Bill Chaisson (Author of Of a Feather)

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Bill Chaisson rated a book really liked it Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) by Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Ann Leckie has a lot on her mind. The world of the Radch is complex and, frankly, progressive and reactionary at the same time. Through the first 50 pages or so of Ancillary Justice you just have to trust her as she baffles you with pronouns, places, ...more
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Bill Chaisson rated a book it was amazing Nice Work (The Campus Trilogy, #3) by David Lodge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I just realized that I am re-reading David Lodge's Campus Trilogy on the first anniversary of his death. He wrote these books in the 1970s and '80s and it perhaps pained him to see many of the themes he explored out there outset continue more or less ...more
Jan 03, 2026 03:13PM · like · see review
Bill Chaisson rated a book it was amazing Small World: An Academic Romance by David Lodge (1985-03-01) by David Lodge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Re-reading the Campus Trilogy 30 years later is eye-opening in a number of ways. First, reading them in order is helpful. Second, much has changed in the world since David Lodge wrote these books and I read them. Third, while I was an academic when I ...more
Jan 01, 2026 03:28PM · like · see review
Bill Chaisson made a comment on Paul’s review of The Last Chance Texaco " Saw her on the main stage of the Grassroots Festival (of Music & Dance) in Trumansburg, N.Y. sometime in the mid 2000s. She was the headliner at an ev ...more "
Dec 31, 2025 07:03AM · see review
Bill Chaisson started reading Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1) by Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Bill Chaisson rated a book it was amazing Changing Places (The Campus Trilogy, #1) by David Lodge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Mor ...more
Dec 30, 2025 08:25AM · 1 like · like · see review
Bill Chaisson is currently reading Small World: An Academic Romance by David Lodge (1985-03-01) by David Lodge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Bill Chaisson rated a book it was amazing Changing Places (The Campus Trilogy, #1) by David Lodge	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Mor ...more
Dec 29, 2025 01:07PM · 1 like · like · see review

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The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
by John U. Bacon

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Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
by Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)

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Ann Leckie has a lot on her mind. The world of the Radch is complex and, frankly, progressive and reactionary at the same time. Through the first 50 pages or so of Ancillary Justice you just have to trust her as she baffles you with pronouns, places, Ann Leckie has a lot on her mind. The world of the Radch is complex and, frankly, progressive and reactionary at the same time. Through the first 50 pages or so of Ancillary Justice you just have to trust her as she baffles you with pronouns, places, and chronology. Eventually though, you settle into a regular pattern of leaping back and forth 20 years between the events that set the protagonist in motion and the "present" during which she is pursing her form of justice.

The Radch is an empire that spans multiple galaxies and until 20 years before the time that the book opens, it was constantly expanding. It did this in part in order to hoover up resources, but also because the Radchaai believe themselves to be superior beings in charge of a superior civilization. I'm sure any resemblance to the wave of colonialism that began during the Age of Discovery on Earth is purely coincidental.

An interesting feature of Radchaai society is its complete disinterest in gender. Everyone is referred to as "she" and it is only when "Breq," as the protagonist calls himself through much of the book, encounters other cultures does it become apparent that there are at least two genders among the Radchaai (from other peoples' point of view). For example, the lost Radchaai captain that Breq rescues is referred to as "she" until the doctor who treats her wounds identifies her as most definitely a "he." If a character is never encountered during the narrative outside of Radch setting, then you just don't know what gender they are and it is implied that it just doesn't matter.

The other theme that Leckie explores is the idea of identity, principally the relationship between individuality and being part of something bigger than yourself. The "hero" of this book is an ancillary, which turns out to be something a bit off to the side of being human, and they operated in the past as an integrated part of the artificial intelligence that runs the Radchaai space ships. In the "present" they are singular and feeling the poorer for it. Leckie is eloquent on this topic and achieves this by essentially taking something that we usually think of metaphorically and presenting it as literal. An old science-fiction trick that is deployed to good effect here.

Another interesting aspect of Ancillary Justice is that although it has a space opera setting, the mood of the narrative is too personal, too interior, and too serious to actually feel like a space opera. Instead Leckie works hard to develop characters that we come to know very well and moreover we get to watch them grow and change. This is particularly true of Seivarden, the Radchaai captain that Breq rescues in the opening pages. Initially a spoiled, sullen drug addict, Seivarden faces down her/his demons and comes to be an ally rather than a burden.

Leckie's depiction of power--exercised by both individuals and the state--is fascinating. There is, it turns out, special peril involved in an empire in which the emperor has cloned herself in order to rule more effectively. The ranks of the Radch military are traditionally determined by social class, but during the 20 years depicted here that is breaking down and the consequences for the empire are not at all clear (this is a trilogy, after all), but the consequences for one officer and the ancillary who serves her are what drive the plot of Ancillary Justice.

