English David lodge He is one of those great writers with more than half a century of career behind him, although buried by the maelstrom of the commercial. Because what is clear is that, beyond the habit of reading being the most important thing, in order to always have the brain exercised as that most transcendental "muscle", the success of the best-selling genre blocks the arrival of that other literature of greater scope in substance and form.
However, there is nothing to reproach, it is a matter of reading choice. I myself am one of those who throws myself into the new Joel dicker as leaves. It is just a matter of recognizing that authors such as Lodge add value to literature only recognized occasionally, at the sales level, with the passage of time, when the works of the most exalted writers are longsellers and they may be breeding hollyhocks.
On the part of Lodge (even with freshness and sufficient travel), with the unpredictable cadence of novels or well-matured essays, he is bringing out new volumes that convey that notion of the need for a calm reading, gratifying when the greatest attention is given to it as well as a suspicious lover.
Once delivered to the cause of deciphering Lodge to enjoy his stories, even an icy humor born of clairvoyance about life is discovered, always with the idea of ​​a criticism that reviews everything, from religion or ideologies to fashion . Thus, with Lodge, we are awakened by that old feeling that literature can be something more than narrating towards the sole curiosity of the outcome, when everything narrated has a final point.
David Lodge's Top 3 Recommended Novels
Life in mute
Deafness is always curious. I say this because when we find a blind person, we undo ourselves, solicitous to give help with all our attentions. And yet when we meet a deaf person, we raise our voice more in a desperate and uncomfortable tone, almost always adding an inaudible tagline complaining about such a situation.
Perhaps that is why Lodge chose deafness as the disability that hovers over his story and that ends up being a greater communicative obstacle for those who hear than for those who want to be able to hear everything. When the university merged the department of linguistics with that of English, Professor Desmond Bates took early retirement, but does not enjoy it; longs for the routine of the academic year.
The late professional success of his wife, Winifred, is gaining momentum, reducing the husband to the role of companion and "housekeeper," while the rejuvenated appearance of the spouse makes their age awareness more uncomfortable. To stop. But these discontents are nothing compared to the heartbreak of hearing loss, which is a constant source of domestic friction and social hardship. Due to his deafness, Desmond finds himself entangled in the networks of a young woman whose capricious behavior threatens to destabilize his life as a retiree.
Souls and bodies
Maybe not so much now, at least not in our Western societies, but a few decades ago sexual awakening seemed like an issue in which religion also had its educational role. On this occasion we approach the always moralistic England in the most select circles (and by extension in all those environments that would like to show off a certain prestige), and in the paradoxical attitude of an English youth known to everyone when they remove the narrowness of their roles.
We all ride our contradictions. But the worst are those that wake up between body and soul, between the ecstasy of the carnal in full youth and the call to contain the Catholic tradition immersed in the midst of the social explosion of the sixties ...
Polly, Dennis, Angela and Adrian, a group of young English Catholics, are, like everyone else, forced to maintain their "spiritual innocence" and virtue during their university years in London. But the sixties are not exactly an easy time to stick to "good manners." On the one hand, there are sex and the pill; on the other, the Church does not stop threatening the most reckless with the punishments of hell.
The years pass and the group goes from militant virginity to more or less agreed marriage, and then to adultery and the most absolute disbelief. How far can you go if God is constantly watching you? Furiously autobiographical, "Souls and Bodies" is an acid portrait of England that passes from that of faith to the total loss of innocence. Sharp and controversial, the best David Lodge returns with a black comedy about sex, Catholicism and youth. An unforgettable, cynical and hilarious campus novel.
Therapy
Lodge's touch of humor is always born from a soft patina of satire. Enough to break down the first layers of the iron defenses of morality or custom. Because there is no need to delve further, once the tinsel has been peeled off, the good reader is responsible for questioning everything else. In that sense, Lodge offers an elegant, initiatory humor that awakens criticism and invites us to wonder about what is real about each character or his simple façade.
Lawrence Passmore, Tubby to friends, should be satisfied with life. He has reached middle age happily married to a beautiful and intelligent woman whom he loves, he is the writer of a television sitcom that has been on the screen for years and has made him moderately rich and famous. He lives in an idyllic town near London, far from the madding crowd, and maintains a small apartment in the city where he spends pleasant interludes with a platonic lover, so as not to forget the maddening noise altogether.
