Rating: 
Summary: Marvelous, intricate, well-crafted web of academe
Review: Close behind a delightful read of Lodge's "Trading places", I quickly moved to the second part of his trilogy. "Places" was very good and "World" is even better.Moving ahead ten years in time from "Places", Lodge shows an absolutely superb ability to mesh the globe-trotting, incestuous, backbiting and networking world of university professors of literature. Zapp and Swallow are back for a colorful encore. For any well-traveled academic, or even those who travel for other reasons, you will enjoy Lodge's descriptions, insights and surprising intricacies, as characters jet across continents to yet another subsidized conference, never forgetting that the rationale for the conference is not what it is advertised to be. As any professional, well-published academic knows, the real reason to write papers to present at conferences is to be able to justify traveling to the conference where most if not all agree that there is little reason to actually read or listen to the presentations. Yet beyond the trysts and tripe of these fools can be found lessons in life and romance, of the great pursuit of life. Look past the lust, the deception and the pettiness, as Lodge presents plenty of food for thought. Lodge colors his well-drawn players with all the affectations of their profession: greed, pettiness, ego, banality. A wonderful job. "Small world" is a great, most pleasant summer escape, a humorous jab at the soft underbelly of college life -- without ever really teaching a course.
Rating:
Summary: Academic pinball
Review: David Lodge's Small World is an amusing, entertaining look at the world of academia, particularly the world of English literature, and all of the ridiculous people who inhabit it. I truly enjoy Lodge's work, but I have to say, this isn't my favorite. It's still terrific, but, in my opinion, not his strongest work. It starts off a little slow and many of the characters, while funny, are a bit predictable. I also think this novel didn't really stand the test of time. That being said, it is a funny and engaging read, certain to make you chuckle and even laugh out loud. It's just not Lodge's best work, but Lodge on a bad day is still infinitely better than most other writers on a good day.
Rating: 
Summary: Amusing and Entertaining
Review: David Lodge's Small World is an amusing, entertaining look at the world of academia, particularly the world of English literature, and all of the ridiculous people who inhabit it. I truly enjoy Lodge's work, but I have to say, this isn't my favorite. It's still terrific, but, in my opinion, not his strongest work. It starts off a little slow and many of the characters, while funny, are a bit predictable. I also think this novel didn't really stand the test of time. That being said, it is a funny and engaging read, certain to make you chuckle and even laugh out loud. It's just not Lodge's best work, but Lodge on a bad day is still infinitely better than most other writers on a good day.
Rating:
Summary: His New Novel Is Awaited
Review: From 'Changing Places' through 'Small World' to 'Nice Work', and from 'How Far You Can Go' through 'Paradise News' to 'Therapy', David Lodge, who is a successor of one of the best parts of the tradition of British novels-- the human relationships in society and a lot of comical accidents by the clumsiness of the thoughts and acts, continued to make brilliant novels, along the 2 lines--1) the humor generated by university life or academism itself 2) the sexual freedom and the matter about Catholicism. One of the most impressive reviews on Lodge I have ever read is that one is happy because one has a contemporary writer of one's own and can grow older and have more knowledge of life with him . I reread his many novels this year. I enjoyed 'Small World' most because of its fullness and richness, an ardent lover and une belle dame sans merci, and funny, facetious situations, and 'Paradise News' because of the sympathy aroused by the hero and the paradisiacal Hawaii. Every time I read, I am fascinated by his prose: its wit and the way he uses relatives or a participle construction. I wait for a Lodge new novel as eagerly as, or more eagerly than a Pinchon's.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, but hardly funny as many critics "pin" it
Review: Here I am reviewing a book all about critics! I am amazed that the author, David Lodge, could turn literary conventions and their participants (boring english professors) into such an engaging novel. I really fell for this book, I'm almost sure if I read this book again I'd be stunned by all the ingenious subtletys I may have missed.
