Polly, Dennis, Angela, Adrian and their peers were bound to lose their spiritual innocence as well as their virginities on the way from the 1950s to the ‘70s. On the one hand there was the traditional Catholic Church, on the other the siren call of the permissive society – the appearance of the pill, the disappearance of Hell and the advent of COC (Catholics for an Open Church). It was inevitable that things would change radically. But how far could it go? How far could they go? And where would it all end? Find out in this razor-sharp novel of satiric insight and comic despair.
How Far Can You Go?
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Review
"Hilarious...a magnificent book" (Graham Greene)
"Huge, bitterly funny and superbly presented montage of the false nostrums that assailed Christianity like worms" (Sunday Times)
"Funny, sad, knowledgeable" (Irish Times)
"Brilliant and intricate black comedy" (Time Out) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Huge, bitterly funny and superbly presented montage of the false nostrums that assailed Christianity like worms" (Sunday Times)
"Funny, sad, knowledgeable" (Irish Times)
"Brilliant and intricate black comedy" (Time Out) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
A novel of satiric insight and comic despair dealing with the lives and loves of ten young Catholics in the 1960s and 70s.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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IT IS JUST AFTER eight o'clock in the morning of a dark February day, in this year of grace nineteen hundred and fifty-two. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IT IS JUST AFTER eight o'clock in the morning of a dark February day, in this year of grace nineteen hundred and fifty-two. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
David Lodge explores the themes of sex and religion and the power of the author in this (in my opinion) his best novel. He follows a group of a dozen or so characters most of whom are at the outset of the novel practising Catholics at the University in London in the 1950's and follows them through to middle age.
If that sounds a bit worthy then be reassured. This is comic novel - of sorts. It's not as plainly comedic as the Changing Places trilogy or Paradise News but the benefit of that is when the novel in places turns to serious events it can do so with the gravitas required.
A variety of charcters struggle with the whole range of life problems. This is not a typical novel and the oucomes are not predicatable. For instance;
"Tessa, in short was clasically ripe for having an affair, and in another milieu, or novel might well have had one. Instead, she bought lots of clothers and changed more times a day than was stricly necessary, collected cookbooks and experimeted with complicated recipes, read novels from library about mature, sensitive women having affairs, and enrolled in the Open University"
Sex is discussed and depicted in this book at great length but it is written about with more intelligence and insight than other less skilled writers. Ultimately though it is the characters who draw you in. I challenge you not to sympathise with Angela whose goodness overides her need to look for her own happiness. You will share the desperation of Miles who must reconcile his deep faith with his homosexuality. You will be drawn into the terrible difficulties of Michael who is both a devout Catholic but also incredibly turned on by the beckoning of the permissive society.
... Read more ›8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By oldhasbeen
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
.. and that's saying quite a lot. Despite the briliant comedy of "Changing Places", "Therapy" and "Nice Work", amongst others and the compelling stark Greenian realism of "Ginger, You're Barmy", for me this is the best of the lot. You get plenty of laughs, but also briliant characterisation, a kaleidoscopic view of the changing world of the English Catholic and a great insight into the dilemmas and thought processes of the Catholic mind. A book written with great style, feeling & compassion, which repays multiple reads.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a smart, serio-comic novel about a group of Catholic students in London beginning in the early 50s, and the baleful influence of their religion upon their development. The themes are Catholicism, sex (lots), relationships, the 60s, and writing (the novelist adds a layer by occasionally appearing and talking about his craft). Razor-sharp and engrossing. I really enjoyed it.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
i really enjoyed this book. a group of friends go from austere catholicism into the permissive seventies, with a glance behind them. The reader takes in all the changes since the fifties. You can't put it down. David Lodge at his best.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
It was obviously anti catholic and although I agree with the sentiments it did not make an interesting or pleasant book to read.
I read books for pleasure and it just wasn't.
I read books for pleasure and it just wasn't.
