David Lodge

And now he's two for two - that's right: David Lodge can't miss. 

I posted recently on the blog about his Nice Work, and now I'm onto Small World, which, honestly, was even better.

For me, Lodge is what a novelist should be: inventive, playful, insightful, smart. He pokes fun at the academy, but there's a gravity to it all: there's more here than in P. G. Wodehouse or Kingsley Amis. Plus, Lodge knows how to weave a narrative, fusing the stories of a dozen characters into a raucous, cerebral, sexy tale. 

As I say, Lodge has an insightful quality: he cracks jokes, it's true, and he jabs at universities. But he does so with tremendous wit, with a sense of understanding and compassion, almost of camaraderie. It's as if Lodge is highlighting the worst of higher education in an effort - and it's a successful one - to reveal its best. 

I really enjoyed Small World and I wish Lodge and his campus novels were better known in the States. For me, this was such a better book than Lucky Jim and other parodies of the academic life. A large part of that, of course, owes to the way Lodge writes: quickly, completely, and with a flair that's all his own.