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Quite a Good Time to Be Born: A Memoir: 1935-1975
'I was born on January 28th, 1935, which was quite a good time for a future writer to start life in England...' Born into a lower-middle-class Catholic family just before the outbreak of the Second World War, David Lodge grew up in times of great social and cultural change. This shifting landscape provided him with compelling material in his journey towards becoming the major British writer and academic he is acknowledged to be today.
In this memoir, David looks back over his childhood and youth, including his time as an undergraduate, where he meets his wife, Mary, at fresher's week, aged eighteen. After National Service, he begins his long association with the University of Birmingham, where amongst stimulating friendships with other writers and academics, including Malcolm Bradbury, he struggles, as the father of any young family, to make his way in the world. The joys of his marriage, his travels, and the thrill of publishing his first novel, are shadowed by professional disappointments and personal challenges. All the while, he is thinking and writing, always intensely connected to the political, religious, literary, and social backdrop against which he works.
Candid and insightful, illuminating both the man and his work, Quite a Good Year to be Born gives a fascinating picture of a time of transition in British society and the evolution of a writer who has become a classic in his own lifetime. It charts the development of a bright young boy from Brockley to the author of Changing Places .
In this memoir, David looks back over his childhood and youth, including his time as an undergraduate, where he meets his wife, Mary, at fresher's week, aged eighteen. After National Service, he begins his long association with the University of Birmingham, where amongst stimulating friendships with other writers and academics, including Malcolm Bradbury, he struggles, as the father of any young family, to make his way in the world. The joys of his marriage, his travels, and the thrill of publishing his first novel, are shadowed by professional disappointments and personal challenges. All the while, he is thinking and writing, always intensely connected to the political, religious, literary, and social backdrop against which he works.
Candid and insightful, illuminating both the man and his work, Quite a Good Year to be Born gives a fascinating picture of a time of transition in British society and the evolution of a writer who has become a classic in his own lifetime. It charts the development of a bright young boy from Brockley to the author of Changing Places .
488 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2015
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159 people want to read
About the author
David Lodge
152 books932 followersDavid John Lodge was an English author and critic. A literature professor at the University of Birmingham until 1987, some of his novels satirise academic life, notably the "Campus Trilogy" – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988). The second two were shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Another theme is Roman Catholicism, beginning from his first published novel The Picturegoers (1960). Lodge also wrote television screenplays and three stage plays. After retiring, he continued to publish literary criticism. His edition of Twentieth Century Literary Criticism (1972) includes essays on 20th-century writers such as T.S. Eliot. In 1992, he published The Art of Fiction, a collection of essays on literary techniques with illustrative examples from great authors, such as Point of View (Henry James), The Stream of Consciousness (Virginia Woolf) and Interior Monologue (James Joyce), beginning with Beginning and ending with Ending.
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September 5, 2022
(Originally written for a now-defunct online literary magazine.) Quite a Good Time to Be Born was issued to commemorate David Lodge’s 80th birthday. Covering his first four decades of life, it is the first of a three-volume autobiography. As one of Britain’s most celebrated comic novelists, Lodge is well placed to give a lighthearted survey of 40 years of personal and social change, from his working-class, wartime childhood to the takeoff of his career in fiction. Although this is a must-read for any established fan, even readers less familiar with Lodge’s work may be interested in the book’s insights into the social changes of post-war Britain.
Indeed, D.J. Taylor, in his Guardian review, emphasizes the memoir’s cultural value: “as a piece of reportage from the third quarter of the English 20th century this is a sociologist’s paradise”. He seems less convinced of its worth as a piece of life writing; his vocabulary even takes on a somewhat snarky tone in places as he holds up Lodge’s “faint air of self-consciousness” and “usual punctilious gloss on what did and didn’t happen”. Taylor perhaps unfairly diminishes Lodge’s achievement by calling it a “rather straightforward, and at times downright pernickety, résumé of the way life transforms itself into art”.
Lodge grew up in south London’s suburbs, his father a saxophonist in dance bands. During the Second World War Bill Lodge joined an Air Force band and David and his mother were refugees in Surrey and Cornwall, an experience he drew on for Out of the Shelter (1970), his most autobiographical work. No luxury accommodation, 81 Millmark Grove was his base for O levels – delayed a year due to bureaucracy – and three A levels; it was also where he received a typewriter for a teenage birthday, an early testament to his writing ambitions.
During his UCL years, Lodge lived at home and commuted to campus. On his first day, he met Mary Jacob, a fellow English student who would become his wife. He earned a First class degree, which led to an automatic postgraduate course offer, deferred for two years due to National Service, an experience that provided the inspiration for Ginger, You’re Barmy (1962). He had written his first (unpublished) novel, The Devil, the World and the Flesh, at age 18. It was the melodramatic tale of a Catholic teenager’s sexual coming-of-age. Mary hated it, and Lodge is embarrassed revisiting it today, but in a strange way it planted the seed for his future work; “there was a lesson in it which it took me a long time to recognise: that the best way to treat Catholic hang-ups about sex was through comedy”.
First, though, was his MA on the Catholic novel, for which he wrote a 750-page thesis. James Joyce and Graham Greene were major influences early on. Lodge defends his decision to stick with Catholicism, arguing that the faith has served him well as an English writer; “for me, as a member of the Catholic minority in a nominally Christian but in fact largely secular England, it was a positive act of self-definition to remain a practising Catholic, and a source of ideas, symbols and moral dilemma”. Indeed, the enduring contrast between supernatural strictures and human fallibility is what gives Lodge’s novels warmth and humorous potential.
