Nice Work, by David Lodge
This book was recommended to me by my Dad, for a number of reasons. He thought it would be useful to me because it's a social commentary - and I study social protest writing as part of my A-level. He also pointed out that the fictional setting - the University of Rummidge - has an identical layout to Birmingham University, at which Lodge was a professor of English Literature. I had visited the Birmingham campus recently, and agreed that it would be interesting to read the book and have the right vision in my head for what the setting looked like. Also, he said, it was a very good book, which he himself had enjoyed. My verdict is that I entirely agree with him!
'Nice Work' is centred around two characters, who couldn't be more different from one another. Robyn Penrose is an English lecturer at Rummidge University. She is a feminist, and a leftie in politics. Vic Wilcox is Manager at J Pringle and Sons, a casting and engineering factory. He is money-orientated, and doesn't read books. Their paths cross, and become hopelessly entangled, when the Industry Year Shadow Scheme selects Robyn to be Vic's 'shadow', meaning that she has to visit his factory on a weekly basis to observe his work. The blurb says that 'their lifestyles and ideologies clash head-on' - and I can't think of a better way to put it. Vic and Robyn are constructs that microcosmically represent their respective 'lifestyles and ideologies', and Lodge has created a set-up in which they are literally thrust into each other's worlds. It's such a clever way of comparing and criticising both social positions.
The result, of course, is that both parties end up understanding and appreciating the other's way of life. This is also rather effective in opening the reader's eyes to the opposition's way of life. Naturally I felt more inclined to agree with Robyn's general outlook - she is female, she is involved with English Literature, and she is in the education system; all three of these also apply to me. Therefore when she was plunged into the unfamiliar ground of the Pringle's foundry, so was I. I ended up learning a few things about the way people like Vic function, as I'm sure someone like Vic reading this book might come out of it with some greater understanding of how people like Robyn function. That said, would someone like Vic - who doesn't read books - read a book like this? Maybe not. But oh well. Perhaps if they did they would learn something.
The other thing I very much enjoyed about this book was that there was literary criticism seamlessly woven in alongside the narrative. Robyn's world revolves around literary criticism, therefore the sections of 'Nice Work' that were told from her perspective were full of it. I enjoyed it, though some of it was beyond my A-level realm of knowledge. I found myself wishing I knew what post-structuralism was, so I could properly appreciate the discussions on it. The tempting option, I admit, was to just sit there reading with a sort of smug scholarly glow, uncomprehendingly lapping up all the wonderfully intelligent words. But I decided it would be more beneficial to me to actually look up post-structuralism - why not extend my knowledge? I am a word wolf after all!
Linking to this, I discovered something extremely clever that David Lodge has done. Robyn Penrose specialises in women's studies and the industrial novel. 'Nice Work' is full of gender politics, exploring the sorts of ideas that could certainly appear in Robyn's lectures in Women's Studies. For example, Robyn critiques the presence of the calendars in Vic's factory, which contain photos of female nude models. Robyn also analyses the language and images in a certain brand of cigarettes, arguing that the advertising is gendered to attract male buyers. All fascinating stuff that ties in with Robyn's field. And here's the really cool thing - 'Nice Work' is itself an industrial novel. This novel is a pastiche of the very thing that its main character teaches about, critiques and analyses. Isn't that cool?