Writer's Luck

by David Lodge

Luck plays an important part in the careers of writers. In this book David Lodge explores how his work was inspired and affected by unpredictable events in his life.

In 1976 Lodge was pursuing a ‘twin-track career’ as novelist and academic. As a literary critic, he made serious contributions to the subject, before carnivalising it in his comic-satiric novel Small World. The balancing act between his two professions was increasingly difficult to maintain, and he became a full-time writer just before he published his bestselling novel Nice Work. Both books were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in which he was later involved as Chairman of the judges.

Readers of Lodge’s novels will be fascinated by the insights this book gives – not only into his professional career but also more personal experience. The main focus, however, is on writing as a vocation. Anyone who is interested in learning about the creative process, about the dual nature of the novel as both work of art and commodity, will find Writer’s Luck a candid and entertaining guide.

Genres: Memoir

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 2018

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

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(2.5) David Lodge has been one of my favorite authors for over a decade. His first memoir, Quite a Good Time to Be Born: A Memoir, 1935–1975, is a good standalone read, even for non-fans, for its insight into the social changes of post-war Britain. However, this volume makes the mistake of covering much less ground, in much more detail – thanks to better record-keeping at the peak of his career – and the result is really rather tedious. The book opens with the publication of How Far Can You Go? and carries through to the reception of Paradise News, with a warning that he cannot promise a third volume; he is now 83. Conferences, lecture tours, and travels are described in exhaustive detail. There’s also a slightly bitter edge to Lodge’s attempts to figure out why ventures flopped or novels got negative reviews (Small World, though Booker-shortlisted, was better received in America), though he concludes that his career was characterized by more good luck than bad.

I liked the account of meeting Muriel Spark in Italy, and valued the behind-the-scenes look at the contentious task of judging the 1989 Booker Prize, which went to Kazuo Ishiguro for The Remains of the Days. Especially enjoyable is a passage about getting hooked on saunas via trips to Finland and to Center Parcs, a chain of all-inclusive holiday activity camps in England. Oh how I laughed at his description of nude sauna-going in midlife (whether I was supposed to or not, I’m not sure): “The difference in pleasure between swimming wearing a costume of any kind and the sensation of swimming without one, the water coursing unimpeded round your loins as you move through it, cannot be exaggerated, and I first discovered it in Center Parcs.” I also cringed at the Lodges placing “our Down’s son” Christopher in a residential care home – I do hope thinking about disability has moved on since the mid-1980s.

Ultimately, I’m not sure Lodge has had an interesting enough life to warrant a several-volume project. He’s an almost reassuringly dull chap; “The fact is that I am constitutionally monogamous,” he admits at one point. Although it was fun for me to see the genesis of novels like Paradise News, I don’t think I’d have the stomach for reading any more about why Lodge thinks his star faded starting in the 1990s. However, I’ll keep this on the shelf to go back to for some context when I finally get around to rereading Small World and Nice Work.

Favorite lines: “there has been a downside to the Prize Culture which the Booker engendered. It has warped the evaluation of new fiction by measuring success as if it were a competitive sport.”

You might choose to read instead: Quite a Good Time to Be Born or John Carey’s The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books – overall the better autobiography of a middle-class, bookish lad.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good account of the process of writing but I think I'd rather read a David Lodge novel than a book about David Lodge writing books. Apparently he doesn't know whether he'll do a "Part 3" - perhaps there's not much more to be said on the subject

[Rita Ciresi · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Lodge is one of my favorite novelists. It's a pity his new work isn't available in the United States and that we have to special order it from the UK. I found some parts of this memoir dull (especially the detailed accounts of academic conferences)--but he's just such a likable narrator and decent human being, as well as a great storyteller, that I zipped right through this memoir in two days. Like its predecessor--Quite A Good Time to Be Born--this is more of an old-fashioned autobiography than tell-all narrative. It's obvious that Lodge doesn't want to expose his family to scrutiny and seeks not to offend his fellow writers and academics, so the tale suffers from his guardedness. On the other hand, it's refreshing to find a writer who isn't willing to throw his family and colleagues under the bus for the sake of a good story. I'm so grateful to Lodge for the many hours of entertainment he has provided to his fans. I have all of his novels on Kindle and turn to them--and the novels of Jane Austen--whenever I need a good read.

