Home Truths

by David Lodge

Adrian Ludlow, a novelist with a distinguished but slightly faded reputation, is living in semi-retirement with his wife, Eleanor, in an isolated cottage beneath the flight path of London's Gatwick airport. Their old friend from college days, Sam Sharp, who has since become a successful screenplay writer, drops by unexpectedly on the way to Los Angeles. Sam is fuming over a scathing profile of himself by Fanny Tarrant, one of the new breed of pugnacious interviewers, in that day's newspaper. Together, Sam and Adrian plan to take revenge on the journalist, though Adrian is risking what he values most: his privacy. What follows is unexpected and upsetting for all of them, including Fanny.

David Lodge's delicious novella examines with characteristic wit and insight the tensions between private life and public interest in contemporary culture.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Novels, British Literature, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, 20th Century

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

David 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.

Reviews

[Susana · Rating 3 out of 5]

(review in English below)

Não me lembrava (e ainda não me lembro) de ter lido este livro anteriormente, pelo que decidi levá-lo para uma viagem de autocarro, porque os que tinha "em mãos" eram inconvenientemente grandes.

De leitura fácil, com bastantes diálogos e um ritmo rápido, com um humor tipicamente britânico e tipicamente "lodgiano", foi uma opção excelente.

Por vezes nota-se demasiado que se trata duma adaptação duma peça do próprio autor, tal como explicado no prefácio, mas nada que incomode muito.

Gostei (novamente?).

I couldn't remember if I'd read this book already, so I decided to take it for a bus trip, because my "currently reading" ones were inconveniently big.

An easy read, with lots of dialogue and a fast pace, the typical british - and typical "lodgish" - humor, it was an excellent choice.

Sometimes it becomes too obvious that this is an adaptation from a play by Lodge himself (as explained in the Foreword) but it didn't bother me.

I liked it (again?).

[Desirae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this novella by chance and, as it looked as if I could finish it in the hour I had to spare, I took it up. It was a mildly entertaining - if dated- look at the results on the artist's ego of a scathing review. Almost every element regarding the media is obsolete - One character says he does not have e-mail, only a fax. Everyone is nervous about a review to be printed in the Sunday newspaper, and the way the male characters talk about women seems from an older time period than the 1990s. Lodge adapted it from a play he had written, which becomes obvious as it's made up of almost all dialogue, making the read a speedy one. Not his best, but a quick, engaging, sometimes humorous read.

[Weronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s amazing how something so deep and profound can be conveyed in such a short form. A tale about how our ego death doesn’t necessarily mean the death of us without being overly moralistic. I feel for the protagonist and it definitely put things in perspective for me. The play-like form made it a quick read.

[Denise Lancaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Medio pelo. Para pasar el rato.

[João Moura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trata-se de uma adaptação de uma peça de teatro, por isso é de leitura simples e agradavél, com poucas personagens e acontecimentos. Uma crítica aos paparazzi e aos jornalistas que entrevistam as celebridades...

[Niall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Undeniable proof that I will eventually read the books moya lends me

[Nick D · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Short, thin, but what there is is good Lodge.
A novella that shows (to no disadvantage) its origins as a play.
The denouement might seem an irrelevant disappointment to those without strong links to the UK in late 90s.
A couple of laugh-out-loud [lack of] self-awareness jokes.

[My Little Forest · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written from stage to the page, this story unfolds the inescapable hypocrisy of being dragged into sensationalism, creating a sense of “fearful symmetry” that serves as its main dramatic resolution.

Highly recommended for C1 learners due to its pithy-witty dialogues in a 20th-century-British-middle-class context. The 1998 staged play, with its Cockney and Estuary accent variations– as well as a few changes concerning the final chapter– makes it worth the watch.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novella and read it in one sitting. Witty and entertaining and a delight to read.

[Bella Stusse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well that was fun

[Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have occasionally toyed with turning both of my less-than-successful attempts at one-act plays into novellas. David Lodge's Home Truths made me think twice about it. Lodge's novella is a prose rendering of his play of the same title. His short note at the beginning tells you so, and also tells you that he put back in dialogue cut from various productions of the play. The problem is, the novella doesn't feel like a novella -- it feels like a playscript with very very explicit stage directions added in, and one odd veering-off into something that could not actually have been staged the way it's written (which, perhaps, was Lodge's whole intent for the piece, but since most of it sticks to what conceivably would have been an English Country Home One Room Drama, the piece that doesn't take place in that one room feels highly highly out of place.)