The breadth is large in this debut novel. Leckie must have been mulling over this world for years. Alien empires remain at the periphery of the story in this volume, but they exert much influence on the plot. And by "alien" I mean "non-human" as the Radchaai are human albeit with a lot of software implants added. The aliens are depicted as quite completely "other," which I found refreshing, as in so much sci-fi they only seem to look different but act just like humans. And again there are political overtones here. The human Radchaai are driven to do quite awful things in response to unacknowledged fears of "the other." And yet Leckie never really condemns nor excuses them. She seems only interested in trying to explain how the human mind works. ...more

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Nice Work (The Campus Trilogy, #3)
by David Lodge

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I just realized that I am re-reading David Lodge's Campus Trilogy on the first anniversary of his death. He wrote these books in the 1970s and '80s and it perhaps pained him to see many of the themes he explored out there outset continue more or less I just realized that I am re-reading David Lodge's Campus Trilogy on the first anniversary of his death. He wrote these books in the 1970s and '80s and it perhaps pained him to see many of the themes he explored out there outset continue more or less unabated for the rest of his life. Nice Work was published in 1988 and its events unfold in 1986, seven years into Margaret Thatcher's tenure as prime minister. In Changing Places (1969) Lodge described an innocent time coming to end in the US (in the wake of assassinations and ungoing war), full of social experimentation about to go off the rails. In Small World (1979) a long period of social decadence amid plenty (at least at universities) was coming to end.

In Nice Work the economy is in a shambles and the university budgets are being slashed. There is also a new vulgarity in the UK, where money and materialism are suddenly being worshiped (It happend in the US too, but Lodge does not venture there in this volume.) Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp, who were 40 years old in the first book are now in late middle age and Lodge has consigned them to the status of supporting characters. The heroine of Nice Work is Robyn Penrose, an ambitious and engaged temporary lecturer at University of Rummidge who is drafted into a "shadow scheme" concocted by the vice chancellor to improve relations with local industry.

Penrose is convinced to follow around Vic Wilcox, a managing director of a foundry, once a week for two months. Penrose is both a doctrinaire leftist and a bohemian/yuppie and she is not as reflective about it as she thinks. She knows nothing about life outside of academia (her father is a professor) and is appalled by both the working conditions at the foundry and Vic's unapologetic capitalist attitude. This culture clash is, of course, a perfect setting for Lodge's humor. As always, he manages not to make anyone look like an idiot, but instead patiently explores the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of the two world views in opposition here.

There is more actual romance here than in Small World in spite of its subtitle "An Academic Romance." In true romantic comedy style, Robyn and Vic can't stand each other at first and then day by day learn to respect each other, which then blossoms into real affection. Robyn's long-term boyfriend Charles initially appears to be a male version of herself, but in the end turns out to be less principled. Marjorie, Vic's wife, spends most of the novel high on Valium and shopping, but her true nature is eventually revealed.

Lodge, who grew up in a working class part of London and rose up into the upper middle class through the university system and the arts economy (as a critic), portrays his middle and upper class characters as generally hypocritical and mostly unaware of the nature of working-class life. Vic Wilcox is, like Lodge, a man who started out in a working class milieu and has risen on the strength of this talent in engineering and management. Lodge's portrayal of Vic is quite sympathetic compared to that of Robyn, but he is never unfair.

Lodge is nothing if not structured in his planning of these novels. There always all kinds of symmetries and coincidences that crop up to let you know this is not the real world. And, as ever, he has a dual purpose: to explore literature and life at the same time.

Much literary theory is presented here and for those who are interested I'm sure there are a lot of in-jokes built into the narrative. But one does not have to be aware of this to enjoy Lodge's depiction of real people having real problems. We are inside the heads of this characters where we can see how they go about grappling with their lives. In the end, they usually achieve better than average outcomes with the help of Lodge's penchant for coincidence and rather Ptolemaic model of human society. ...more

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Small World: An Academic Romance by David Lodge (1985-03-01)
by David Lodge

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Re-reading the Campus Trilogy 30 years later is eye-opening in a number of ways. First, reading them in order is helpful. Second, much has changed in the world since David Lodge wrote these books and I read them. Third, while I was an academic when I Re-reading the Campus Trilogy 30 years later is eye-opening in a number of ways. First, reading them in order is helpful. Second, much has changed in the world since David Lodge wrote these books and I read them. Third, while I was an academic when I first read read them, I am not one now, so my perspective is quite different.

In Changing Places Philip Swallow was the nicer, more decent man, but in Small World it is Morris Zapp who is more filled with the milk of human kindness. Swallow has acquired power more through luck than through ambition or talent, while Zapp has grown weary of chasing fame and is feeling his mortality. Reading them one after the other makes this switching of roles rather more apparent to me.

