This book is
written as a journal, partly as a diary by the central character and partly by
his friends all giving their record of events. It has a slow start, bogged
down, as are all David Lodge’s books by excursions into the meaning of words
and phrases and studies of the English language, but it is worth sticking with
the book as it does get better as it goes on and finishes up with a good
ending. There are several boring references that refer to books that delve into
the depths of your mind.
Laurence Passmore
is a successful script writer for a TV sitcom series and is comfortably well
off.
He has a lovely
wife, two grown up children, yet he suffers from depression for seemingly no
good reason. He has tried all sorts of therapists to no avail. Aromatherapy,
physiotherapy, chemotherapy, acupuncture, yoga and psychiatry.
He is always
morose at home, much to his wife’s annoyance, not listening to what she is
saying. Finally, when he fails to hear her say that his daughter is pregnant,
she walks out and leaves him.
Laurence is
distraught and goes off with a girl friend with whom he has been having a
purely platonic relationship for what he hopes will be a dirty weekend in
Tenerife, which is an absolute disaster.
He then gets
deeply involved in the books of a Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard and he
tries another weekend away in Copenhagen to do research into his life and
works, with a young girl from the TV studio, but this is also a disaster.
Towards the end of
the book we hear about his first love, whilst a schoolboy and his attempts to
woo Maureen, a strict Catholic, amid the confines of the church youth club.
This was very
enjoyable and brought back some memories for me.
As I said, I
enjoyed the book which got better towards the end. Not as good as the first
book I read by David Lodge, which was Paradise News. I have read several of his
books, but none are as good as that first one of his that
I read.
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