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Product Description
Book Description
A witty, charming comedy about tourism, family secrets and finding love in the most unexpected places
Product Description
Bernard Walsh, agnostic theologian, has a professional interest in heaven. But when he travels to Hawaii with his reluctant father Jack, to visit Jack's dying, estranged sister it feels more like purgatory than paradise.
Surrounded by quarrelling honeymooners, a freeloading anthropologist and assorted tourists in search of their own personal paradise, and with his father whisked off to hospital after an unfortunate accident, Bernard is beginning to regret ever coming to Haiwaii. Until, that is, he stumbles on something he had given up hope of finding: the astonishing possibility of love.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a clever and funny tale of a socially awkward, disenchanted theologian on a mercy visit to his dying aunt in far off Hawaii. Funds being short,the most economical way of getting there is with his old dad on a package deal and herein lies a lot of the humour as we meet the very typical fellow package holiday travelers. We can easily recognise them all: The constant complainers, the loud mouth boasters, the merry drinkers etc. etc. The descriptions are so very apt and highly amusing.
There is also a more serious aspect with inter family, strained relationships and Bernard, the main character's, struggle with his beliefs and fear of physical contact with women and how to resolve them.
I have found some of Mr.Lodge's pontificating on the Catholic church's teachings hard going in some of his other work e.g. How Far Can You Go and here he again touches on this , but it is a much lighter touch. All in all this is an uplifting happy experience as the story unfolds.
By the way David Lodge is not about to win any laurels from the Hawaii tourist board!
There is also a more serious aspect with inter family, strained relationships and Bernard, the main character's, struggle with his beliefs and fear of physical contact with women and how to resolve them.
I have found some of Mr.Lodge's pontificating on the Catholic church's teachings hard going in some of his other work e.g. How Far Can You Go and here he again touches on this , but it is a much lighter touch. All in all this is an uplifting happy experience as the story unfolds.
By the way David Lodge is not about to win any laurels from the Hawaii tourist board!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bernard Walsh missed out on his childhood and adolescence because he was destined to become a Catholic Priest - a vocation he could not fulfill. The reader shares Bernard's voyage of discovery, which David Lodge describes with humour, great warmth and human insight. I felt privileged to feel his pain, empathise with his self-doubt, join in with his joy and wonder about his future.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is only the second David Lodge book I've read (having also read Nice Work some years ago and very much enjoyed it) and I was not disappointed. Bernard Walsh takes his elderly Irish father to visit Bernard's aunt who is dying of cancer, against the wishes of Bernard's sister who suspects his motives are mercenary. The trip does not get off to a good start when Bernard's father is involved in an accident, which forces Bernard to become a man of decision and action. His time in Hawaii becomes a rite of passage as he faces up to new challenges and old anxieties. In the process we also meet the interesting and entertaining bunch of fellow tourists.
Bernard's experiences are told in a warm and funny way, with great perception and some beautiful writing. I recommend this to anyone who wants to read an engrossing, entertaining and thoughtful novel.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good but muted novel
Having read all Lodge's novels with the exception of this and 'How far can you go', and loved every one of them - I was really looking forward to this one. Read more
Published 29 days ago by D. Sedgwick
I loved this book
My book group read Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge, who I'd never heard of before, and I really liked it, so when I saw this book (Paradise News) in a charity shop I snapped it up,... Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2010 by Mrs. S. R. Wray
Good, but not as funny as some others by David Lodge
I've never failed to enjoy books by David Lodge and I did enjoy this one, but not quite as much as some of the others. Read more
Published on 29 July 2009 by Bluebell
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