Lodge also seems unashamed about his utter sexual ignorance as a chaste young man courting Mary; he seems to think he was better off than today’s sex-saturated youth. This is not to say that he was uncritical of the Church’s position on sexuality. On the contrary, he became increasingly vocal in his disapproval of the Pope’s backward views. Like many couples, he and Mary hoped the Second Vatican Council would herald a change in the Church’s policy on birth control. It was not to be. Yet Mary went on the Pill for the first time, contravening the Church’s ban. After three unplanned pregnancies, the Lodges took control of their own family planning rather than leaving it up to chance – or to God: “We made a simple pragmatic decision, but it was enormously significant: we took responsibility for our own lives, instead of being governed by a code invented by theologians which looks increasingly irrational and had no demonstrable basis in the teachings of Jesus Christ”.
The British Museum Is Falling Down (1965), a literary pastiche in multiple voices, gets much comic mileage out of the main character’s fear of a fourth unplanned pregnancy – thanks to the practising Catholic’s best contraceptive substitute, the rhythm method. How Far Can You Go? (1980), another sex comedy, shares the agonised conscience over adhering to a faith that requires illogical behaviour. As Lodge recalls, it proved to be a turning point: “In the process of researching and writing How Far Can You Go? my faith had been demythologised, and I had to recognise that I no longer believed literally in the affirmations of the Creed which I recited at mass every Sunday, though they did not lose all meaning and value for me”.
Though best known best as a novelist, Lodge is also feted for his critical work, starting with Language of Fiction (1967). Academia was more of a “small world” in those days (as one of his later titles would observe). There is perhaps a whiff of nepotism about Lodge’s career: he went to Birmingham for one-year temporary assistant lectureship but stayed for his whole academic career, never completing a PhD or facing an appointment committee. Professional connections with Malcolm Bradbury and Park Honan became lifelong friendships. Throughout, he strove to keep fiction and academia “in separate compartments of my life as far as possible”, never mentioning his novels on job applications.
A 1965 Harkness Foundation fellowship gave Lodge and family the chance to travel to America. They made a two-month road trip out to California and rented an apartment in San Francisco. There Lodge met literary critic Stanley Fish, who served as the inspiration for Morris Zapp in Changing Places (1975). In the first half of 1969 Lodge returned to California as a visiting professor at Berkeley. What with the sexual revolution and Vietnam War protests, it was a cultural hotspot. (By contrast, a department sit-in was as radical as they got at Brum.) Revolutionary fervour wore off: Mary demanded a renegotiation of their marriage so she could return to work as a school counsellor. Meanwhile, around the time of the Lady Chatterley trial, Lodge had his own experience of censorship: Ginger, You’re Barmy, originally published in expurgated form, was reissued with its crude Army language intact.
At nearly 500 pages, this cannot be taken up lightly. Inevitably, some sections are more interesting than others. Accounts of European holidays and library research occasionally come across as indulgent. The fact is that Lodge has not had a particularly exciting life, and he knows it. From the title onward, his focus is more on his time period than his own uniqueness. He appears as an Everyman who superseded his working-class origins and expectations through hard work and luck. As Taylor observes, “[Lodge’s] distinguishing mark is simply his determination, a patient resolve to deal fairly with the world, look out for his own and his family’s interests, [and] enjoy the perquisites that come his way”.
Indeed, D.J. Taylor, in his Guardian review, emphasizes the memoir’s cultural value: “as a piece of reportage from the third quarter of the English 20th century this is a sociologist’s paradise”. He seems less convinced of its worth as a piece of life writing; his vocabulary even takes on a somewhat snarky tone in places as he holds up Lodge’s “faint air of self-consciousness” and “usual punctilious gloss on what did and didn’t happen”. Taylor perhaps unfairly diminishes Lodge’s achievement by calling it a “rather straightforward, and at times downright pernickety, résumé of the way life transforms itself into art”.
Lodge grew up in south London’s suburbs, his father a saxophonist in dance bands. During the Second World War Bill Lodge joined an Air Force band and David and his mother were refugees in Surrey and Cornwall, an experience he drew on for Out of the Shelter (1970), his most autobiographical work. No luxury accommodation, 81 Millmark Grove was his base for O levels – delayed a year due to bureaucracy – and three A levels; it was also where he received a typewriter for a teenage birthday, an early testament to his writing ambitions.
During his UCL years, Lodge lived at home and commuted to campus. On his first day, he met Mary Jacob, a fellow English student who would become his wife. He earned a First class degree, which led to an automatic postgraduate course offer, deferred for two years due to National Service, an experience that provided the inspiration for Ginger, You’re Barmy (1962). He had written his first (unpublished) novel, The Devil, the World and the Flesh, at age 18. It was the melodramatic tale of a Catholic teenager’s sexual coming-of-age. Mary hated it, and Lodge is embarrassed revisiting it today, but in a strange way it planted the seed for his future work; “there was a lesson in it which it took me a long time to recognise: that the best way to treat Catholic hang-ups about sex was through comedy”.
First, though, was his MA on the Catholic novel, for which he wrote a 750-page thesis. James Joyce and Graham Greene were major influences early on. Lodge defends his decision to stick with Catholicism, arguing that the faith has served him well as an English writer; “for me, as a member of the Catholic minority in a nominally Christian but in fact largely secular England, it was a positive act of self-definition to remain a practising Catholic, and a source of ideas, symbols and moral dilemma”. Indeed, the enduring contrast between supernatural strictures and human fallibility is what gives Lodge’s novels warmth and humorous potential.