By HP
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've read a number of books by Lodge. Can't say this one was one that I prefered. A good book but not an excellent one.
By seeyoujimmy
Format:Paperback
I have enjoyed many of Lodge's novels. I enjoyed this less but could still recommend it for some good characterisation and wry observation. However strangely - perhaps because of the subject matter and the unsatisfactorily episodic plotting - it feels similar in vintage to The British Museum is Falling Down despite having been written 15 years later.
If you don't have sufficient time to read it then the digested version is that it's about Catholic guilt and angst about sex amongst a group of academics who go on to get older have children/therapy/affairs/accidents in much the same was as all of us non-Catholics.
So quite interesting characters, but ultimately their dilemmas were uninvolving, and the lack of decent narrative thrust made this more like a stitching together of several short stories. Lots of interjections from "the author".
So read all the other Lodge books first - but by all means then go on to read this.
If you don't have sufficient time to read it then the digested version is that it's about Catholic guilt and angst about sex amongst a group of academics who go on to get older have children/therapy/affairs/accidents in much the same was as all of us non-Catholics.
So quite interesting characters, but ultimately their dilemmas were uninvolving, and the lack of decent narrative thrust made this more like a stitching together of several short stories. Lots of interjections from "the author".
So read all the other Lodge books first - but by all means then go on to read this.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By D. Sedgwick
Format:Paperback
I'm so glad I did not pick this book up first from the Lodge cannon - because if I had, I might never have gone on to read wonderful books such as 'Thinks', 'Nice Work', and 'Therapy'.
The book presents the lives of a group of university friends and their various realtionships to catholocism over a forty year period. The author's by now very familiar religous and sexual views are ascribed to each of the characters and I have to say it all becomes a bit repetitive. Yes, catholics struggle with their consciences especially over matters of sex - just wish Mr Lodge would get over it!!
If you are not particualrly interested in the vagaries of catholocism like myself you may very well struggle to get anything out of this novel such is its fixation with this theme. Indeed the author launches into quite a lot of analysis of catholocism, which at times just becomes irritating. This could have been a much more interesting novel if the religous theme had not been so omnipresent anf didactic. No doubt those brought up as catholics in the 50s and 60s will identify with the author's obssessive exploration of these recurring ideas. Myself, I just found it all rather tedious and longed for some passagees that did not engage with catholicism.
Another minor yet very irritating point about this book (and the British Museum) is that not everybody in the world is able to produce babies whenever they wish to. It may surprise Mr Lodge to discover that many couples suffer from infertility and to hear the rather smug voice of an author harking on about the difficulties of NOT conceiving is just in bad taste. Poor Mr Lodge, how all those childless couples must sympathise with you and your characters' problems of hyper-fertility.... Read more ›
The book presents the lives of a group of university friends and their various realtionships to catholocism over a forty year period. The author's by now very familiar religous and sexual views are ascribed to each of the characters and I have to say it all becomes a bit repetitive. Yes, catholics struggle with their consciences especially over matters of sex - just wish Mr Lodge would get over it!!
If you are not particualrly interested in the vagaries of catholocism like myself you may very well struggle to get anything out of this novel such is its fixation with this theme. Indeed the author launches into quite a lot of analysis of catholocism, which at times just becomes irritating. This could have been a much more interesting novel if the religous theme had not been so omnipresent anf didactic. No doubt those brought up as catholics in the 50s and 60s will identify with the author's obssessive exploration of these recurring ideas. Myself, I just found it all rather tedious and longed for some passagees that did not engage with catholicism.
Another minor yet very irritating point about this book (and the British Museum) is that not everybody in the world is able to produce babies whenever they wish to. It may surprise Mr Lodge to discover that many couples suffer from infertility and to hear the rather smug voice of an author harking on about the difficulties of NOT conceiving is just in bad taste. Poor Mr Lodge, how all those childless couples must sympathise with you and your characters' problems of hyper-fertility.... Read more ›
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