- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (27 Jun 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140066403
- ISBN-13: 978-0140066401
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 429,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Ginger You're Barmy
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More About the Author
Product Description
About the Author
David Lodge has written many bestselling novels, including THINKS and NICE WORK. His books have sold well over a million copies in Penguin. Formerly Professor of English at Birmingham University, he now writes full-time. He continues to live in Birmingham.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ginger You're Barmy is an entertaining romp with an edge of horror about national service after the war. Our rather clever and reserved narrator, Jonathan Browne, makes friends with the much more wayward Mike 'Ginger' Brady of the title. Both went to university but whilst our narrator got a first class degree, Ginger left without one at all. The book describes their adventures whilst doing their service at Bovington with surprisingly dramatic consequences. Like other books about the military and war, such as Catch 22, the tone is essentially comic in a farcical way but, like Catch 22, there is an underlying horror that the reader is unable to escape. The farce about the military often turns out to be a very brutal type of farce; the harshness of the army routine unecessarily oppressive, and ridiculous because of it. Now, after Monty Python and in the comfort of 60 years of peace, we have become accustomed to laughing at officious Sergeant Majors and their ilk but when Lodge wrote this in the late '50's/early '60's it was against a quite different backdrop. It also reveals a character type characteristic at the time due to other writers like John Osborne and Alan Sillitoe - 'the angry young man'and his confrontations with authority. It succeeds as a book in being both funny, critical and disturbing. I enjoyed it a great deal and would reccomend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is a slight backdrop of academe in David Loge's novel, but it is not the general focus that exists in his future novels-'Ginger You're Barmy' written in the very early 60's. I enjoyed the novel, and I think it summed up the pointlessness of National Service, and perhaps how generally the army works.There is cruelty inflicted by NCO's which has a strong connection with what you would expect to find at Public Schools-which seems somewhat ironic- sseing that the perpetraitors have never seen the inside of these hallowed portals, perhaps the attitude pervades from the top brass.
The novel reads with good pace, and the format that David Lodge uses works well i.e moving from introduction to the first few days on National Service of the narrator to his final days.
I would recommend this novel.
The novel reads with good pace, and the format that David Lodge uses works well i.e moving from introduction to the first few days on National Service of the narrator to his final days.
I would recommend this novel.
Format:Paperback
Loved this book and found it was a fascinating insight into national service.One of his very early novels and one of his best.The conversation between the Sergeant and the potential officer on p.50/51 is a hoot with the italics representing truthful replies-would make a great film.The potential officers are university graduates who find much of the experience of the conscripts life totally alien to them.It has a realism and attention to detail that makes you think -David Lodge must have been drafted-he was and is writing from personal experience. Enjoyed it immensley. full marks and another one to add to my collection.
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