Book Tamers| book reviews

I began this month with a book written by David Lodge and this is why I chose to tell you today about his novel, Nice Work. If you are familiar to the Thatcher period in Great Britain, then this novel will charm you with the two universes belonging to that period.

Vic Wilcox is one of the managers of a factory, while doctor in feminist literature Robyn Penrose belongs to the tight space of universities. I think it is necessary to bring to attention the Iron Lady’s period, when the interest was centered upon industry and privatization, the reason for which many other branches, the academic one included, suffered from reorganization and closing of their gates.

Well, it is Industry Year in Great Britain and an Exchange Scheme takes place, between the academic and industrial domain. Who are the main characters? Doctor Robyn Penrose agog being fired and the tough industry man Vic Wilcox. Even from the beginning the two cannot stand each other but during the course of action Vic and Robyn come to “borrow” characteristics one from another and become better persons.

It’s not necessary for me to tell you about the knowledge Robyn acquires following the Exchange Scheme, because certainly that was not the author’s purpose. Written with a lot of humor, the book talks about the different worlds that coexist, about differences, cooperation and acceptance. On the one hand Robyn manages to accept the tough way of doing business and on the other Wilcox learns what sensitivity means.

To tell you the truth, I was expecting a frank, undeveloped fresco of the English society. But if I look between the lines I see a certain empathy in Lodge caused by the tough measures adopted by the Iron Lady, an empathy which is visible in the mutation that takes place inside the characters.

What is important in the novel’s construction is exactly the characters’ background and also their beliefs. Vic Wilcox was raised in the spirit of labor and money earned with difficulty; Robyn Penrose, on the contrary, is the daughter of two intellectuals, who grounds her existence on the denial of capitalism and promotion of culture.

In conclusion, what is there, after the Exchange Scheme? Two completely different characters, who have kept their values but at the same time accepted the other world and ceased denying it. There are two universes at battle (because of the times) which come to interweave and finally mix.

Written by: Cristina