While the first book took place in 1969, Small World begins a decade later. The idealism of the '60s, which Lodge made fun of in Changing Places, is nowhere to be found here, having devolved into the decadence of the 1970s. Lodge uses the canvas of this novel to lampoon the various literary theories that were popular during this era. Structuralism, post-structuralism, neo-Marxist theory and more are gently displayed as so many naked emperors; Lodge seems to have no patience with any of them. Even Philip Swallow, who the representative for the anti-theory camp, is made to appear rather hopeless.

The sexism of Changing Places acquires a harder edge in Small World. Although "an academic romance" is its subtitle, there is precious little romance in this story. There is a great deal of lust, sex, and objectification of women, as well as frequent visits to red-light districts, escort services, and at least one kinky encounter. Lodge is not endorsing any of this, of course, everyone who engages in these various forms of licentious and immoral behavior is shown to be a fool, an ass, or a pervert. It is a world-weary book albeit a funny one.

Academia, in general, is presented as a community of self-serving, self-dealing, fad mad decadents who do nothing but jump on the latest theory bandwagon and try to get someone else to pay for them to attend as many conferences as possible so that they can display their take on narritology or whatever gimmick they have decided will get them published and promoted. While my own field was not this hyperbolically ridiculous, Lodge is not wrong about it being who you know (and have dinner with) as much as (or more than) what you know that leads to advancement.

At the outset the author likens his English professors to knights errant chasing the Holy Grail. The plot then unfolds as a gloss on the story of Arthur and his Round Table knights. This is the Chrétien des Troyes version of the Arthurian myth, with its focus on Perceval, here represented by Persse McGarrigle, a young professor from University College, Limerick who happens to be a virgin and devout Catholic. The Grail in this case is a UNESCO professorship that allows the recipient to do exactly nothing for three years, anywhere he or she wishes to the tune of $100,000.

The eminence gris who is to select the winner is, wait for it, a certain Prof. Arthur Kingfisher. When we meet him he is an impotent worn-out old man who hasn't had an original idea in decades. The "kingdom" over which presides is barren in the sense that all the English professors are exponents of "ideas" that are nearly devoid of sense and do nothing to explain literature to most readers. (It doesn't really explain it other English professors either.)

Some of the Arthurian references, like Kingfisher, are quite thinly veiled. Fulvia Morgana, the neo-Marxist, is an obvious Morgan le Fay. The analogs of Bors, Lancelot, Galahad and the rest are more up for grabs, unless you are an expert in this genre. It doesn't really matter; all their jousting with each other is really the point. And the point is that it is very nearly pointless.

That said, Lodge is not a decadent himself. Here and there he makes it obvious that he believes that the reading of literature and its interpretation is not only important but possible. Poor old Philip Swallow comes closest to perhaps representing Lodge's point of view. He just doesn't happen to have the personal integrity to be a very good representative of the old fashioned view that literature exists to enrich our lives and criticism exists in order that we may better understand literature, both what is being produced right now as well as works that we should not forget. ...more

Bill Chaisson made a comment on Paul’s review of The Last Chance Texaco

The Last Chance Texaco by Rickie Lee Jones

" Saw her on the main stage of the Grassroots Festival (of Music & Dance) in Trumansburg, N.Y. sometime in the mid 2000s. She was the headliner at an ev ...more "

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Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
by Ann Leckie (Goodreads Author)

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Changing Places (The Campus Trilogy, #1)
by David Lodge

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I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Mor I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Morris Zapp, an ambitious English professor from Plotinus, and Philip Swallow, an unambitious lecturer from Rummidge, take part in a faculty exchange for trumped up reasons. Zapp just wants to get out of town and away from his collapsing marriage and Swallow is chosen to go after the first-choice candidate abruptly decamps for greener pastures.

Lodge then ratchets back and forth between Plotinus and Rummidge as the men become entangled in one another's lives (and wives). Although the setting is realistic, the events are fabulistic in the sense that the amount of coincidence and symmetry between the two men's experiences are absurd. And therefore, quite funny. Some readers might find the humor quite dated. The amount of sexism on display here is extravagant. The satire of the '60s counterculture is broad and not terribly wicked. The one thing Lodge does not really make fun of is the political unrest that marked this era at Berkeley/Plotinus. This is a campus farce that includes a bombing and police beating up protesters.

The differences between campus cultures are Lodge's real focus and his humor is sharpest when he lingers on this subject. American academia is competitive and based on ongoing achievements, while the British (according to Lodge) engage in competition in the form of a series of exams. If you survive the last series of exams and find a job at a university, you will be essentially permitted to stay forever. While Morris Zapp became a full professor by the age of 30, at 40 Philip Swallow is still only a junior lecturer.