Lodge also seems unashamed about his utter sexual ignorance as a chaste young man courting Mary; he seems to think he was better off than today’s sex-saturated youth. This is not to say that he was uncritical of the Church’s position on sexuality. On the contrary, he became increasingly vocal in his disapproval of the Pope’s backward views. Like many couples, he and Mary hoped the Second Vatican Council would herald a change in the Church’s policy on birth control. It was not to be. Yet Mary went on the Pill for the first time, contravening the Church’s ban. After three unplanned pregnancies, the Lodges took control of their own family planning rather than leaving it up to chance – or to God: “We made a simple pragmatic decision, but it was enormously significant: we took responsibility for our own lives, instead of being governed by a code invented by theologians which looks increasingly irrational and had no demonstrable basis in the teachings of Jesus Christ”.
The British Museum Is Falling Down (1965), a literary pastiche in multiple voices, gets much comic mileage out of the main character’s fear of a fourth unplanned pregnancy – thanks to the practising Catholic’s best contraceptive substitute, the rhythm method. How Far Can You Go? (1980), another sex comedy, shares the agonised conscience over adhering to a faith that requires illogical behaviour. As Lodge recalls, it proved to be a turning point: “In the process of researching and writing How Far Can You Go? my faith had been demythologised, and I had to recognise that I no longer believed literally in the affirmations of the Creed which I recited at mass every Sunday, though they did not lose all meaning and value for me”.
Though best known best as a novelist, Lodge is also feted for his critical work, starting with Language of Fiction (1967). Academia was more of a “small world” in those days (as one of his later titles would observe). There is perhaps a whiff of nepotism about Lodge’s career: he went to Birmingham for one-year temporary assistant lectureship but stayed for his whole academic career, never completing a PhD or facing an appointment committee. Professional connections with Malcolm Bradbury and Park Honan became lifelong friendships. Throughout, he strove to keep fiction and academia “in separate compartments of my life as far as possible”, never mentioning his novels on job applications.
A 1965 Harkness Foundation fellowship gave Lodge and family the chance to travel to America. They made a two-month road trip out to California and rented an apartment in San Francisco. There Lodge met literary critic Stanley Fish, who served as the inspiration for Morris Zapp in Changing Places (1975). In the first half of 1969 Lodge returned to California as a visiting professor at Berkeley. What with the sexual revolution and Vietnam War protests, it was a cultural hotspot. (By contrast, a department sit-in was as radical as they got at Brum.) Revolutionary fervour wore off: Mary demanded a renegotiation of their marriage so she could return to work as a school counsellor. Meanwhile, around the time of the Lady Chatterley trial, Lodge had his own experience of censorship: Ginger, You’re Barmy, originally published in expurgated form, was reissued with its crude Army language intact.
At nearly 500 pages, this cannot be taken up lightly. Inevitably, some sections are more interesting than others. Accounts of European holidays and library research occasionally come across as indulgent. The fact is that Lodge has not had a particularly exciting life, and he knows it. From the title onward, his focus is more on his time period than his own uniqueness. He appears as an Everyman who superseded his working-class origins and expectations through hard work and luck. As Taylor observes, “[Lodge’s] distinguishing mark is simply his determination, a patient resolve to deal fairly with the world, look out for his own and his family’s interests, [and] enjoy the perquisites that come his way”.
January 29, 2018
Why have American publishers lost faith in David Lodge's work? He is a brilliant novelist and critic--and yet we have to special order his memoir and story collection (The Man Who Wouldn't Get up) from the UK. No matter! I have them both now and have devoured them. If you are a fan of Lodge's work, you will love this memoir--it's like spending a few afternoons with your favorite author, listening to him reminisce about his childhood and coming of age as a writer, husband, and father. Mr. Lodge is a genial and humble narrator. It's clear he didn't want to dishonor his parents or offend his family, so he doesn't always delve as deep as he might into more emotional territory. In the last half of the book, he opens up more about his disappointments with the publishing world and his struggles with depression as he tried to climb the academic ladder and yet still remain a good father and husband. I so enjoyed this memoir and can't wait to read about the second half of his life.
December 8, 2016
I must admit I was a bit bored by this? This astonishingly listless listing of facts would probably only come to life if the reader took the time and effort to "close-read" the text, and e.g. compare Lodge's progression and interests as a reader/literary critic, i.e. his imaginary life, with his actual private life plus the underlying social/historical developements to find out where/whether he smoothed over pot holes or filled in blanks. But – so many books and not enough time – I'll leave that task to the academia the biography has obviously been written for.
September 3, 2019
David Lodge is one of the funniest and most intelligent authors known to me and yet this book is boring and tiresome, not because he lacks talent and skill or because one might have unrealistic expectations of Lodge's life, but because the author, among great instances of social, historical, academic and economic contexts, takes the trouble to share dull and meaningless things, such as the first car he bought, the houses he lived in, toothaches, gossips, etc. What is even more curios is how Lodge seems to be a better biographical writer (doing a splendid job in Author, Author and A Man of Parts) than an autobiographical one.
July 26, 2018
Listened on audio. Nothing thrilling but always interesting to hear an autobiography of another writer.
Read
March 28, 2023_Quite_ interesting; veers often into the self-congratulatory.
September 16, 2017
“Scrivere è un piacere che mi riempie di frustrazione”. La guerra, l’infanzia modesta, l’università, l’amore per Mary (la moglie) e per Joyce: “Ecco le confessioni dei miei primi 40 anni”.
