks. Esiteks, jäid kaugeks käsitletud teemad ning teiseks, ei meeldinud mulle tegelased ega tegevusliin. Siiski suutis lõpplahendus mind positiivselt üllatada.
Soovitan raamatuid neile, keda huvitab eelmise sajandi lõpu akadeemiline maailm. Minu jaoks jäi küll enamik käsitletud teemasid kaugeteks ning raske oli süveneda, kuid silmaringi laiendamise mõttes oli igati vahva lugemine ja mõnest naljast sain ikka aru ka.
February 23, 2024
More like meh work
July 6, 2025
I really enjoyed this tale of the culture clash between a female English Literature lecturer, and the managing director of an engineering firm, as a result of a shadowing scheme set up between academia and industry. Lodge's triumph here is writing what is a very clever novel in a manner which on the surface is very straightforward and uncomplicated, but which has some particularly insightful points. The overarching narrative might be seen as predictable, but the way it's told contains a great deal more wit and satire than expected.
Though the ending was perhaps a touch rushed and tied-up in my humble opinion, I'm not letting that affect the compelling read which this was for the first 300+ pages. I also found much pleasure in the nature of the book as a 'contemporary' book written in the late 1980s and recognised plenty of the attitudes I grew up alongside - certainly an interesting contrast/comparison with working life three or four decades later. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Though the ending was perhaps a touch rushed and tied-up in my humble opinion, I'm not letting that affect the compelling read which this was for the first 300+ pages. I also found much pleasure in the nature of the book as a 'contemporary' book written in the late 1980s and recognised plenty of the attitudes I grew up alongside - certainly an interesting contrast/comparison with working life three or four decades later. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
September 10, 2023
3,5/5
Très intéressant de découvrir le milieu de l’industrie et de l’université dans l’Angleterre tatchérienne, au milieu des coupes budgétaires et du déclin de l’industrie.
Personnages un peu caricaturaux et un certain manque d’histoire (on ne sait pas trop où le roman va, s’il va quelque part), même si la fin m’a plu !
Très intéressant de découvrir le milieu de l’industrie et de l’université dans l’Angleterre tatchérienne, au milieu des coupes budgétaires et du déclin de l’industrie.
Personnages un peu caricaturaux et un certain manque d’histoire (on ne sait pas trop où le roman va, s’il va quelque part), même si la fin m’a plu !
August 1, 2023
this was a bit of a disappointment. I re-read it after many years as it is featuring in a course on 80's literature I am planning to do in the Autumn. I had find memorie of it and the tv series based on it. Now however it did not engage me so much. I found it quite dated.
June 11, 2017
It was the Campus Trilogy that hooked me on David Lodge and Nice work is the third selection. The earlier books contrasted American and British college life as experienced in the early 1970's. Lodge built his humor on the vast difference between California College life and Industrial town college life in England. In the Second Book, Small World, this contrast has dimmed in favor of the life of a "Road Scholar"; that is that portion of the international professorial elite that work the academic conference circuit.
The pattern Lodge teaches us to expect is that there is humor in contrasting points of view. Adjectives need not be harsh to paint a critical picture and that being slyly judgmental can be as powerful as being overtly negative.
If you have no patience for academia or for the discussion of some fairly esoteric topics, Nice Work will try your patience.
In Nice Work we have academia acting as background for a meet up between an extreme, feminist college academic and an equally extreme capitalistic factory president. Visiting Australian professor Robyn Penrose teaches 19th-century literature at the Lodges invented University of Rummidge. She also ascribes to virtually every left wing shibboleth and back them with an impressive intellectual ferocity. Via a town and gown program to match University lecturers with corporate leaders she will shadowed by and in turn shadow Vic Wilcox, managing director of Pringle's, an industrial casting company located in the neighboring Industrial corridor. Wilcox is as classic as a capitalist as Penrose is liberal. His concerns are making money and mostly ignoring his materialistic and superficial wife and being confused by his wasteful progeny.
Loge accomplishes in a relatively brief novel is reminiscent of the fun we have watching the rough edge Spencer Tracy and play against the always more sophisticated Katharine Hepburn. What carries the book beyond this level is the Lodges willingness to make his characters multi -dimensional, sympathetic and sensitive. Each learns to understand and appreciate the other. We see both the weaknesses and the essential goodness in the both leading characters.