Talk about stringing it all together! How did Mr. Lodge manage to handle so many characters, settings (every corner of the world), and all the intertwining stories simultaneously occuring with such ease and cunning insight? I'm convinced (after reading this book) that David Lodge is a gifted story teller and first rate literary mind. May I point out that there are some racy bits interspersed within these 339 pages, but It isn't gratuituous as I thought when I began reading the book; stick with it and Lodge will clear up what you may at first think distasteful.
Rating:
Summary: More than an academic satire
Review: I approached this book with a bit of trepidation, which I ought to explain before my review. Small World is sort of a sequel to Nice Work (it has some of the same characters and locations, but doesn't rely on knowledge of its predecessor). I read Nice Work a few years ago and was put off by it. It wasn't that I didn't find the satire on academia to be humorous. Rather, I thought it was a bit tasteless for someone who had spent most of his adult life employed by universities to turn around and write a satire that was (IMO) often bitter to the point of being unfair. So, I wasn't sure I wanted to read Small World, though I had been assured it was a better book. I am glad I finally overcame my resistance and read it, because it is a much better book; indeed I think it is a very good book. Small World is also a satire on academia, and while all the jacket blurbs talk about how biting the satire is, I didn't find that to be the case. Lodge seemed much more in tune and sympathetic with his characters, even as he skewers their antics. Also, the attacks in this novel seem less personal and more on literary studies as a profession. I actually think Lodge has much bigger ambitions in this novel than writing an academic satire. His goal, it seems to me, is to package the history of the novel into a story in the form of an academic satire. So instead of a relatively simple, satirical plot (as in Nice Work), Lodge gives us a multitude of interwoven plots. He has a standard comic plot, but he also has a thriller plot, several varieties of romantic plots, a few mistaken identity plots, a foundling plot, a reunion plot and probably several others I'm forgetting. As the characters move around the world, they move in and out of the various plots. Some of the great moments in the book are watching how the characters react and change as they move from the comic plot to the thriller plot to one of the romance plots. Because Lodge is writing about Literature academics and has designed the novel to borrow from many different genres and eras, he gets to show off his extensive literary knowledge as well. The novel is littered with quotations (attributed and unattributed) and allusions (acknowledge and unacknowledged). I had fun trying to pick out these bits as I was reading, but you don't need to catch the allusions to enjoy the book. Overall, I highly recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: One of the most consistently funny books I've ever read. It helps to know your literature and your pre-Internet academic life; there are a lot of literary jokes (including many in the plot itself) that will likely go over the average reader's head. But there's a good story and excellent set of characters to be had regardless. Writers who are working on books with many characters are advised to read this one to see how to handle them properly.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful novel on the underwritten subject of academia
Review: SMALL WORLD easily takes its place among the very finest books ever written about academia. This provokes the question: Why are there so few novels, good or bad, on the world of higher education? A huge number of novelists and writers have attended graduate school, many are themselves teachers or professors, and yet the number of first-rate books covering the world of scholars are rare. Off the top of my head, I can think of Kinsley Amis's LUCKY JIM, A. S. Byatt's POSSESSION, John Barth's GILES GOAT BOY, Robertson Davies CORNISH TRILOGY, and several other novels by David Lodge, including the prequel to SMALL WORLD, CHANGING PLACES. I should also add Malcolm Bradbury's THE HISTORY MAN and magnificent parody MY STRANGE QUEST FOR MENSONGE. Many novels have characters attending college or university at some point, but as a whole it is a genre that is underrepresented. Even if novels on academic life were plentiful, this one would stand out. Lodge has written many superb books, but this one just may be his best. It was also one of the first to be widely available in the US. I still remember vividly in the 1980s having to search out Penguin editions published in Canada because he was largely unavailable in the US. The novel features some of the characters we came to know in CHANGING PLACES, including Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp, and takes place to a large extent at a number of academic conferences. Although a first-hand acquaintance with higher education isn't a prerequisite, anyone who has been to graduate school or taught will find a host of familiar characters and situation. Lodge magnificently lampoons the intellectual posturing and gamesmanship that fills the small world of the scholar. The novel manages to be both accurate and quite funny at the same time. At one point in my life, I worked in a number of bookstores. One of my happier experiences was to have been employed at a campus bookstore in Chicago during Lodge's first reading tour of the United States (I believe this was around 1990). I was happy to spend some time with him along with other employees before his reading, and I remember his being so surprised that so many in the US had read his work, given the difficulty at the time of getting his novels in the states. He was an enormously pleasant person, and he gave a fine reading from NICE WORK. A final word on that: many speak of NICE WORK as being the final novel in a trilogy. I have trouble with that. CHANGING PLACES and SMALL WORLD feature many common characters, none of whom reappear in NICE WORK. Fans of the first two may be disappointed to find that NICE WORK, as fine as it is, does not continue the story of the other two novels.
