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 ...

DavidBedford 06.06.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Changing Places - David Lodge

...incident behind me after reading Changing Places, one of Lodge’s earlier works, which for what it is worth won the Hawthornden Prize and the Yorkshire Post fiction prize. Written in 1975, this book tells the story of two lecturers in English Literature, one English and one American, who take part in a teacher exchange scheme. Philip Swallow, journeys to the fictional location of Euphoria on the west coast of America, whilst Morris Zapp makes ...
...of character, with both men, changing in character through the experience, whilst keeping their defining characteristics; and both men discover a taste for each other’s wives. Neatly bolted onto this basic story are plot lines about student unrest and the challenge by minorities of all sorts to the establishment, which took place in the 1960s. Both campuses are beseeched by disgruntled students, wanting more power over the running of universities ...

KingHerrod 23.07.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Changing Places - David Lodge