Rating: 
Summary: Oh Please
Review: A couple of years ago, I read Lodge's "Small World" (#2 in the trilogy) and had a great time. I can't describe how disappointed I was with this book. Morris Zapp and Phillip Swallow are great characters, but they aren't very likable at all in this particular tome. I also felt that the book hasn't dated well (written in 1975 and set in 1969). The end is also incredibly lame. Yeah, I got what his point was. (He was ambivalent! That is soo interesting! I am incredibly impressed.) The major plot points are also incredibly predictable, even if I hadn't read "Small World". The only entertaining thing about this book is the commentary on Jane Austen. I certainly hope "Nice Work" is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Witty, accurate, compelling ("dated" misses the point)
Review: As a British graduate student at UC Berkeley, the campus upon which "Euphoric State" is closely modelled, and as a graduate of an English university similar to "Rummidge," which doubles for Birmingham, I can vouch for the accuracy of Lodge's beautifully-wrought satire. I zipped through "Changing Places" in less than a day and can't remember the last time I enjoyed a novel so much. Lodge was a visiting professor from Birmingham who taught at Berkeley in the late 60s (Philip Swallow is thus a kind of alter ego), and thirty-two years after the action takes place, there's much that's still recognizable here. The satire of academic life in England and America hits the bullseye, the characterizations are broad but retain a sympathetic humanity, the drama is compelling and amusingly risqué. There's also a nicely constructed vein of self-referential literariness that emerges on occasion, without being obtrusive. Accusations by some readers that the novel is "dated" miss the point - one might as well say Jane Austen is dated. Yes, the era of campus radicalism and sit-ins has receded into history, but the comparisons Lodge draws between English and U.S. campus life, academic politics and professors are still mostly valid. (Perhaps the biggest difference is that British academics have since come closer to their U.S. counterparts in having to worry about "publish or perish.") It's fascinating to note that many of the minutiae have not changed: British lecturers still give grades like Swallow's ultra-precise B+/B+?+; Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue ("Cable Avenue" in the book) is still a living monument to hippiedom (albeit somewhat commercialized now) and its People's Park ("People's Garden") survives unfenced and enjoyed by the community. Two caveats: readers addicted to neat-and-tidy Hollywood endings may be disappointed; everyone else should take care to read "Changing Places" first, proceed to "Small World," and then go on to "Nice Work."
Rating:
Summary: A tale of two professors.
Review: As part of an exchange programme, Britain's Rummidge University swops literature professors each year with Euphoria State in California. Humble Rummidge University--set in the darkest heart of the Midlands sends lowly Phillip Swallow to glorious, golden California, and Euphoria State sends Morris Zapp to England. Both professors leave their wives and families behind--Swallow is chomping at the bit for the freedom that beckons, and Zapp is hoping that his second wife won't go through with a threatened divorce.Zapp and Swallow are opposites, but they are both unpleasant and unappealing in different ways. Swallow loves literature--in all its forms, but his "undiscriminating enthusiasm" has resulted in an inability to settle on a period or a writer. He is, however, considered an expert in the drafting of examination questions, and he seriously considers compiling a book of his "best-ever" questions. In Swallow's mind, this book of questions is destined to become a significant work of philosophy. Zapp, the Californian, is a Jane Austen scholar (his children are named Elizabeth and Darcy), and he suffers from recurring nightmares in which placard-carrying students demonstrate against studying Jane Austen. Unlike Swallow, Zapp doesn't believe in the power of questions and declares that it is the "answers that separated the men from the boys." While Zapp possessed stunning credentials years ago, the truth is that he hasn't published anything in years. His last attempted project was to produce a mammoth work on Jane Austen in the hope that this will put "a definitive stop to the production of any further garbage on the subject." But Zapp is mired down in "Sense and Sensibility," and with his wife threatening to divorce him, Zapp accepts the trip to England to buy some time. Swallow takes to the California lifestyle with gusto. He begins dressing more casually, and within days he's visiting strip clubs and joining in enthusiastically with the student activists on campus. In one hilarious episode, Swallow attends a departmental function, and asks that everyone play a game of "Humiliation." The object of the game is to prove that you are the least well-read person in the room. As we all know, this game is the antithesis of the typical English major's behaviour. The dilemma for the players is whether or not to reveal their superior knowledge and lose, or win by exposing and promoting their ignorance in a room full of PhDs. Zapp finds lodging with an eccentric Irish doctor who can't stop salivating over his new lodger's television. At Euphoria State, Zapp is used to being the darling of the English Department, and it takes him some time to adjust to the new social conventions at Rummidge. While trying to adjust to the English climate, Zapp also undergoes a moral transformation and actually commits an unselfish act or two. Rather uncannily, Zapp and Swallow both become embroiled in some startlingly similar situations, and it soon becomes apparent that the professors did more than just exchange jobs! About halfway through the novel, the author switches to the epistolary form. This later changes to various reprints of newspaper articles. Then it's back to standard novel form before the ending, and the ending is written in the form of a play or script. The novel is amusing from beginning to end--although I do have to say that the ending was a bit of a disappointment. I am still awarding 5 stars to the novel, however, as it really gave me a lot of laughs and a great deal to think about. If you enjoy novels with an academic setting, then you will enjoy "Changing Places"--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: A great Anglo-American satire
Review: As someone who went through the British educational system and has also worked at an American university, I can vouch for its accuracy. Its description of the British system is brilliant and biting. Lodge's evocation of "finals" reflects my own experience and quite moving in its own way. Strictly speaking it may be dated, but only in the sense all novels are dated. If you like this book, you will also enjoy Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One", another all-time favorite of mine.
