an academic and a business mogul "job shadow" and fall in love. ( )

I found this novel to be less academic in its overall thrust than "Changing Places", though the place of academia and academics in society played a large part of the story. The sexual humor of both books struck me as more towards the 'Benny Hill' end of the spectrum than my tastes lie - I think that is one major reason that these are 3 star books for me rather than 4. I really enjoyed this look at 1980s English universities under the budget cuts of Margaret Thatcher & the parallel look at the conditions of heavy industry in Rummidge (Lodge's fictional city, I guess based on Manchester?). Having come from a similar academic background as Robyn, I could appreciate some of her ideas (though not the semiotics!) and her culture shock when dealing with the outside world - the factory, her brother's work in the City - but overall, Lodge's characters don't come across to me as being real people but rather as props for him to get his point across. ( )

Starts on a dry note in an industrial setup but blooms into an interesting war of ideals. Nice work is an apt ending to a flavorful trilogy that started with swapping distinct locations, cultures, relationships... And builds its finale on the plot of swapping work environments and in doing so David Lodge pits Leftist ideology against Rightist ideals... And all this in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. Nice Work is A witty read... ( )

Rating: one disgusted star of five

The Publisher Says: Vic Wilcox, a self-made man and managing director of an engineering firm. has little regard for academics, and even less for feminists. So when Robyn Penrose, a trendy leftist teacher, is assigned to "shadow" Vic under a goverment program created to foster mutual understanding between town and gown, the hilarious collusion of lifestyles and ideologies that ensues seems unlikely to foster anything besides mutual antipathy. But in the course of a bumpy year, both parties make some surprising discoveries about each other's worlds--and about themselves.

My Review: Annoying git meets termagant. They hate each other, they...oh what's the difference, everyone knows what happens, and frankly who the hell cares? I detested this book, I thought the author's pseudo-arch (how's that for a horrid combination?) faux Firbank twaddle was the literary equivalent of thorazine.

Do not purchase. If given as a gift, get the fireplace tongs and remove it from your living environment. DO NOT BURN as the miasma could prove lethal to small children.

Not recommended.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. ( )

Somewhat closed-in in the world of academia vs. industry, the book still manages to both entertain and ask a few questions. The overall point, if there was one to be made, escaped me, but I have still enjoyed the read. ( )