,a review
I find it always an easy, satisfying delight to read a novel by David Lodge. He writes in a well-paced satirical style, often about academics tackling problems with love, faith, colleagues, friends and relatives during turning-points in life. Paradise News is no exception. Bernard Walsh, the protagonist of the novel, is an agnostic theologian and former Catholic priest that is living a frugal, unromantic life few would envy. However, accompanied by his father on a trip to Hawaii to visit his father's estranged, dying sister, Bernard finds both problems and opportunities in the Arcadian travel location.
Although the novel is easily readable and entertaining, being a Professor of modern English literature, David Lodge plays around with the form and syntax of the novel, as well as the art of fiction. The epistolary passage in the middle of the novel and a few short episodic paragraphs of present tense work well. The variation adds to the richness and tempo of the novel. There is, however, a shift in narration that does not work quite as well.
Of the few storylines that unfold in Paradise News, one of them takes a serious taboo-laden turn towards the end of the novel. The highly amusing narration of the novel drops the humour at this point, and instead the burden of satirical observations is taken up by the characters and expressed through their dialog. The shift in narration is by no means a great disadvantage to readability or enjoyment. Perhaps it is only a noticeable blemish when contrasted with the perfectly timed and fitted shifts that are usually encountered in Lodge's fiction.
Overall, Paradise News by David Lodge is a great read I would warmly recommend anyone in search of a good novel. If you are in any way affiliated with the world of academia, I am sure that you will find many hours of hilarious delight in the fiction of David Lodge. If I was afforded only one recommendation of Lodge's novels to sample, it would not be Paradise News, but Changing Places. Yet, the tendency to feature the same locales and personalities in his novels enriches all of Lodge's works. Each new novel read makes you fall more in love with his fiction, and Paradise News is by no way a poor introduction to David Lodge's works.
That is it for a review of Paradise News. These blog posts are some much needed practice for me. I am dealing with the novels I review in school. Therefore, I plan to post a short more in depth criticism of the novel if time permits.
Johan