This is a light novel, but it will ask that you follow some important concepts and by the end watch as each character has to face a very real crises. Rummidge is clearly based on Birmingham, once a major industrial center, now, not so much. Universities have never been a certain place for funding and special programs. These realities are also woven into Lodges humorous word.
Almost all of Lodge's novels can be criticized as being dated. The Campus Trilogy assumes you have an almost insiders appreciation of the world of Academia. Nice Work, in particular calls out a number of politicians whose names will have little resonance with readers in 2014 and less in the future. In the past he has written about Catholic married life before the pill and always there are elements of his books tied to a time and place. Not to class Lodge with the greatest. How does one deal with the Science Fiction writers whose worlds are not of any kind previously known? Accept that Lodge is taking you to a setting best known to him, and enjoy his wry and intelligent appreciation for the strengths and foibles of a place and time not so extremely unlike your own.
Even as Nice Work is the end of Lodges Campus Trilogy it looks to be the beginning of a shift in the kinds of novels Lodge has since published. The humor that sustains Nice Work will give way to more serious considerations of aging, and of the legacy of writers. I find I like Lodge in either frame of mind.
The pattern Lodge teaches us to expect is that there is humor in contrasting points of view. Adjectives need not be harsh to paint a critical picture and that being slyly judgmental can be as powerful as being overtly negative.
If you have no patience for academia or for the discussion of some fairly esoteric topics, Nice Work will try your patience.
In Nice Work we have academia acting as background for a meet up between an extreme, feminist college academic and an equally extreme capitalistic factory president. Visiting Australian professor Robyn Penrose teaches 19th-century literature at the Lodges invented University of Rummidge. She also ascribes to virtually every left wing shibboleth and back them with an impressive intellectual ferocity. Via a town and gown program to match University lecturers with corporate leaders she will shadowed by and in turn shadow Vic Wilcox, managing director of Pringle's, an industrial casting company located in the neighboring Industrial corridor. Wilcox is as classic as a capitalist as Penrose is liberal. His concerns are making money and mostly ignoring his materialistic and superficial wife and being confused by his wasteful progeny.
Loge accomplishes in a relatively brief novel is reminiscent of the fun we have watching the rough edge Spencer Tracy and play against the always more sophisticated Katharine Hepburn. What carries the book beyond this level is the Lodges willingness to make his characters multi -dimensional, sympathetic and sensitive. Each learns to understand and appreciate the other. We see both the weaknesses and the essential goodness in the both leading characters.
This is a light novel, but it will ask that you follow some important concepts and by the end watch as each character has to face a very real crises. Rummidge is clearly based on Birmingham, once a major industrial center, now, not so much. Universities have never been a certain place for funding and special programs. These realities are also woven into Lodges humorous word.
Almost all of Lodge's novels can be criticized as being dated. The Campus Trilogy assumes you have an almost insiders appreciation of the world of Academia. Nice Work, in particular calls out a number of politicians whose names will have little resonance with readers in 2014 and less in the future. In the past he has written about Catholic married life before the pill and always there are elements of his books tied to a time and place. Not to class Lodge with the greatest. How does one deal with the Science Fiction writers whose worlds are not of any kind previously known? Accept that Lodge is taking you to a setting best known to him, and enjoy his wry and intelligent appreciation for the strengths and foibles of a place and time not so extremely unlike your own.
Even as Nice Work is the end of Lodges Campus Trilogy it looks to be the beginning of a shift in the kinds of novels Lodge has since published. The humor that sustains Nice Work will give way to more serious considerations of aging, and of the legacy of writers. I find I like Lodge in either frame of mind.
February 20, 2017
σχεδόν 4*, όλα δικά του και χαλάλι του εφόσον με έκανε να γελάσω και μου έφτιαξε αισθητά την διάθεση, έτσι σαν καλοκαίρι.
Ωραίο, καλογραμμένο ανάγνωσμα, εμβαθύνει ρηχές σκέψεις ενώ απλοποιεί τις βαθύτερες. Εμποτισμένο με σάτιρα και μπόλικο χιούμορ πραγματικά ρέει υπέροχα!
Αν το βρείτε κάπου αρπάξτε το ( τώρα που τα λέμε βασικά, και το οποιοδήποτε του ίδιου καθότι αξίζει πραγματικά να διαβαστεί ) μιας και εφόσον, στα ελληνικά τουλάχιστον, έχουν μεταφραστεί από την Bell και είναι όλα εξαντλημένα.