Caterina Soffici intervista l'autore per "Tuttolibri" su "La Stampa".
Lo humor tagliente di David Lodge, 82 anni, scrittore e critico letterario inglese, non ha mai risparmiato nessuno. E’ riuscito a ironizzare anche sulla propria sordità, oltre che sulle nevrosi degli scrittori e si è fatto beffe del mondo universitario, con una trilogia dedicata alle miserie accademiche, che ben conosce per essere stato a lungo professore di letteratura inglese all’Università di Birmingham. Quando si tratta di interviste invece, diventa serissimo e minuzioso. L’occasione è l’ultimo libro, un memoir dove racconta i suoi primi quaranta anni. Cioè dal 1935 al 1975. Poi ci sarà un seguito, per coprire i restanti quaranta e rotti. Il titolo è curioso: Un buon momento per nascere. Che proprio buono, così a naso, non sembrerebbe, visto che di lì a poco l’Europa sarebbe stata travolta dalla Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Nel libro Lodge ripercorre in maniera meticolosa l’infanzia e la giovinezza, cosa voleva dire crescere in una famiglia di origini modeste nell’Inghilterra del dopoguerra, con un padre musicista di strada spesso senza lavoro e la madre irlandese. E poi gli anni allo University College di Londra, l’incontro con Mary, sua futura moglie e le tribolazioni della vita coniugale da giovane coppia cattolica, la nascita del primo figlio, gli anni di apprendistato da professore e da scrittore, fino alla cattedra all’Università di Birmingham, l’amicizia con il collega e scrittore Malcolm Bradbury e poi il primo successo.
Perché pensa che nascere nel 1935 sia stato un buon momento?
«Perché se sopravvivevi alla guerra senza perdite o ferite, per un futuro scrittore la vita sociale e culturale era piena di nuove opportunità interessanti, soprattutto per uno come me con un background da middle class. Mi ha dato un sacco di spunti per scrivere».
Quando ha capito che avrebbe voluto diventare scrittore?
«Tra i 15 e i 16 anni, quando ho iniziato a interessarmi alla letteratura, specialmente narrativa e teatro. Mi affascinava l’idea di imparare le cose della vita tramite questi strumenti. Lì è nata la speranza che un giorno sarei stato capace di avere lo stesso effetto sugli altri».
Qual è stato il momento peggiore di questi primi 40 anni?
«Quando mia moglie Mary ed io abbiamo scoperto che Christopher, il nostro terzo figlio, aveva la sindrome di Down. Ci avevano fatto delle previsioni eccessivamente pessimistiche sulla sua possibilità di miglioramento, che invece è stato impressionante».
E il più felice?
«Probabilmente svegliarsi una mattina di gennaio del 1975 e leggere le prime recensioni entusiastiche del mio Scambi [il primo romanzo della trilogia sui professori, ndr], che è stato il momento di svolta della mia carriera».
La sua generazione è stata la prima a poter usufruire dell’Education Act, che permise l’accesso agli studi universitari anche alle classi meno abbienti. Un confronto con l’università di oggi?
«Quando nel 1952 ho iniziato il mio corso all’University College London, nelle università inglesi c’era posto solo per il 5% degli studenti della mia fascia d’età. Le ammissioni erano molto competitive, non si pagavano tasse e c’erano sussidi per i bisognosi. Il sistema di oggi è strutturato per accogliere il 40% degli studenti. Non c’è Paese che possa permettersi di dare una istruzione di alta qualità gratis a così tante persone, quindi alle università sono stati applicati modelli di business. C’è del pro e del contro in entrambi i sistemi».
Lei è un cattolico osservante e le sue tribolazioni con il sesso, la masturbazione, il bere sono stati anche fonte di ispirazione letteraria. Se fosse giovane adesso?
«Molti giovani cattolici della mia generazione hanno avuto problemi di coscienza circa la masturbazione. Ne scrivo in Quante volte figliolo? Ma non è stato un problema mio personale, per la verità, perché da adolescente non conoscevo né l’atto né la parola. In età adulta ho avuto problemi con l’astinenza sessuale prima del matrimonio. E poi con il controllo naturale delle nascite».
Dopo il terzo figlio avete deciso di essere meno ortodossi...
«Abbiamo risolto la questione in altri modi rispetto a quelli di Sacra Romana Chiesa. Ma se fossi stato giovane oggi avrei fatto sesso prima del matrimonio, come tanti altri giovani cattolici».
Nel libro cita quattro cose che hanno cambiato il mondo: 1) la tv sempre e ovunque 2) i viaggi low cost 3) la pillola 4) il microchip. Quale è stata la più importante, secondo lei?
«Senza dubbio il microchip e la rivoluzione digitale. I cui effetti però non sono tutti benefici. Internet è una magnifica fonte di informazione istantanea. Ma è anche fonte di tante cose nocive, come la pornografia, il razzismo, il bullismo e i tweet del presidente Trump».
Lei è nostalgico dell’era dorata quando si stampavano pochi libri e gli scrittori potevano ancora vivere di scrittura, vero?
«Si. E per varie ragioni connesse alla rivoluzione digitale di cui sopra. In Gran Bretagna i giornali erano una fonte di reddito per gli scrittori. Ora sono vicini all’estinzione. E lo stesso vale per i libri nell’Era di Amazon, che ha ridotto al minimo anticipi e royalties. A me ormai non interessa più. Mi preoccupo per i giovani scrittori».