Rating:
Summary: Academic satire at its best!
Review: David Lodge bullseyes the academic character in this fast-paced, quickfun read. He also captures the academic ambiance of the late 1960's very adroitly, whether it be the loosely veiled Berkley or the more obscure English campus. Lodge's style makes incredible fun, while never ceasing to be very funny. While this could be read as pure escapism, the author also utilizes some of the very modern and traditional literary techniques he lampoons such as the epistolary form. Just a delight. On par with the school fiction of Mary McCarthy and Louis Auchincloss.
Rating:
Summary: Academic satire at its best!
Review: David Lodge bullseyes the academic character in this fast-paced, quickfun read. He also captures the academic ambiance of the late 1960's very adroitly, whether it be the loosely veiled Berkley or the more obscure English campus. Lodge's style makes incredible fun, while never ceasing to be very funny. While this could be read as pure escapism, the author also utilizes some of the very modern and traditional literary techniques he lampoons such as the epistolary form. Just a delight. On par with the school fiction of Mary McCarthy and Louis Auchincloss.
Rating:
Summary: Guilt-Free Entertainment for Intellectuals!
Review: David Lodge experiments with many literary styles in this book, progressing from narration to letter collections, finishing with a dramatic script at the end. The Britsh professor's conversion from stifled to swinging is sexy, and the American's discovery of deeper purposes than power and promiscuity is rewarding. Such an entertaining piece which can equally stimulate the intellect is rare. David Lodge is a truly talented writer- a must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written but not especially compelling
Review: David Lodge is a terrific writer, but this novel is aging poorly. Rather than explore his characters in any depth, he has set up a very mechanical, schematic plot (the two main characters-guess what?-change places! And that's about it), which serves primarily as a backdrop against which he can make wry observations about academia. Unfortunately, these observations, from the late 1960s, are dated, and contemporary readers may not be especially impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Best and funniest US/UK academic comparison around
Review: David Lodge portrays two profs (one from the US, the otherfrom the UK) who replace one another at their respectiveinstitutions. Anyone interested in the differences between US and UK culture (academic and social) will find this a very amusing and accurate picture. American and British faculties always see the perfection in the others' learning establishments that theirs seem to lack. They are both in for a big surprise when they settle in and try to "go native". I've become a Lodge fan since reading this great send-up.
Rating:
Summary: A very funny novel and a wonderful read
Review: David Lodge's "Changing Places" had me in stitches. It's such a funny book. The prose is highly readable, crisply written and races along so charmingly that it's hard to put it down once you've started. Although Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp are drawn from the two contrasting cultures they symbolise, they are never allowed to degenerate into caricatures. Both are highly real and believable characters, sharing much the same human frailties. While Zapp is unashamedly direct, hollow and crass, Swallow is rather more reserved, diffident, but with the same potential though not the guts for dishonesty. It is only by "changing places" that they become themselves, albeit in a different environment. Even the behaviour of their wives change when subjected to the opposite cultural influences. Admittedly, the setting of the "exchange" in the late 60s (with all the references to student protests and pot smoking in university campuses) has tended to date the book a bit. But who cares, when you derive such enormous pleasure, laughter and fun from reading what must seem like a novel for the ages. I can see thousands reading it 50 years into the new millenium.
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