[Brian Thomas Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy David Lodge's novels, you'll probably enjoy this. Some people might complain that Lodge's life has been uneventful (he met his wife on their first *day* at university, has stayed married to her and, notwithstanding the role that bedhopping has played in his books, has never betrayed her) - but then not every writer has had the career of Hemingway or Frederick Forsyth. Some readers just might be in the mood for a depiction of English literary life in the seventies and eighties, and this book provides that nicely.

The book does however confirm something I had long suspected from his novels, namely that Lodge has a definite fascination with saunas, nude swimming and all that kind of business ...

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second volume of his memoirs and equally as interesting as his first. Having read most of his books it is fascinating to read how they came about, the problems associated with their birth and whether or not they were successful

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting and insightful book to both his life and the creative process and the different ways to tell a story- novels,plays,adaptations of his work,lectures and linguistics.Always interesting and informative but ,of course ,only for those who know his work.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Valeriu Gherghel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Al doilea volum dintr-o trilogie autobiografică. Primul a fost tradus sub titlul Născut într-un ceas bun. Memorii (1935 - 1975). Ultimul este intitulat Varying Degrees of Success. A Memoir 1992-2020 și va fi tradus, probabil, tot la Polirom. (A apărut în vara lui 2023).

Mi se pare ciudată lipsa de autoironie a autorului. David Lodge e mereu grav și lasă întotdeauna impresia unui ins foarte serios, care rîde puțin și rar. Sigur, poate că autorul nu seamănă cu personajul construit în acest volum de memorii, dar de la un prozator „comic” (cum se caracterizează adesea) te aștepți măcar la un pic de bună dispoziție.

David Lodge a optat pentru o relatare destul de seacă (și mult prea minuțioasă) a evenimentelor, le consemnează neutru și nu ne spune niciodată ce gîndește despre ele (cu unele excepții). Aș fi vrut să aflu ce l-a împins către scris, cum scrie, ce rutine și-a făcut, ce gîndește despre Kingsley Amis și, în genere, ce gîndește despre el însuși ca scriitor.

Autorul mi se pare că e mult prea atent la primirea critică a romanelor sale, nu uită nici o cronică negativă, nici un reproș critic (cf. pp.454, 470, 556-561) și pare a pune la suflet toate nimicurile ce compun viața literară. În opinia mea, David Lodge e prea dependent de părerea celorlalți.

Găsim și mici portrete: Muriel Spark (pp.81-82), Anthony Burgess (pp.82-85), Roman Jakobson (pp.106-108), Umberto Eco (p.127: la Marea Moartă, Eco înoată cu succes prin nămol), Frank Kermode (pp.184-190), Harold Bloom (p.195), Nadine Gordimer (pp.412-414), Ted Hughes (pp.460-462), William Merwin (pp.480-482). Din păcate, nici un portret nu e memorabil. Să mergi la Stanley Fish acasă și să observi (numai) că are 6 mașini în curte (una a soției și cinci ale lui) pare meschin. N-au discutat chiar nimic?

Mai aflăm cum e să fii nominalizat de două ori la Booker Prize (și să nu iei premiul niciodată) și ce se întîmplă cînd ești în juriu și nu te înțelegi cu unii dintre colegi (pp.496-513).

În rest, prea multe notații irelevante: „Mîncarea a fost excelentă și s-a consumat destul de mult vin de calitate” (p.461: la întîlnirea cu Ted Hughes).

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A whole somewhat less than the sum of its parts. The part about a TV adaptation of one of his books is so stupefyingly dull that a lesson on long division seems like a white knuckle ride by comparison. The previous volume about his Catholic boyhood is better.