The plot, in short, is this: retired author Adrian Ludlow and his wife are visited by their old friend Sam Sharp, who is quite upset a scathing profile done by paparazzi-journalist Fanny Tarrant. A revenge scheme is set up, involving Adrian being interviewed by Tarrant at the same time that he interviews her. Will the retired author give up his own beloved privacy to skewer the woman who skewers famous people?

I have a feeling if I had seen Home Truths staged, I'd have enjoyed it quite a bit. The very British snappy patter speaks to me, and the topic is ... well, topical, perhaps even moreso now than when the play was written in 1998 (the action takes place around a pivotal cultural moment in 1997). But in book form, Lodge uses an awful lot of "he said" style dialogue tags that quickly get repetitive and actually annoying, cutting into the flow of the story. And in the end, the point Lodge seems to be trying to make is almost too cliche precisely because of that pivotal cultural moment Lodge relies on to make the point.

Reading this novella was instructional for me as a writer, but not something I'd recommend eagerly to others.

[Palmyrah · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s a blurb on the back of my Penguin paperback, allegedly from the New Republic: ‘Lodge is pure dazzling style, book after book, in his fusion of form and content.’

Well, that may be true of David Lodge’s other books but it certainly isn’t true of this one, which is pretty transparently adapted from a playscript. Lodge admits this in a foreword, but I figured it out long before I got round to reading that. All the action proceeds through dialogues, we never get to look inside the characters’ minds and the non-dialogue sentences in the text read like stage directions. If that’s a stylistic fusion of form and content, I’m Italo Calvino.

For all that, the book was readable enough, even gripping – stylishly (yes) written, tightly plotted, its four very believable (if somewhat stock) characters life-changingly affecting one another by their actions and interactions, the excitement and tension rising as I read. And then, right at the end, came the big, big letdown, a huge deus ex machina that dissipated all the carefully cultivated excitement, rendering the whole story meaningless. I really had developed an interest in Lodge’s characters and situation by that point, and the realisation that everyone was going tamely back to Square One without properly working out the consequences of the plot left me disappointed and annoyed.

The big DEM does bear a thematic relation to the action that has gone before, but affects it not a whit except to invalidate it. Chin-stroking readers and reviewers might find something to praise in the symbolic congruence, but not I. This is too much a case of an author painting himself into a corner plot-wise and calling in the cavalry because he doesn’t know what else to do.

[Russio · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Lodge's novel(la)isation of his own play is eminently and swiftly readable but reads as just that: a series of set pieces around the idea of a pair of writers trying to get their own back on a young interviewer who may have it in for them. The conclusion may suit the theme but just seems ridiculously tagged on and, while this may have been the disorientating effect of the surprising events in question for many people, no doubt it did not render everything that was going on in their lives irrelevant. In this play, sorry novella, the preceding 130 pages are made essentially void as they are dwarfed by external events. And what do I learn from this? Just that a decent conclusion was not otherwise inevitable. A shame as I had enjoyed the telling and the tale up to that point.

[Jayne Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella is capable of being read in a single sitting – it took me no more than a few hours to whizz though it. Adapted from a screenplay, it retains the original’s reliance on dialogue and a limited number of scenes, as well as other style-related factors mentioned in the author’s afterword which made interesting reading. All in all it’s a mildly amusing (not laugh-out-loud) take on the hostile celebrity interview, and the ins and outs of being a writer. Despite its brevity it still makes some interesting points as well as raising questions, chief among which was: are people actually called Fanny anymore?

[Naturegirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. The story is interesting, but I didn't like where it went at the end. Basically, these two writers are trying to get back at an interviewer who has written some nasty things about them. However, the wife of one of the writers unwittingly releases some personal information that she shouldn't have and it gets published. However, the article is published on the same day that Princess Diana dies, so no one reads it anyway. Wuah wuah.

[Elizzy B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelita muy breve al más puro estilo de David Lodge, con un final más cómodo que otras suyas. Es interesante y me gustó bastante. Se nota su origen teatral, pero eso no lo resta interés.

Very brief novel with Lodge style, but with a more confortable ending than in other of his works. It is interesting and I quite liked it. You can see the theatrical origin, but that does not lose interest.

