The Campus Novel Trilogy
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`Changing Places` begins a trilogy of campus novels (along with `Small World' and `Nice Work`) by the popular British author that are now available to purchase as an anthology. Reading all three books is further necessitated by the fact they share common characters. `Changing Places` is about the transformative experience of living in an another culture (albeit ones not vastly dissimilar, in this case the UK and US) and the social transformations taking places at the tail end of the 60s. The plot conceit, as with `Nice Work', is that two completely different people are displaced by an exchange programme foisted upon them by their employers. In this case, it involves a reserved British professor temporarily trading posts with a brash American academic - Morris Zapp and Phillip Swallow respectively.
While these characterisations are somewhat cliched, they are nonetheless written with an empirical astuteness of someone who recognises that most stereotypes have an element truth at their core. As with most of Lodge's novels, it is a compulsive read with attractively realised characters. Insightful, witty, and sometimes a little too symmetric in its plotting, his novels can be a little too neatly predictable. However, there is enough sex, humour and cutting social observation to sustain even the most cynical reader.
Of the 'trilogy', 'Small World' is arguably the most dated. Revolving around the frivolous exploits of a newly-made academic jet-set riding high at a time of increased travel opportunities and university wealth, it is the more prosaic of the three. Morris Zapp and Phillip Swallow get into increasingly improbable situations that start to border on slapstick, while a peripheral cast of characters cross paths in a series of unlikely comic coincidences around the world.
While Lodge has a great eye for the hypocrasies and pretentions of academic life, 'Small World' has less interesting things (compared to the other novels in the trilogy) about life outside academia and the context in these absurdities are allowed to take place. Given the unbeleivable nature of much of what happens, we depend a lot on the novel's humour, which frequently borders the banal. Moreover, of what is smugly depicted about the changing fortunes of the academics - their jet-setting in particular - seems dated now in a more global context where international travel is less and less exclusive. However, as always, Lodge is cutting when examining the petty conceits, jealousies and - in some cases - paranoia of his cast of writers and lecturers.
The third novel in the series, 'Nice Work', is a clever, well-constructed comedy and social commentary about a clash of cultures in a fictional industrial town in the Midlands. Well-paced and meticulously plotted, the novel revolves around the unlikely convergence of Dr Robyn Penrose - a professor of Women's studies and purporter of deconstructuralist and feminist theory - and Vic Wilcox, MD of an industrial engineering plant.
Written aptly at a time of great social transformation (Thatcher, class strife, the decline of industry and massive cuts to public spending) David Lodge pieces together an astute oberservation of British life. Moreover, he is a master at developing tangible and appealing characters by telling the story - alternately - from their perspective. Billed as `the campus novel meets the industrial novel', this is a highly readable and thought-provoking work. Taken in tandem, the three novels provide an entertaining view of academic life through three decades that is as interesting as a piece of social history as it is funny. Enjoy.
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Almost a bit of social history
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I can't dissect this novel as well as the other reviewers but apart from being a rather cracking humourous read, these novels give me sense of what campus life was like in the twilight of the golden age of British academia and some very witty observations on the 70s and 80s Britain. Having used this set as a "taster" i went on to read far more dAvid Lodge than I originally expected.
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The Best of the Campus Novel Genre
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Whether you are new to David Lodge, or whether you are familiar with his other works, this trilogy is a must for every reader. No small book collection or vast library is complete without it. Lodge's trilogy spans three decades of the 'international [university] campus'. In Phillip Swallow and Morris Zapp, we see two central characters who are poles apart professionally and personally and yet drawn together time and time again with hilarious and sometimes chaotic results. Lodge demonstrates his knack of telling a good yarn and makes writing the contemporary novel appear effortless. If, like me, you thoroughly enjoy this collection you will probably go on to read his many other novels or critical works. David Lodge is one of England's most talented and brilliant living writers and this trilogy is one of his best works. It is simply first rate. Just read it.
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Mad professors fly around
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Anyone who's ever read other Lodge novels (and especially How far can you go? or The British Museum is falling down) will immediately recognize the unique style Lodge applies in his writing. Lodge is an avid observer of the ever-changing environment people live in and as he is a member of the scientific circles of the society, he focuses on this aspect of human existence. The Trilogy with its three novels reveals the usually unexposed facets of university life, but Lodge does that in the most entertaining manner. Without presenting summaries of plots of the individual stories, let it suffice to say that each of them is separate in their developments, however, the fates of the main heroes are intertwined in all three of them, so when reading the second or the third novel, there will be moments in which references will be made to events in the other(s). I would heartily recommend the Trilogy to anyone who wishes to spend a few hours a day taking a laughable read about "mad" university teachers. If one has ever been to a university, these stories will stir those happy memories of youth well spent, or youth wasted (depending on how one views that), but will certainly not leave one feel indifferent.
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Mad professors fly abundantly
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Anyone who's ever read other Lodge novels (and especially How far can you go? or The British Museum is falling down) will immediately recognize the unique style Lodge applies in his writing. Lodge is an avid observer of the ever-changing environment people live in and as he is a member of the scientific circles of the society, he focuses on this aspect of human existence. The Trilogy with its three novels reveals the usually unexposed facets of university life, but Lodge does that in the most entertaining manner. Without presenting summaries of plots of the individual stories, let it suffice to say that each of them is separate in their developments, however, the fates of the main heroes are intertwined in all three of them, so when reading the second or the third novel, there will be moments in which references will be made to events in the other(s). I would heartily recommend the Trilogy to anyone who wishes to spend a few hours a day taking a laughable read about "mad" university teachers. If one has ever been to a university, these stories will stir those happy memories of youth well spent, or youth wasted (depending on how one views that), but will certainly not leave one feel indifferent.
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