Nel 1987 lei è andato in pensione anticipata per diventare scrittore a tempo pieno. Si è mai pentito?
«Mai. Della vita accademica mi piacevano gli stimoli intellettuali e la possibilità di viaggiare, ma non l’amministrazione e l’inevitabile ripetitività. Mentre per uno scrittore ogni cosa è una sfida e dà nuove opportunità di scoperta».
E’ più difficile oggi scrivere fiction, in un mondo così ossessionato dalla realtà?
«La letteratura riguarda comunque la realtà, anche se una storia è pura invenzione. Dall’alba della civilizzazione la narrazione è stata il primo strumento per capire l’esperienza umana. La comunicazione istantanea di oggi ha reso forse più difficile scrivere “fiction pura”, perché nel passato i lettori si abbandonavano al racconto del narratore, mentre oggi, connessi alle news 24/7, si aspettano lo stesso tipo di autenticità nella fiction».
Per lei scrivere è più un business o un piacere?
«E’ una vocazione. E’ l’unica cosa che so fare veramente bene. Per questo metto tutto in gioco quando scrivo un nuovo romanzo, che mi prende due o tre anni. Un romanzo è una merce oltre che un manufatto. E oggi agli autori è richiesto di partecipare anche al processo di vendita e promozione. La parte piacevole è meno predicibile: certi giorni sei felice perché le parole fluiscono bene. Altri sono di frustrazione, sei pieno di dubbi o perdi la fiducia nel progetto. E per andare avanti devi per forza risolvere questi problemi».
Cosa la rende felice, alla fine?
«Quando tu stesso sprofondi con piacere nel libro. Quando il libro raccoglie una ampio consenso, specie dalle persone che tu rispetti e ritieni importanti – amici cari, l’agente, l’editor, i recensori, i lettori che ti scrivono. Soprattutto quelli che dicono che gli è piaciuto a una seconda lettura».
I suoi autori preferiti sono James Joyce, Graham Greene e Henry James. Se dovesse sceglierne solo uno?
«Sarebbe James Joyce. Nel libro spiego perché».
Caterina Soffici intervista l'autore per "Tuttolibri" su "La Stampa".
Lo humor tagliente di David Lodge, 82 anni, scrittore e critico letterario inglese, non ha mai risparmiato nessuno. E’ riuscito a ironizzare anche sulla propria sordità, oltre che sulle nevrosi degli scrittori e si è fatto beffe del mondo universitario, con una trilogia dedicata alle miserie accademiche, che ben conosce per essere stato a lungo professore di letteratura inglese all’Università di Birmingham. Quando si tratta di interviste invece, diventa serissimo e minuzioso. L’occasione è l’ultimo libro, un memoir dove racconta i suoi primi quaranta anni. Cioè dal 1935 al 1975. Poi ci sarà un seguito, per coprire i restanti quaranta e rotti. Il titolo è curioso: Un buon momento per nascere. Che proprio buono, così a naso, non sembrerebbe, visto che di lì a poco l’Europa sarebbe stata travolta dalla Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Nel libro Lodge ripercorre in maniera meticolosa l’infanzia e la giovinezza, cosa voleva dire crescere in una famiglia di origini modeste nell’Inghilterra del dopoguerra, con un padre musicista di strada spesso senza lavoro e la madre irlandese. E poi gli anni allo University College di Londra, l’incontro con Mary, sua futura moglie e le tribolazioni della vita coniugale da giovane coppia cattolica, la nascita del primo figlio, gli anni di apprendistato da professore e da scrittore, fino alla cattedra all’Università di Birmingham, l’amicizia con il collega e scrittore Malcolm Bradbury e poi il primo successo.
Perché pensa che nascere nel 1935 sia stato un buon momento?
«Perché se sopravvivevi alla guerra senza perdite o ferite, per un futuro scrittore la vita sociale e culturale era piena di nuove opportunità interessanti, soprattutto per uno come me con un background da middle class. Mi ha dato un sacco di spunti per scrivere».
Quando ha capito che avrebbe voluto diventare scrittore?
«Tra i 15 e i 16 anni, quando ho iniziato a interessarmi alla letteratura, specialmente narrativa e teatro. Mi affascinava l’idea di imparare le cose della vita tramite questi strumenti. Lì è nata la speranza che un giorno sarei stato capace di avere lo stesso effetto sugli altri».
Qual è stato il momento peggiore di questi primi 40 anni?
«Quando mia moglie Mary ed io abbiamo scoperto che Christopher, il nostro terzo figlio, aveva la sindrome di Down. Ci avevano fatto delle previsioni eccessivamente pessimistiche sulla sua possibilità di miglioramento, che invece è stato impressionante».
E il più felice?
«Probabilmente svegliarsi una mattina di gennaio del 1975 e leggere le prime recensioni entusiastiche del mio Scambi [il primo romanzo della trilogia sui professori, ndr], che è stato il momento di svolta della mia carriera».
La sua generazione è stata la prima a poter usufruire dell’Education Act, che permise l’accesso agli studi universitari anche alle classi meno abbienti. Un confronto con l’università di oggi?
«Quando nel 1952 ho iniziato il mio corso all’University College London, nelle università inglesi c’era posto solo per il 5% degli studenti della mia fascia d’età. Le ammissioni erano molto competitive, non si pagavano tasse e c’erano sussidi per i bisognosi. Il sistema di oggi è strutturato per accogliere il 40% degli studenti. Non c’è Paese che possa permettersi di dare una istruzione di alta qualità gratis a così tante persone, quindi alle università sono stati applicati modelli di business. C’è del pro e del contro in entrambi i sistemi».
