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by Debra Murphy While I enjoy reading literary criticism of a variety of stripes, nothing beats lit crit written by one terrific writer in appreciation of the work of another terrific writer. I always want to leap up and leg it to my Macbook to scan the digisphere for sackfuls of cheap used copies by [...]
reviewed by John Murphy There is something appropriate about David Lodge writing on the ruefully comic trials and tribulations of deafness. He is a master chronicler of the seriocomic frustrations of daily life, whether it be the sexual frustrations of young Catholics post Vatican II in How Far Can You Go, or the family frustrations [...]
reviewed by John Murphy Home Truths is a bite-sized country manor comedy of manners adapted from the novelist’s stage play. Its theatrical origins are apparent in the three-act structure, the closed-in location (a country cottage), and the dialogue-heavy scenes. Considering how closely it resembles the script for a stage production, one wonders why Lodge felt [...]
reviewed by John Murphy “It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.” – G.K. Chesterton Christianity passes the test, as the wry novels of David Lodge attest. (The riots and righteous fury inspired by a Danish caricature of the prophet Muhammad a few years ago….Well, that’s another story). The [...]
Snakes and Ladders David Lodge’s Souls and Bodies won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1980. Whether it deserved such an honor or not, it is certainly a well-crafted account of British Catholicism circa the era of Vatican II. Lodge charts the spiritual growth (“decay” might be more accurate) of a group of [...]
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