Rating:
Summary: A delightful novel on the underwritten subject of academia
Review: SMALL WORLD easily takes its place among the very finest books ever written about academia. This provokes the question: Why are there so few novels, good or bad, on the world of higher education? A huge number of novelists and writers have attended graduate school, many are themselves teachers or professors, and yet the number of first-rate books covering the world of scholars are rare. Off the top of my head, I can think of Kinsley Amis's LUCKY JIM, A. S. Byatt's POSSESSION, John Barth's GILES GOAT BOY, Robertson Davies CORNISH TRILOGY, and several other novels by David Lodge, including the prequel to SMALL WORLD, CHANGING PLACES. I should also add Malcolm Bradbury's THE HISTORY MAN and magnificent parody MY STRANGE QUEST FOR MENSONGE. Many novels have characters attending college or university at some point, but as a whole it is a genre that is underrepresented. Even if novels on academic life were plentiful, this one would stand out. Lodge has written many superb books, but this one just may be his best. It was also one of the first to be widely available in the US. I still remember vividly in the 1980s having to search out Penguin editions published in Canada because he was largely unavailable in the US. The novel features some of the characters we came to know in CHANGING PLACES, including Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp, and takes place to a large extent at a number of academic conferences. Although a first-hand acquaintance with higher education isn't a prerequisite, anyone who has been to graduate school or taught will find a host of familiar characters and situation. Lodge magnificently lampoons the intellectual posturing and gamesmanship that fills the small world of the scholar. The novel manages to be both accurate and quite funny at the same time. At one point in my life, I worked in a number of bookstores. One of my happier experiences was to have been employed at a campus bookstore in Chicago during Lodge's first reading tour of the United States (I believe this was around 1990). I was happy to spend some time with him along with other employees before his reading, and I remember his being so surprised that so many in the US had read his work, given the difficulty at the time of getting his novels in the states. He was an enormously pleasant person, and he gave a fine reading from NICE WORK. A final word on that: many speak of NICE WORK as being the final novel in a trilogy. I have trouble with that. CHANGING PLACES and SMALL WORLD feature many common characters, none of whom reappear in NICE WORK. Fans of the first two may be disappointed to find that NICE WORK, as fine as it is, does not continue the story of the other two novels.
Rating:
Summary: a socially important book
Review: Small World makes light of a terribly important social phenomenon. On the other hand, the book was published in 1984, before academia had become the place it is now. The novel is also slow by American standards, taking its time with each scene, including scenes that make the reader wonder why the scenes are there at all. One reviewer commented on this being a rare novel about academia. It is that. But academia now is not the place it was twenty years ago. What has happened in America has also happened in the U.K, as Small World makes clear. These people are networking on an international scale. Perhaps, Lodge thought these literary ideas were so silly they would blow over in a short time and he could laugh them out of existence. ("Then, what's it all for?!") But the grim-faced neoMarxist of the present universities have no sense of humor and are not about to be laughed out of their entrenched positions of power. The situation is now very serious. But read this book if you like. Then, however, get other books and find out what it's like now.
|
