How Far Can You Go?
by David Lodge
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Polly, Dennis, Angela, Adrian and the rest are bound to lose their spiritual innocence as well as their virginities on the journey between university in the 1950s and the marriages, families, careers and deaths that follow. On the one hand there's Sex and then the Pill, on the other there is the traditional Catholic Church. In this razor-sharp novel David Lodge exposes the pressures that assailed Catholics everywhere within a more permissive society, and voices their eternal question- how show more far can you go? show lessTags
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How Far Can You Go? is a fascinating, anthropological novel following the lives and religious development of a group of English Catholics from their days in a college church group in the 1950s, through the tumultuous years of the sexual revolution. The friends question their religious tenant and traditions as they face marriage, families, religious callings, sexual identity, and mortality. At the same time, the Catholic Church wrestles with Vatican II, the battle over contraception, internal reform efforts, and the charismatic movement.
The title jokingly refers to the question the young Catholic men asked their priests about “How far can you go with a girl?” But more substantively, the book asks how far the Catholic Church can show more alter its rituals and adapt to modern mores and still remain the Catholic Church. Or how far individuals can abandon their religious customs and personalize their faith and still remain Catholics or even Christians. On a different level, the title refers to how far a novelist narrator can insert himself into the story and still count the book as a novel.
This is an absolutely intriguing novel. It won the Whitebread Award for best novel in 1980. Anthony Burgess included the book in his list of the best 99 novels since 1939. Catholics, whether they lived through the changes depicted or came along after, other Christians, and general readers interested in religious cultures should find it mesmerizing. show less
The title jokingly refers to the question the young Catholic men asked their priests about “How far can you go with a girl?” But more substantively, the book asks how far the Catholic Church can show more alter its rituals and adapt to modern mores and still remain the Catholic Church. Or how far individuals can abandon their religious customs and personalize their faith and still remain Catholics or even Christians. On a different level, the title refers to how far a novelist narrator can insert himself into the story and still count the book as a novel.
This is an absolutely intriguing novel. It won the Whitebread Award for best novel in 1980. Anthony Burgess included the book in his list of the best 99 novels since 1939. Catholics, whether they lived through the changes depicted or came along after, other Christians, and general readers interested in religious cultures should find it mesmerizing. show less
Le diable fait de nouveau irruption en littérature. Si David Lodge a revêtu l'habit infernal dans ce roman écrit en 1980, c'est pour poser quelques questions dérangeantes. Car le diable, c'est l'esprit qui nie, celui qui doute, qui regarde nos actions à la loupe pour en voir les failles et les ridicules. Avec son scalpel, son bistouri et son microscope, David Lodge dissèque, avec un plaisir certain, le grand corps de l'Eglise des années 50 et 60. Pour ce faire, il observe de près, de très près même, un petit groupe d'étudiants catholiques anglais et les chemins qu'ils suivent. Par quel miracle parvient-il à s'introduire dans tant de lits et dans tant d'âmes, comment s'y prend-il pour reconstituer avec une telle force les show more moindres détails d'une époque et d'un milieu ? show less
O David Lodge habituou-me a bons livros e este não foi excepção. Este é um bom livro, mas achei que lhe faltava qualquer coisa. Está muito bem escrito, com um vasto leque de personagens, todas elas bem definidas. O que é que faltou? Um plot. Se isto fosse uma biografia de um grupo de pessoas estaria tudo bem, mas sendo um romance faltou algo. Habitualmente, os livros de David Lodge lêm-se depressa porque as histórias são cativantes e a sua escrita é simples, directa e rápida; no caso de How Far Can You Go?, Até Onde Se Pode Ir?, na versão portuguesa, se não fosse pela escrita teria demorado bastante mais tempo a terminar isto.
With the culture change in the Catholic Church in mid-Twentieth Century, our characters (all growing up in an unparalleled post war English affluence) must seek the answer to "How Far Can You Go?" in their own consciences. The old Jansenist Christian Doctrine of their parents and clergy is found wanting.
David Lodge writes with sympathy and experience about the confrontation that cradle Catholics found themselves engulfed in, as reform and revised ideas of faith took hold.
David Lodge writes with sympathy and experience about the confrontation that cradle Catholics found themselves engulfed in, as reform and revised ideas of faith took hold.
Polly, Dennis, Angela, Adrian and their peers were bound to lose their spiritual innocence as well as their virginities on the way from the 1950s to the '70s. On the one hand there was the traditional Catholic Church, on the other the siren call of the permissive society - the appearance of the pill, the disappearance of Hell and the advent of COC (Catholics for an Open Church). It was inevitable that things would change radically. But how far could it go? How far could they go? And where would it all end? Find out in this razor-sharp novel of satiric insight and comic despair.
I laughed out loud while reading this- a perfect send up of the absurdities of the Roman Catholic church
6e; fl. 16,40; bij Margreet in Groningen; 21.11.96
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- How Far Can You Go?
- Original title
- How Far Can You Go?
- Alternate titles
- Souls and Bodies
- Original publication date
- 1980 (Secker & Warburg) (Secker & Warburg)
- Epigraph
- What can we know? Why is there anything at all?
Why not nothing?
What ought we to do? Why do what we do? Why and
to whom are we finally responsible?
What may we hope? Why are we here? What is it all
abo... (show all)ut?
What will give us courage for life and what courage
for death?
Hans Kung, On being a Christian - Dedication
- To Ian Gregor
- First words
- It is just after eight o'clock in the morning of a dark February day, in this year of grace nineteen hundred and fifty-two.
- Quotations
- She liked the idea of being the focus of attention for a full hour in her bridal dress, kneeling up on the altar (it was the only time in her life, Edward explained, that a woman was allowed into the sanctuary, except of cour... (show all)se for cleaning and polishing and arranging the flowers) with organ music, choir-singing, Latin prayers and glowing vestments swirling around her.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)What will happen now? All bets are void, the future is uncertain, but it will be interesting to watch. Reader, farewell!
- Original language*
- Anglais (Royaume-Uni (Royaume-Uni)
- Disambiguation notice
- UK title: How Far Can You Go?
US title: Souls and bodies
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Reviews
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- (3.73)
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- 9 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
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- ISBNs
- 22
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