David Lodge, British novelist who satirized academic life, has died
11 comments
·January 7, 2025chinathrow
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.
adamc
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.
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turadg
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
Yes, and the nice touch of situating Euphoria State University in the city of Plotinus.
p4bl0
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.
hprotagonist
In this vein of work, I also heartily recommend Kingsley Amis' "Lucky Jim" (1954), which arguably began the "campus novel" genre.
adamc
Yes! Also Richard Russo's "Straight Man", which might be my favorite of all these novels about campus life.
ggm
"Nice work" was adapted for TV by the BBC in 1989 with Hayden Gwynne and Warren Clark beautifully cast in the leading roles.
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https://archive.today/cLcWH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lodge_(author)