Morris is not a nice man; his achievements are all based on selfishness. His experience in Rummidge, however, has the effect of softening him somewhat. Philip is a nice man, but he is horribly self-effacing. Whereas Morris is quite comfortable forging a future for himself at the expense of others, Philip is stalled in life because he is continually serving others, whether it is his students or his family. He has no aptitude for personal advancement because in a sense it embarrasses him. While in Plotinus though, he does things for his own pleasure. He barely gets any work done (certainly no scholarship), but he has an actual good time. Morris, the other hand, finds himself doing good deeds in Rummidge for everyone from a pregnant single mother to the university and is shocked to find out he doesn't mind it at all.

The campus cultural critique has aged better than the satirical shots at the war between the sexes and the counterculture or even the British/American cultural divide. Sexism was still really virulent in my field in the 1980s when I was in graduate school, but I gather progress has been made since then. And because there really is no counterculture today, Lodge's depiction of the '60s antics reads like ancient history. Even in 1969 there were signs that the academic cultures were converging; some of Swallow's younger contemporaries operate much more like Morris Zapp than they do Swallow.

Even though it is dated, it is still a very funny book, but it is also a light and deft demonstration of various literary devices. Part of it is an epistolary novel in the literal sense of being a series of personal letters. Another is a series of news reports. And it ends as a movie script complete with camera angles and jump cuts. As always Lodge has something to say about the purpose of the novel as a literary form and takes a dim view of its future. ...more

Bill Chaisson is currently reading

Small World: An Academic Romance by David Lodge (1985-03-01)
by David Lodge

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Bill Chaisson rated a book it was amazing

Changing Places (The Campus Trilogy, #1)
by David Lodge

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I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Mor I read David Lodge's academic trilogy years ago out of order. I decided to start at the beginning this time. Changing Places, written in 1975, takes place in 1969 in very thinly disguised versions of Birmingham (Rummidge) and Berkeley (Plotinus). Morris Zapp, an ambitious English professor from Plotinus, and Philip Swallow, an unambitious lecturer from Rummidge, take part in a faculty exchange for trumped up reasons. Zapp just wants to get out of town and away from his collapsing marriage and Swallow is chosen to go after the first-choice candidate abruptly decamps for greener pastures.

Lodge then ratchets back and forth between Plotinus and Rummidge as the men become entangled in one another's lives (and wives). Although the setting is realistic, the events are fabulistic in the sense that the amount of coincidence and symmetry between the two men's experiences are absurd. And therefore, quite funny. Some readers might find the humor quite dated. The amount of sexism on display here is extravagant. The satire of the '60s counterculture is broad and not terribly wicked. The one thing Lodge does not really make fun of is the political unrest that marked this era at Berkeley/Plotinus. This is a campus farce that includes a bombing and police beating up protesters.

The differences between campus cultures are Lodge's real focus and his humor is sharpest when he lingers on this subject. American academia is competitive and based on ongoing achievements, while the British (according to Lodge) engage in competition in the form of a series of exams. If you survive the last series of exams and find a job at a university, you will be essentially permitted to stay forever. While Morris Zapp became a full professor by the age of 30, at 40 Philip Swallow is still only a junior lecturer.

Morris is not a nice man; his achievements are all based on selfishness. His experience in Rummidge, however, has the effect of softening him somewhat. Philip is a nice man, but he is horribly self-effacing. Whereas Morris is quite comfortable forging a future for himself at the expense of others, Philip is stalled in life because he is continually serving others, whether it is his students or his family. He has no aptitude for personal advancement because in a sense it embarrasses him. While in Plotinus though, he does things for his own pleasure. He barely gets any work done (certainly no scholarship), but he has an actual good time. Morris, the other hand, finds himself doing good deeds in Rummidge for everyone from a pregnant single mother to the university and is shocked to find out he doesn't mind it at all.

The campus cultural critique has aged better than the satirical shots at the war between the sexes and the counterculture or even the British/American cultural divide. Sexism was still really virulent in my field in the 1980s when I was in graduate school, but I gather progress has been made since then. And because there really is no counterculture today, Lodge's depiction of the '60s antics reads like ancient history. Even in 1969 there were signs that the academic cultures were converging; some of Swallow's younger contemporaries operate much more like Morris Zapp than they do Swallow.

Even though it is dated, it is still a very funny book, but it is also a light and deft demonstration of various literary devices. Part of it is an epistolary novel in the literal sense of being a series of personal letters. Another is a series of news reports. And it ends as a movie script complete with camera angles and jump cuts. As always Lodge has something to say about the purpose of the novel as a literary form and takes a dim view of its future. ...more

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