Lei è un cattolico osservante e le sue tribolazioni con il sesso, la masturbazione, il bere sono stati anche fonte di ispirazione letteraria. Se fosse giovane adesso?
«Molti giovani cattolici della mia generazione hanno avuto problemi di coscienza circa la masturbazione. Ne scrivo in Quante volte figliolo? Ma non è stato un problema mio personale, per la verità, perché da adolescente non conoscevo né l’atto né la parola. In età adulta ho avuto problemi con l’astinenza sessuale prima del matrimonio. E poi con il controllo naturale delle nascite».
Dopo il terzo figlio avete deciso di essere meno ortodossi...
«Abbiamo risolto la questione in altri modi rispetto a quelli di Sacra Romana Chiesa. Ma se fossi stato giovane oggi avrei fatto sesso prima del matrimonio, come tanti altri giovani cattolici».
Nel libro cita quattro cose che hanno cambiato il mondo: 1) la tv sempre e ovunque 2) i viaggi low cost 3) la pillola 4) il microchip. Quale è stata la più importante, secondo lei?
«Senza dubbio il microchip e la rivoluzione digitale. I cui effetti però non sono tutti benefici. Internet è una magnifica fonte di informazione istantanea. Ma è anche fonte di tante cose nocive, come la pornografia, il razzismo, il bullismo e i tweet del presidente Trump».
Lei è nostalgico dell’era dorata quando si stampavano pochi libri e gli scrittori potevano ancora vivere di scrittura, vero?
«Si. E per varie ragioni connesse alla rivoluzione digitale di cui sopra. In Gran Bretagna i giornali erano una fonte di reddito per gli scrittori. Ora sono vicini all’estinzione. E lo stesso vale per i libri nell’Era di Amazon, che ha ridotto al minimo anticipi e royalties. A me ormai non interessa più. Mi preoccupo per i giovani scrittori».
Nel 1987 lei è andato in pensione anticipata per diventare scrittore a tempo pieno. Si è mai pentito?
«Mai. Della vita accademica mi piacevano gli stimoli intellettuali e la possibilità di viaggiare, ma non l’amministrazione e l’inevitabile ripetitività. Mentre per uno scrittore ogni cosa è una sfida e dà nuove opportunità di scoperta».
E’ più difficile oggi scrivere fiction, in un mondo così ossessionato dalla realtà?
«La letteratura riguarda comunque la realtà, anche se una storia è pura invenzione. Dall’alba della civilizzazione la narrazione è stata il primo strumento per capire l’esperienza umana. La comunicazione istantanea di oggi ha reso forse più difficile scrivere “fiction pura”, perché nel passato i lettori si abbandonavano al racconto del narratore, mentre oggi, connessi alle news 24/7, si aspettano lo stesso tipo di autenticità nella fiction».
Per lei scrivere è più un business o un piacere?
«E’ una vocazione. E’ l’unica cosa che so fare veramente bene. Per questo metto tutto in gioco quando scrivo un nuovo romanzo, che mi prende due o tre anni. Un romanzo è una merce oltre che un manufatto. E oggi agli autori è richiesto di partecipare anche al processo di vendita e promozione. La parte piacevole è meno predicibile: certi giorni sei felice perché le parole fluiscono bene. Altri sono di frustrazione, sei pieno di dubbi o perdi la fiducia nel progetto. E per andare avanti devi per forza risolvere questi problemi».
Cosa la rende felice, alla fine?
«Quando tu stesso sprofondi con piacere nel libro. Quando il libro raccoglie una ampio consenso, specie dalle persone che tu rispetti e ritieni importanti – amici cari, l’agente, l’editor, i recensori, i lettori che ti scrivono. Soprattutto quelli che dicono che gli è piaciuto a una seconda lettura».
I suoi autori preferiti sono James Joyce, Graham Greene e Henry James. Se dovesse sceglierne solo uno?
«Sarebbe James Joyce. Nel libro spiego perché».
March 17, 2024
David Lodge has quickly become one of my favourite authors though I've only read his three campus novels as well as his novel about Henry James, Author, Author. I received the set of his three memoirs for Christmas from my mother, also an avid Lodge reader. First in David Lodge's memoir trilogy is Quite a Good Time to Be Born which covers the first 40 years of his life. The book spans his earliest memories, some of which are from the Second World War, all the way to settling down with his family and his first years working as an academic. Though, of course, many events within Lodge's novels are not autobiographical, it is easy to draw a through line from his ultra-Catholic upbringing to the unrest of the political youth in the 60s that connects with the underlying themes of many of his books. Lodge is frank about his naivete that spanned far further into his adulthood than one would think---which was mostly due to his faith as well as the nature of the times he grew up in. His memoirs are a pleasure to read, written in the same quick-witted and thorough manner as his fiction.
December 3, 2015
As a fan of David Lodge's novels I was delighted to discover that he had written a memoir of his first forty years (a second volume covering the second forty is apparently on the way). Quite a Good Time to be Born is an entertaining gallop through his childhood, young adulthood, early academic career and initial success as a novelist. He covers in detail his experience as a Catholic at a time of much societal change and writes with witty observation about life in university English departments on both sides of the Atlantic. I look forward to part two appearing.
