This is a good, deep and thoughtful novel even if, in the end, you disagree with some of its ideas and aims. It is a) set in the far future, b) in a solar system far, far away, and c) starts off as a variation on the age-old science fiction theme of the innocent who […]
All posts found when searching for campus novel
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin (1974)
Posted by Simon on November 29, 2019
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/11/29/the-dispossessed-ursula-le-guin/
Deaf Sentence by David Lodge (2008)
An autobiographical author Lodge’s novels are strongly autobiographical and, laid end to end, build up to the portrait of a certain type of life and its possibilities – in a quiet way, he has recorded the experience of a generation. Out of the Shelter describes the boyhood and teenage years of the son of suburban south […]
Posted by Simon on September 10, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/deaf-sentence-david-lodge/
Coming From Behind by Howard Jacobson (1982)
[Sefton] had a highly developed respect for authority and even the slightest telling off made him feel queasy. He didn’t at all like this submissive quality in himself and he tried to disguise it by barking at menials whenever he could and by bullying and frightening students, but in the still reaches of the night, […]
Posted by Simon on August 12, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/coming-from-behind-howard-jacobson/
The Russian Girl by Kingsley Amis (1992)
Richard had reached a kind of steady state of indecision. Everything that had happened seemed to make it harder to know what to do about anything. (p.179) Richard Vaisey’s circle Another novel set among the professional middle classes in London, this time focusing on Dr Richard Vaisey, lecturer in Russian Literature at the (fictional) London […]
Posted by Simon on December 23, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/the-russian-girl-kingsley-amis/
Wilt by Tom Sharpe (1976)
Wilt is probably Tom Sharpe’s best-known novel. Its opening sentence is: Whenever Henry Wilt took the dog for a walk, or, to be more accurate, when the dog took him, or, to be exact, when Mrs Wilt told them both to go and take themselves out of the house so that she could do her […]
Posted by Simon on July 30, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/wilt-tom-sharpe/
Therapy by David Lodge (1995)
One of the depressing things about depression is knowing that there are lots of people in the world with far more reason to feel depressed than you have, and finding that, so far from making you snap out of your depression, it only makes you despise yourself more and thus feel more depressed. (p.107) This […]
Posted by Simon on June 3, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/therapy-david-lodge/
Changing Places by David Lodge (1975)
This is Lodge’s fifth novel and the one that made his name and cemented his reputation as a leading exponent of the ‘campus novel’ ie comic novels depicting the foibles and absurdities of modern university life. It is a comic masterpiece, still very funny 40 years later. It won the Hawthornden Prize and the Yorkshire […]
Posted by Simon on May 21, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/changing-places-david-lodge/
