A superb satirist of academic life on both sides of the Atlantic (Small World, 1985; Nice Work, 1989, etc.), Lodge here turns to a subject much hashed over in American fiction: male midlife crisis and the countless trendy therapies it's engendered. Laurence ``Tubby'' Passmore, bald and rotund in his 50s, suffers from a free-floating sense of dread. To all appearances, his life is going rather well: A successful television writer with two grown children, he enjoys a vigorous sex life with his university prof wife, Sally, to whom he's remained loyal for some 30 years. But a nagging unhappiness first manifests itself in a troubling knee injury that even surgery can't cure. This ``Internal Derangement of the Knee'' (a doctor's way of saying ``I Don't Know'') begins to dominate Tubby's consciousness, setting off his obsessive fears of impotence, his zombie-like behavior at home, and a strange identification with Kierkegaard's life and philosophy. With his long-running TV series in jeopardy, Tubby also provokes his wife into a separation. When things take this considerable turn for the worse, Lodge begins to let loose. Tubby's jealous rage, his fumbling sexual adventures, his pathetic effort to develop a new series on his favorite Danish philosopher—all make for hilarious set pieces. Tubby's various therapies also provide some good fun: his acupuncture, his aroma therapy, his physiotherapy, his cognitive behaviorist, as well as his formerly ``Platonic mistress,'' Amy, a brassy divorcÇe who confirms her own dislike of sex. Finally, Tubby finds peace by delving deep into his past; he tries to atone for his poor behavior toward his first love, an Irish Catholic beauty named Maureen. Tracking her down in the present, he joins her on a religious pilgrimage in Spain: a spiritual journey that crystallizes his own sense of religion as understood from—who else?—Kierkegaard. The decidedly untrendy ending—personal healing through a leap of faith—redeems an otherwise commonplace novel, one more reminiscent of Lodge's earlier fiction about Catholicism and the sexual revolution.
Pub Date: July 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-86358-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
IN THE NEWS
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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