So good. So sad. With Lodge, as with Philip Roth, as he gets older, more infirm and perhaps crankier, so do his characters. I loved the diary-style writing. I loved the tone.
Really only one thing rang false to me and that was an extensive description of a pair of breasts (and how the narrator could tell they were natural) on page 5 (only the third page of actual text). I actually called my dad and asked if that paragraph stuck out like a sore thumb to him as well. AND IT DID. So it wasn’t just a girlreaction, yo.
It was interesting in reading this to think about how there never stops being a time in life when you can inadvertently make bad decisions, or make so-so decisions that cascade into much worse events. Something I think most of us assume will cease to happen as we age.
Really good, but I think I would read other Lodge before this one, if I were to try him for the first time. “Small World” and “Changing Places” are both really great.
In my library this is classified as somewhat academic function. Good companions would be “Straight Man” by Richard Russo or “Foolscap” by Michael Malone (or see the “academic foibles” list on this page).