[Rui Alves de Sousa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma peça de teatro transformada em livro, que se lê depressa mas com um enorme prazer. David Lodge escreveu diálogos deliciosos nesta crítica ao mundo dos media e das celebridades. Funciona exactamente por, ao menos, conseguir ser exactamente aquilo que pretende dar ao leitor. Um livro muito divertido.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's nothing wrong with this novella-that-has-obviously-been-adapted-from-a-play, particularly. But there's not much right about it, either. Not one of his high points.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, somewhat amusing, but the Diana bits at the end were terrible. He may have written himself into a corner.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a Lodge-fan since the early 90's and I never get tired of his investigations of the meaning of art, criticism and reality through his gallery of fictional academics.

[Zoe Colvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Lodge is a clever and amusing novelist. This novel is one he adapted from a play that was presented to good reviews and large audiences in a provincial theatre in Britain but not staged again thereafter. I hadn't thought about what a problem that might be for playwrights, and it seems rather brilliant of Lodge to decide to adapt the thing so that a wider audience could have access to it.

The adaptation works - Lodge created an entertaining novel from what must have been an entertaining play. It concerns one character who has given up being a writer and another who has kept going, becoming a script writer and part of celebrity culture. There is a slightly boring love triangle to hold the whole thing together. The end isn't perfect, but unfortunately that is true of 99 per cent of novels - and plays, come to think of it. Never mind, the book was enjoyable and I liked the justification the writer who has given up writing supplies for his decision, when how he could have stood giving up writing:

"You mean, how could I give up all those long, solitary hours spent staring at a blank page, or out of the window, gnawing the end of a ballpoint, trying to create something out of nothing, to will creatures with no previous existence into being, to give them names, parents, education, clothes, possessions ... having to decide whether they have blue eyes or brown, straight hair or curly hair or no hair - God, the tedium of it. And then the grinding, ball-breaking effort of forcing it all into words - fresh-seeming words, words that don't sound as if you bought them second-hand as a job lot .. And then having to set the characters moving, behaving, interacting with each other in ways that will seem simultaneously interesting, plausible, surprising, funny and moving ... It's like playing chess in three dimensions ... It's absolute hell."

[Chirhaf شغاف · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce roman m'a été recommandé par un ami et je n'aurais pu espérer un meilleur cadeau. Une fenêtre sur un monde magnifique que je ne connaissais pas : l’univers fin, spirituel et titillant de David Lodge.
J'avais entendu parler de l'auteur ici et là, sans trop m'attarder sur son œuvre. Jusqu’à cette belle rencontre.

Ici, il s’agit d’Adrian, illustre romancier qui a connu une certaine reconnaissance, mais qui a arrêté d’écrire et s’est retiré de la vie mondaine par la même occasion. Lui et son épouse Eleanor vivent dans la countryside anglaise.
Quand son ami de toujours, Sam, scénariste multi-primé, se voit ridiculisé par le portrait que Fanny Tarrant publie de lui, il décide de se venger. Il accepte alors de donner une interview à la journaliste, dans l’espoir d’inverser la vapeur.

S’ensuit un échange croustillant, drôle et plein d’esprit, qui interroge le sens du bonheur, différencie le succès de l’accomplissement, et met à nu les dommages que le cirque médiatique inflige à la littérature et à l’art en général.

Quelque part dans le livre, on lit : “My novels are a mixture of personal experience, observation of other people and imagination. I like to think that my readers won’t be able to tell which is which, and sometimes I’m not too sure myself.”
Et on ne sait pas si c’est Adrian ou David Lodge qui parle.

Une pépite. Hâte d’en découdre avec toute son œuvre, et de commencer à déceler qui est qui.

[S · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really would have liked this better as the play. It was fine, as stories go, but it was mostly talking and I would have liked to see the people marching about a frowsy cottage waving their arms about. I thank Penguin for putting a nice living room on the cover.

I have only one major complaint. The entire novella takes place in one house, except for one scene that happens in a car. Fine. But when the person gets to their destination, the house, they basically repeat everything that happened in the car. Like this:

Sarah sat down at the computer and wrote a review of a book she had read. Then she caught the attention of the man sitting next to her as she wrote.

"Oh, it's you Sarah! I didn't expect you to catch my attention," said the man. "Why have you done this?"

"I've just finished writing this book review," she said.