October 8, 2016
Nu pot sa cred ca autorul romanelor "Schimb de dame" si "Meserie" a putut sa scrie niste memorii atat de plicticoase: descrierea plata a propriei cariere scriitoricesti si academice + maruntele framântari personale iscate de respectarea dogmelor catolice + paragrafe lungi de teorie literara. Nicio anecdota memorabila. Niciun portret interesant. Cu toate acestea, am citit toate cele 530 de pagini ale cartii – ceea ce inseamna ca volumul merita o stea din partea mea.
April 4, 2016
I'm afraid many lovers of David Lodge's novels will be a bit disappointed with this semi-autobiography. We learn a lot about Catholicism, the techniques of fiction, what life was like from the 1930s to the 1970s, and then lots more about Lodge's fairly humdrum life and the various academics he was friends with - very few of whom I'd heard of. And it is very long. But don't let me put you off!
September 18, 2017
The back half of the book - dealing with moving to Birmingham and meeting Malcolm Bradbury - is the most interesting bit; the rest is worthy but dull.
April 25, 2018
Quand on a beaucoup lu David Lodge, on a le sentiment qu'il a recyclé dans son autobiographie les éléments de ses romans, alors que c'est bien entendu l'inverse... Mais on a la confirmation d'à quel point le romancier britannique catholique (ou l'inverse) a utilisé pour ses romans les événements de sa vie, jusqu'à la naissance de son fils trisomique plus ou moins liée au recours aux méthodes de contraception validées par l'Eglise. On découvre cependant un David Lodge plus simple et plus sincère que les personnages parfois torturés de ses romans. Ce qui me frappe surtout à cette lecture, c'est la façon, loyale, honnête et transparente, avec laquelle david Lodge a entrepris tout ce qu'il a fait, passer un "Degree" en littérature anglaise, trouver une petite amie, chercher un poste en université, acheter une nouvelle voiture, séjourner aux Etats-Unis... allant dans le sens d'une unité fondamentale de la vie, n'appelant pas des registres d'action différenciée, qui est une chose à laquelle je crois profondément, tout en ayant le sentiment d'être la seule... jusqu'à la lecture "Quite a Good Time to be Born".
March 23, 2022
When I played in the Birmingham University football team in the 1970s it wasn’t the done thing in the changing room to talk about your course. Yet two guys doing English kept saying how fantastic their subject was and exhorted the rest of us to come and sit in on their lectures, especially David Lodge’s. Of course we never did…
A few years later I read “Small World” and suddenly remembered those locker room discussions. I read his novels and loved them, so I had to read this autobiography when I came across it in a charity shop.
I loved the straightforward way he tells his story, his struggles with Catholic doctrine, bringing up a son with Downs Syndrome, and his connection with the huge social movements of his time. For me, the Birmingham connection rang bells.
And he was a winger too!
A few years later I read “Small World” and suddenly remembered those locker room discussions. I read his novels and loved them, so I had to read this autobiography when I came across it in a charity shop.
I loved the straightforward way he tells his story, his struggles with Catholic doctrine, bringing up a son with Downs Syndrome, and his connection with the huge social movements of his time. For me, the Birmingham connection rang bells.
And he was a winger too!
August 7, 2021
I love David Lodge's novels and was interested to discover how much his own life and experiences underpin his work. I particularly enjoyed his analysis of how societal changes influenced academic teaching in the late 1960s/early 70s: I went to university in 1972 and had not previously appreciated how close my own experience was to the beginning of those changes.
At times there was a bit too much detail, but overall it is an illuminating description of post-war British society and an enjoyable memoir.
At times there was a bit too much detail, but overall it is an illuminating description of post-war British society and an enjoyable memoir.
July 20, 2025
This is an oddly muted book. Until at least half way through you wonder if he ever had an enemy or faced a moral dilemma. I suppose it might be that this was the reward for being a good Catholic. To balance his successes, he has certainly had troubles and set backs in his life and family challenges (no spoilers) but the effect as it is written is not at all immediate. As someone who enjoys his books, it is interesting to hear about his life and the associated historical detail but I'm not sure this book will grip anyone or provoke much thought.
February 7, 2018
Interesting but not arresting. This volume takes the reader as far as "Changing Places" - his first big success so probably Part 2 is more stimulating. Quite a lot about Catholicism in the book - hadn't realised he was, particularly or that he had a Downs child. Looking forward to hearing less about the former and more about the latter
August 16, 2023
I'm a fan of David Lodge's fiction and theory work so it was no surprise to have blown through this book quite quickly. He has a clear and witty writing style with great command of language and understanding of the process of writing. The era the book takes place shows both how far we've progressed but in other senses how far we've fallen.
October 24, 2017
Parts of this book are really boring, in particular the academia side of things, but others were very interesting (road trip across America, birth of his younger child). I have read all of David Lodge's books and enjoyed them very much but struggled a bit to keep going with this one.
June 29, 2022
Audiobook
July 27, 2022
A wonderful biography of growing up in England after the war and wanting to be a writer. Fascinating
June 29, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up.
March 20, 2017
Well written and crafted account, but overly catholic for my tastes, I guess he was a creature of his time. Very good insights into his development as a writer and what was around him, from family, army, university, and literary circles.
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March 10, 2016Lodge, David. Quite a Good Time to be Born
The first volume of David Lodge’s memoir (the second is to come) is a hefty tome covering the author’s life from his birth in 1935 to 1975. This volume of 488 pages is a scamper through the first 40 years of Lodge’s life, leaving the next 40+ years, one hopes, for the next volume. I first encountered Lodge’s work when studying in Canada. I was impressed by his critical acumen in an essay on Wuthering Heights, bound in a volume of miscellaneous criticism. Since then I have read with pleasure most of his later novels, for Lodge, like his friend Malcolm Bradbury is a hybrid author, equally at home in critical and creative writing. So when I saw the cover of a young boy on the cover of a book with ‘David Lodge’ displayed in huge white print, and bearing a red sticker saying ‘Half price’ I began reading in the shop.
