David Lodge, British novelist who satirized academic life, has died
73 points by lermontov 3 days ago | 11 comments
  • toomuchtodo 3 days ago |
  • hprotagonist 13 hours ago |
    In this vein of work, I also heartily recommend Kingsley Amis' "Lucky Jim" (1954), which arguably began the "campus novel" genre.
    • adamc 12 hours ago |
      Yes! Also Richard Russo's "Straight Man", which might be my favorite of all these novels about campus life.
  • adamc 12 hours ago |
    I first encountered his novel "Small World" in graduate school, and immediately became a fan. (It was on the reading list for one of my girlfriend's courses.) Along with other novels like "Lucky Jim" and "Straight Man" (and the other two novels in Lodge's campus trilogy), it was a hilarious look at campus life. He will be missed.
  • chinathrow 12 hours ago |
    As a younger me, I dug out his e-mail address for a high school project and sent him a message with questions about Changing Places.

    I still have the message I sent him in 2000 but can't find his reply, unfortunately, but I got to send two additional messages with questions. I was thrilled at the time to be able to contact a famous writer and tell my class afterwards about it.

    RIP.

  • turadg 11 hours ago |
    I enjoyed the name Euphoria State University for his fictional model of UC Berkeley.

    To combine this news with the AI zeitgeist, consider reading his 2001 novel, Thinks….

    • cafard 9 hours ago |
      Yes, and the nice touch of situating Euphoria State University in the city of Plotinus.
  • p4bl0 11 hours ago |
    His Campus trilogy is and probably will be forever in the list of books that I recommend reading [1]. I really enjoyed reading those a lot during my PhD.

    [1] https://pablo.rauzy.name/miscellaneous.html#books

  • ggm 10 hours ago |
    "Nice work" was adapted for TV by the BBC in 1989 with Hayden Gwynne and Warren Clark beautifully cast in the leading roles.
  • zabzonk 4 hours ago |
    Don't miss out on "The History Man", by Malcolm Bradbury, another campus novel that is as dark as it is funny.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_Man

  • weinzierl 2 hours ago |
    Apart from his fiction, I can recommend his "The Practice of Writing" from 1996. Not so much for practical writing advice, but because it is an entertaining and interesting read. Even decades after reading it I particularly remember the anecdotes about Graham Greene and how he likely was as much a spy as he was a writer.