Maybe it's some kind of commentary on journalism or whatever, but it struck me as a playwright who was like "Hot damn I'm gonna put 'em in a car!" because his usual work can't afford that kind of stagecraft.

Another mark against it was that while talking about it with Greg, who had read it first and was trying to understand why I was talking so long to read such a short book, I managed to guess just about the entire plot. Oh well.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vila se înalţă solitară la capătul unui drum de ţară cu făgaşe adânci, care leagă au-tostrada de satul situat ceva mai încolo, cam la vreun kilometru. Aflat la volanul ma-şinii, poţi trece lesne pe lângă golul căscat în gardul viu ce străjuieşte marginile şose-lei, fără să observi micuţul indicator din lemn prins de un stâlp, cu litere vopsite de mână, şterse şi decolorate, litere ce compun numele „Ludlow", şi - în consecinţă - să nu-ţi dai seama că el arată drumul spre o locuinţă umană. O moviliţă şi un pâlc de fa-gi maschează, dinspre drum, vila şi dependinţele ei.
Nu este una din zonele cele mai pitoreşti ale comitatului Sussex, ci o mică porţiune de teren agricol uşor părăginit, situat între autostrăzile ce leagă Londra de Brighton şi Worthing. Aeroportul Gatwick e mai aproape decât South Downs 1. Vila în sine e destul de veche, dar din punct de vedere arhitectonic nu se remarcă prin nimic. La origine pare să fi fost compusă din două case de ţară despărţite printr-un zid comun, locuite probabil de lucrători agricoli şi transformate, mai înspre zilele noastre într-o singură locuinţă, cu numeroase îmbunătăţiri şi modificări.

[Andrew Wardle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I was delighted to find I hadn't yet read all of David Lodge's books. This novella was adapted by him from a play wot he wrote - a process he describes interestingly in the Afterword.
Like most of his books it's a light-hearted and witty piece with a hint of darkness and sorrow just under the surface. Adrian Ludlow, a "semi-retired" novelist whose first novel is "on the A Level syllabus" but who now puts his name to dull anthologies of other people's writing, is disturbed in his rural retreat by an old university friend, bruised by a recent nasty celebrity interview. They hatch a plot to get revenge on the reviewer in question, but things don't quite go to plan, things best forgotten resurface, and relationships are tested.
An interesting musing (continued by the author in the afterword) on fame, celebrity, and the tricky symbiotic relationship between interviewers/critics and their subjects.
If you like David Lodge, you'll love it.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well constructed, tight and tidy little novella, adapted - as the author explains in a forwarding note - from his play. Some other reviewers here seemed to resent that it was adapted from a play. I've always enjoyed David Lodge's books, including this one. It's an easy and fun read, and the reader - at least me - does want to know what will happen (usually a key ingredient in good literature). I'd actually like to see this on stage. After you've read this novella, the significance of it's title becomes quite clear.

[vicky ♪ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

David Lodge entendió todo. La transformó perfectamente en una "novella", sin expandirse de más, respetando los límites marginales del valor de su obra teatral.

Que no me haya deslumbrado la historia es otra cosa. Son por eso las 3,5 estrellas, porque no me maravilló. Está bien escrita, es decente, whatever, whatnot. Soy más fan de los streams of consciousness, pero no me disgustó para nada tratar con este tipo de escritura; se sintió como leer una obra de teatro, por lo que me resuena de manera positiva este cambio de formato que hizo David Lodge

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

What fun. Lodge manages to skewer self-absorbed writers and the journalists who unmask their weaknesses at the same time. When I started the book, as usual, I checked when it was written and noted the time when it was set and guessed at the deus ex machina that would resolve the conflicts at the end. Although not a surprise, it was very satisfyingly handled. I think my next book will also be a Lodfge.

[Alberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro ameno y divertido, mostrando las necesidades de atención pública de autores resignados la realidad de la adaptación a un éxito pasado y olvidado.
El giro de acontecimientos, la sencillez de la adaptación del teatro y la solidez de la maestria del autor hacen de la novela un imprescindible en la librería.

[Vincent Hernot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice idea, stretched to be published as a book (it's a play or something) so running pretty thin pretty quickly. There are some moments, an obvious desire to say something, but that something is said really quickly, too.
A couple of characters are fine, but it feels very personal, in a professional way, and so it does read as a score-settling thing a bit, a private joke, as it were.