Those who lived through the 1939-45 war will especially relish Lodge’s recall of famous radio comedians as well as movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. ‘If I went to the cinema with my mother I would steer her towards comedies or musical comedies.’ Then in his teenage years he went to the cinema on his own and was ‘transfixed and transported’ by David Niven and Kim Hunter in A Matter of Life and Death. He leads the reader meticulously through his school life, which is followed equally meticulously by his entry into the sixth form at St Joseph’s Academy, a Catholic school in Lewisham, where he remained chaste, having ‘no ambitions to have sexual intercourse … it was simply not imaginable, given the social and religious constraints of my upbringing.’
For a novelist who obviously enjoys portraying affairs du coeur and its maifold deceptions (he has a high old time with HG Wells in A Man of Parts, for example) this reticence is somewhat surprising, but as he says about his adolescent shyness with girls, he was a victim of a Catholic upbringing where random sexual activity is expressly forbidden. One senses throughout this memoir a straining at the leash, a discontent with Catholic mores, despite his rigid adherence to Papal law. Lodge has been especially a dissident on the matter of birth control, having written pamphlets and spoken out strongly against Papal intransigence. In fact his overarching interest in Catholic novelists has been pronounced from the start.
This volume comes replete with photographs of many of the characters m the Lodge story, including his wife Mary whom he met at a Fresher dance, his father bearing an alto saxophone, his mother at the seaside carrying baby David in 1935, Park Honan and family at Rhode Island, Richard Hoggart in his office at Birmingham University and of course our author himself, usually unsmiling and intense, as he certainly is in his devotion to work.
The first volume of David Lodge’s memoir (the second is to come) is a hefty tome covering the author’s life from his birth in 1935 to 1975. This volume of 488 pages is a scamper through the first 40 years of Lodge’s life, leaving the next 40+ years, one hopes, for the next volume. I first encountered Lodge’s work when studying in Canada. I was impressed by his critical acumen in an essay on Wuthering Heights, bound in a volume of miscellaneous criticism. Since then I have read with pleasure most of his later novels, for Lodge, like his friend Malcolm Bradbury is a hybrid author, equally at home in critical and creative writing. So when I saw the cover of a young boy on the cover of a book with ‘David Lodge’ displayed in huge white print, and bearing a red sticker saying ‘Half price’ I began reading in the shop.
Those who lived through the 1939-45 war will especially relish Lodge’s recall of famous radio comedians as well as movies such as The Wizard of Oz, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. ‘If I went to the cinema with my mother I would steer her towards comedies or musical comedies.’ Then in his teenage years he went to the cinema on his own and was ‘transfixed and transported’ by David Niven and Kim Hunter in A Matter of Life and Death. He leads the reader meticulously through his school life, which is followed equally meticulously by his entry into the sixth form at St Joseph’s Academy, a Catholic school in Lewisham, where he remained chaste, having ‘no ambitions to have sexual intercourse … it was simply not imaginable, given the social and religious constraints of my upbringing.’
For a novelist who obviously enjoys portraying affairs du coeur and its maifold deceptions (he has a high old time with HG Wells in A Man of Parts, for example) this reticence is somewhat surprising, but as he says about his adolescent shyness with girls, he was a victim of a Catholic upbringing where random sexual activity is expressly forbidden. One senses throughout this memoir a straining at the leash, a discontent with Catholic mores, despite his rigid adherence to Papal law. Lodge has been especially a dissident on the matter of birth control, having written pamphlets and spoken out strongly against Papal intransigence. In fact his overarching interest in Catholic novelists has been pronounced from the start.
This volume comes replete with photographs of many of the characters m the Lodge story, including his wife Mary whom he met at a Fresher dance, his father bearing an alto saxophone, his mother at the seaside carrying baby David in 1935, Park Honan and family at Rhode Island, Richard Hoggart in his office at Birmingham University and of course our author himself, usually unsmiling and intense, as he certainly is in his devotion to work.
October 26, 2016
This autobiography takes us to 1975 when the author was 40. If you are a Lodge fan it is certainly worth reading for insight into issues raised in his novels, especially the difficulties of being a practicing Catholic in the changing world of the 60s and 70s. He also tells us about the circumstances that led to the writing of each of his early novels, and is enlightening on the problems around publication. I did find the book over long though, and was often wearied by too much detail.
December 19, 2019
Like most memoirs, the truly absorbing section concerns Lodge's childhood and youth. The appeal of much of the latter half of the book is then his description of the English academic world of the decade or so before I became a student in 1965. More importantly, though, Lodge describes aspects of his life in which he began, like so many other intelligent/intellectual Roman Catholics, to doubt the power of the Vatican. I look forward to reading his second volume.
July 23, 2015
A colourful account on the life of the writer himself telling the path he took from childhood to adulthood in becoming a successful author. Sometimes the story seemed a little squeezed with many details, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
May 25, 2015
Interesting memoir written in a conversational tone. I hope that Mr. lodge publishes a continuation.
June 9, 2016
A wonderful memoir by a brilliant author. I have enjoyed all David Lodge's fiction & equally enjoyed reading about his early life & the path to academia. Thoroughly recommended.
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