Therapy [Paperback]

‘Therapy’ – a book I returned to reread remembering that it dealt interestingly with middle aged Angst; I found parts 1 and 2 rather hard going because there was so much negativity amongst the comedy – which fits of course with ‘Tubby’ Passmore’s fascinations with Kierkegaard. If you are looking for comfort then hold out for the 3rd part where he goes to find his Catholic childhood sweetheart, when the climate turns sunny in more ways than one.
In Part 1 he is ‘angsting’ generally about life, the universe and everything and trying out a range of therapies to deal with what his physoitherpaist calls‘Internal Derangement of the Knee’- IDK or 'I Don't Know'. A wealthy sitcom writer (is it really so well remunerated a profession as suggested?) he feels pride in his work but this is in danger because of a departing actress and a dangerous clause in his contract. He recognises guiltily that he doesn’t always listen to his wife Sally but believes his marriage it in good shape and the end of the part comes with the shocking announcement:
‘Sally just came into my study to tell me she wants a separation. She says she told me earlier this evening, over supper, but I wasn’t listening. I listened this time, but I still can’t take it in.’
Part 2 recounts, written as in the words of people he has been interacting with, Tubby’s frantic search to get himself back on track through sex, trying to reverse past choices and find salvation through identifying himself with Kierkegaard, including the philosopher’s strange failure at romance when he rejected his fiancée in spite of being obsessively in love with her for the rest of his life. Lots of comedy but with a very bitter flavour and you see Tubby’s own low self esteem come through hot and strong.
In part 3 we return to the first person, with a memoir of his teenage romance with Maureen, ending in his following her onto the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. (Interestingly I found out that David Lodge was responsible for making a TV documentary of this pilgrimage before writing this book). Tubby yearns to be called Laurence again as he was in his youth, but when Maureen meets him she adopts the name Tubby and I got the feeling that in accepting that he accepts his ageing and himself – IDK and potency problems fade away and a satisfying compromise of his life comes in the last pages. It is this journey, (along with the threat to the tennis coach’s pony tail in part 2 – you have to read it!) that has stayed with me most strongly from earlier readings. The story of the journey makes a healing read.
If you’re a serious Kierkegaard scholar you may be able to make more sense than I have been able to of how the abstract concepts are interpreted by Tubby, but his developing obsession with the Danish philosopher and his mind boggling ideas is rather endearing. It contrasts interestingly with Maureen’s (and of course David Lodge’s) Catholicism.
I enjoy David Lodge because he writes really well and intelligently, has great humour on a lot of levels and builds satisfying complex worlds. I know enough about his academic subject of English Literature to get a kick out of picking up some of the references and pastiches but am uneasily aware that there is a lot that I miss (sometimes picking up on a reread)– and it is perfectly possible to read his books without worrying about that at all. It is also fun when he brings references of previous books into later books, like Alison Lurie does. I also like the insights he brings me as a woman into the male psyche – Tubby’s obsession with football for example makes more sense after reading ‘Why men lie and women cry’ and reading how Tubby tries to write in the first person as a woman in parts of Part 2 shows a male perception of how women think – mirrors within mirrors. This goes with a healthy respect for feminism and a tendency to provide strong women as a nice positive role model for an anxious female. Having looked him up on Google I see that some people think he is too structured with the way he tidies up all the details but personally I have no quarrel with that. I would recommend ‘Nice Work’ and ‘Paradise News’ if you enjoyed this book – personally I haven’t enjoyed ‘Thinks’ so much.

Though the comic effects are more subdued than in his previous novels "Changing Places", "Small World" and "Nice Work", David Lodge provides us with a very readable, and often poignant account of a man's journey to greater self-awareness.
TV sitcom scriptwriter Tubby Passmore is beset by ailments afflicting both body and soul. Recurring knee pains lead to physioterapy while a general lack of well-being, coupled with dwindling self-esteem, point him in the direction of aromatherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy.

The journal he is encouraged to keep by his psychiatrist forms the basis of the novel, in which the passage of Tubby's life from his humble South London origins is recounted as he attempts to extricate himself from the angst that has engulfed him. Along the way he develops an obsession with Kierkegaard. We are given much information about the Danish philosopher's own life as Tubby sees in it clear parallels to his own. Kirkegaard becomes his spiritual therapist as he attempts to confront ennui and dread and overcome his existentialist dilemma.

The book is suffused with the sort of finely etched humourous detail about contemporary English life that Lodge conveys masterly. Familiar themes re-occur: a Roman Catholic upbringing in the 1950s, class divisions, plus the tensions between metropolitan and provincial life. The characters are extremely well drawn and the writing excellent. The novel will appeal in particular to anyone middle-aged who, when afflicted by the mounting dissatisfactions of the advancing years, has sought to regain lost contentment, whether real or imaginary. That includes most of us over 40 I imagine!

Some books make me want to tell everyone how good they are, which is why I'm writing this review. 'Therapy' combines a page-turning story with the kind of sharp observations of daily life that made me laugh with recognition.

Laurence - Tubby - is a wealthy, successful television scriptwriter with a happy marriage and family life, a beautiful family home plus flat in London, friends, security, and the car of his dreams. He also has a crippling condition which defies diagnosis and cure, and which he calls IDK - 'Internal Derangement of the Knee' or 'I Don't Know'. This condition seems symptomatic of a mysterious Internal Derangement of his Life as he approaches his late-fifties, which expresses itself in various forms, such as the Low Frustration Tolerance which gives rise to many hilarious episodes as he meets with stupid notices, out-of-order escalators, barriers that come down just as he gets to them, and the many absurdities and paradoxes of life at the end of the twentieth century. His attempts to understand his condition take him on journeys across the Atlantic and through Europe, as well as philosophical journeys through the works of Kirkegaard and his constant reference to dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

David Lodge's fascination with the craft of novel-writing shows in the surprising twists and turns of the novel, as Laurence tells his own story from different angles, exploring his derangements. In the end, having tried every therapeutic approach from surgery to cognitive behavioural therapy, acupuncture to physiotherapy, Laurence has to become his own therapist. I would guess that I am not alone in recognising my own derangements in this novel and taking pleasure in finding that this fine novelist has mapped out the territory with breathtaking accuracy and wonderful humour.