Ωραίο, καλογραμμένο ανάγνωσμα, εμβαθύνει ρηχές σκέψεις ενώ απλοποιεί τις βαθύτερες. Εμποτισμένο με σάτιρα και μπόλικο χιούμορ πραγματικά ρέει υπέροχα!
Αν το βρείτε κάπου αρπάξτε το ( τώρα που τα λέμε βασικά, και το οποιοδήποτε του ίδιου καθότι αξίζει πραγματικά να διαβαστεί ) μιας και εφόσον, στα ελληνικά τουλάχιστον, έχουν μεταφραστεί από την Bell και είναι όλα εξαντλημένα.
August 8, 2011
Reading this book reminded me of studying French Literature in college in the mid 1980s. The literary theory reminds me of those courses -- particularly deconstructing modern poetry and reading 19th century French novels. The descriptions of the manufacturing plant and Vic's behavior remind me of my chemical engineering classes -- I remember researching something for a project in mining journals and finding every volume full of advertisements for machinery featuring large rocks with scantily clad women leaning against them. Now, since these were technical journals with peer reviewed articles, the young women wore shorts and plaid tops tied to show off bare midriffs rather than underwear but they would have fit in well at the trade show in Frankfurt in the book.
I can see how these aspects of the book could seem dated. However the relationship that develops between two very different people and changes them both is a timeless theme and is well done here. Although both Robyn and Vic change, the change is gradual, not sudden or out of character. Each also remains true to themselves in the end as well which made the book more realistic to me.
I can see how these aspects of the book could seem dated. However the relationship that develops between two very different people and changes them both is a timeless theme and is well done here. Although both Robyn and Vic change, the change is gradual, not sudden or out of character. Each also remains true to themselves in the end as well which made the book more realistic to me.
August 29, 2019
I found this novel to be less academic in its overall thrust than "Changing Places", though the place of academia and academics in society played a large part of the story. The sexual humor of both books struck me as more towards the 'Benny Hill' end of the spectrum than my tastes lie - I think that is one major reason that these are 3 star books for me rather than 4. I really enjoyed this look at 1980s English universities under the budget cuts of Margaret Thatcher & the parallel look at the conditions of heavy industry in Rummidge (Lodge's fictional city, I guess based on Manchester?). Having come from a similar academic background as Robyn, I could appreciate some of her ideas (though not the semiotics!) and her culture shock when dealing with the outside world - the factory, her brother's work in the City - but overall, Lodge's characters don't come across to me as being real people but rather as props for him to get his point across.
October 26, 2011
I started to read this book rather accidentally. I found it in one of my university departments and having read the back cover, I didn't expect much from the book, but I gave it a try. And it was absolutely worth it.
The story revolves around two completely different people, who at first don't enjoy each other's company, but as the story unfolds they get along quite well and realize that they have much to learn from each other.
There is not much action in this novel. Lodge concentrates on describing these two protagonists and later their relationship. I really enjoyed this thorough description. I haven't read many books like Nice Work so it turned out to be quite amusing.
Another thing I want to mention is the British style of narrating and the outstanding humor. For me as a non-English speaker, it was an opportunity to plunge in the British atmosphere.
The story revolves around two completely different people, who at first don't enjoy each other's company, but as the story unfolds they get along quite well and realize that they have much to learn from each other.
There is not much action in this novel. Lodge concentrates on describing these two protagonists and later their relationship. I really enjoyed this thorough description. I haven't read many books like Nice Work so it turned out to be quite amusing.
Another thing I want to mention is the British style of narrating and the outstanding humor. For me as a non-English speaker, it was an opportunity to plunge in the British atmosphere.
April 3, 2015
лодж, як завжди, дотепний та іронічний, може, часом аж трохи злий. "хороша робота" – університетсько-виробничий роман (цікаво, чи хтось ще таке писав за межами соцреалізму; конкретних текстів цього жанру в соцреалізмі я не знаю, але чомусь певна, що вони там є) про зіткнення теорії з практикою. теоретикам – деконструктивістам, неомарксистам і постмодерністам – дістається особливо люто.
звісно, одразу зрозуміло, хто з ким переспить, і так само відразу можна вгадати мораль: вихід за межі зони комфорту корисний для здоров'я. але як же гарно лодж це пише.
звісно, одразу зрозуміло, хто з ким переспить, і так само відразу можна вгадати мораль: вихід за межі зони комфорту корисний для здоров'я. але як же гарно лодж це пише.
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