Changing Places - David Lodge

'Changing Places' is a wonderful comic novel set in the world of academia during those times when students were political rebels and the polytechnics weren't yet 'real' universities. The plot features two university lecturers, one from each side of the Atlantic, who take part in an exchange programme with surprising results. It is mildly farcical, a trend which David Lodge increases with his later books featuring the same characters, with various ...
...is enhanced by the ways in which the lives of each of the two echo what the other is doing, from housing disasters to involvement in student politics. These two central characters, unknown British academic Philip Swallow, and high-flying American literary critic Morris Zapp are both very well defined, with the motives that lead each to mirror his opposite number's actions being clearly laid out and individual in each case. The characters that surround ... more

'Changing Places' is a wonderful comic novel set in the world of academia during those times when students were political rebels and the polytechnics weren't yet 'real' universities. The plot features two university lecturers, one from each side of the Atlantic, who take part in an exchange programme with surprising results. It is mildly farcical, a trend which David Lodge increases with his later books featuring the same characters, with various mishaps, misunderstandings and bedroom shenanigans taking place. This effect is enhanced by the ways in which the lives of each of the two echo what the other is doing, from housing disasters to involvement in student politics. These two central characters, unknown British academic Philip Swallow, and high-flying American literary critic Morris Zapp are both very well defined, with the motives that lead each to mirror his opposite number's actions being clearly laid out and individual in each case. The characters that surround them are also fascinating, from the people they live and work with to the two wives.

Having lived on both sides of the ocean, David Lodge is able to comment equally on the everyday lives of both nations and on their academic systems, which he compares to the detriment of both. I often found myself, in the passages dealing with Britain and Britishness, laughing that laugh that says 'it's funny because it's true', and the observations on the politics of universities and their academic departments ring true from my observations at work. For a satirical insight into the workings of a university, it doesn't come much better than this.

For me, the highlight of the novel is its 'literariness': the way in which it also manages to be about the process of writing. The two academics are both lecturers in English Literature, so their thoughts and publications obviously play a key part. More importantly, however, there is a book called Let's Write A Novel which turns up at various junctures, the observations within it being observations about 'Changing Places.' For example, in a chapter consisting of letters between the two men and their wives, Swallow's wife mentions a segment of the book she has read about epistolary novels, which, she believes, have not been attempted for quite some time. A discussion about the ways in which to end a novel also becomes important, allowing Lodge to finish 'Changing Places' in an unconventional and truly wonderful manner.

You have to be fairly intelligent to understand this novel, and I know various literary references whizzed past me due to the gaps in my reading, but for anyone who knows anything about literature, or is involved in university life it is a definite must. Only occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, it is nevertheless consistently entertaining and a difficult book to put down, both out of a desire to know what happens next and just because it's so much fun. The Universities of Rummidge and Euphoric State are great creations and wonderful places to end the day. Other novels featuring Rummidge are also highly recommended, particularly 'Nice Work', which ventures into the world of industry as well as academia.
 

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