Once upon a time in the Midlands
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Nice Work is a clever, well-constructed comedy and social commentary about a clash of cultures in a fictional Midlands town in the mould of Birmingham. 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.
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Best first chapter of all time, ever
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I first read this book as a teenager, and have re-read it probably every year since. Vic Wilcox is a truly great creation - who could have guessed that the innermost thoughts of a Brummie industrial manager could be so compelling? I could recite that brilliant first chapter almost word for word - it gives us Vic's entire life and outlook, by way of talking us through his morning routine. It's the work of a genius. I love the description of Vic steering a ship through a storm as his 'crew' sleep, and old Marjory with her valium and menopause obsessions... The rest of the book is just as good - brutally sharp but ultimately affectionate and forgiving. Vic is a rough diamond, but all of his impulses are honourable. Lovely stuff. Write us some more, Mr Lodge?
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Probably Lodge's best
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David Lodge's books are always excellent and this one is probably his best. As in his previous books, "Changing Places" and "Small World",the book centres on two diametrically opposed views and attitudes and explores how these positions can be reconciled, one character existng in the "real" world of work and the other in a cocoon of academia where analysing the work of long-dead authors means she has no experience of the industries where these works are set. Nice Work is well written and the characters are excellently sketched, particularly the family of Vic, the factory MD, with a gone-to-seed wife, and layabout children. The problem with the plot is that, like in his previous works, Lodge works too hard to manufacture a happy ending for everyone; at the end Vic discovers there is more to life than work and learns to appreciate art and literature, and his family, whereas Robyn, when faced with the economic reality of university budget cuts suddenly has a triple whammy of good fortune with a publishing deal, a job offer and bequest from a late relative. All of this happens in such a flurry at the end that the conclusion of the book appears hurried and unrealistic but this is still an excellent read and a compulsive page-turner.
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Definitive Campus Novel
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Quite simply, this is one of the great campus novels. Believe me - as a PhD student, I am amazed at the way Lodge draws humour from the often dry and slightly weird world of academia. You don't need to have a degree to read this book, though - it is a wonderful example of the way two worlds that are not as different as you may think interact. very, very funny. To me, it screams out for a sequel (although Robyn makes a cameo in Thinks..). I would love to know what she's up to today! Someone should slap a preservation order on Lodge.
Better than the History Man - better than Lucky Jim. Brilliant.
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Superb
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This is a wonderful satire on universities and business - particularly in the mid 80s. It captures the mood of "the cuts" and universities in the 1980s like nothing else I've read. You can see it, very loosely, as the final member of a trilogy (formed by "Changing places" and "Small world"), but you don't need to have read the other two in order to appreciate this one. It is immensely readable (I didn't need a dictionary once), and fully deserved its Booker nomination.
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