London Book Club: May

Posted on May 26, 2010 in Uncategorized

May’s book club choice was The British Museum is Falling Down, by David Lodge, a comic novel set in the 60s, in which we spend a day with Adam, a struggling young academic, who is overwhelmed by his children, his thesis, and his Catholicism.

Our first point of discussion was the element of literary pastiche in the novel. Most of us has an edition which included an afterword from the author, explaining that he had based sections of the novel on the styles of such eminent literary figures as Kafka and Hemingway. Apart from occasionally wondering why the narrative had suddenly gone into the first person, for example, none of us had actually picked up on these references, but we drew comfort from the fact that obviously not many readers had, as Lodge had felt it necessary to explain in his afterword. Lodge was clearly irritated by this fact, and this in turn irritated most of the members of the group. We felt as if he was overly keen to point out how clever he’d been in the construction of his novel, and some people even went so far as to say that the afterword had actually retrospectively spoiled their enjoyment of the book.

Moving beyond this, however, most of us did enjoy the book in general. Some found it a little depressing – Adam does seem to be a bit of a hopeless case – though others found it funny. The scenes in Adam’s home, with his wife and children, were the highlight for several people, and Adam’s wife’s interior monologue (in the style of Joyce, in case we hadn’t noticed) was welcomed by some who found Adam rather annoying at the end of the book. Generally, the humour was thought to be effective, though some found it rather silly and over-the-top after a while.

We spent some time discussing the Catholic element of the novel. Adam is very preoccupied with the Catholic disapproval of contraception, as at 25 and in the middle of a PhD, he can ill-afford a fourth child. Some of us found Adam’s worries irritating, as he didn’t seem to think that contraception was wrong per se, but was merely blindly following the doctrine of the church, admitting at more than one point in the narrative that he would be delighted if the church revised its teaching on these matters. However, we decided that this theme was reflective of the time at which the novel was written, and was rather difficult for us to understand from our own positions in a more liberated society. The struggle between faith and authority is not one that many of us have had to contend with. Due to the fact that the book is comic, and is not otherwise very serious, we found that we weren’t particularly encouraged to follow this line of thought in more depth, unfortunately.

Adam’s character was also a talking point. He didn’t seem prepared to face his responsibilities, and some of us found it difficult to feel any sympathy with him. The novel as a whole successfully produces a sense of the insular world of academia, though one reader felt that David Lodge sets himself rather a hard task, in that he tries to send up academia, but at the same time rarefies it.

In conclusion, despite our criticisms, the majority verdict was that we had enjoyed the book – if you are in the mood for a light-hearted, sometimes very funny story, with something of Lucky Jim about it, we’d certainly recommend it – especially if you avoid reading the afterword!