TBR Challenge: David Lodge - Thinks...

Ralph Messenger is a man who knows what he wants and generally gets it. Approaching his fiftieth birthday, he has good reason to feel pleased with himself. As Director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Gloucester he is much in demand as a pundit on developments in artificial intelligence and the study of human consciousness - 'the last frontier of scientific enquiry'. He enjoys an affluent life style subsidised by the wealth of his American wife, Carrie. Known to colleagues on the conference circuit as a womaniser and to Private Eye as a 'Media Dong', he has reached a tacit understanding with Carrie to refrain from philandering in his own back yard.
This resolution is already weakening when he meets and is attracted to Helen Reed, a distinguished novelist still grieving for the sudden death of her husband more than a year ago, who has rented out her London house and taken up a post as writer-in residence at Gloucester University, partly to try and get over her bereavement. Fascinated and challenged by a personality and a world-view radically at odds with her own, Helen is aroused by Ralph's bold advances, but resists on moral principle.
The stand-off between them is shattered by a series of events and discoveries that dramatically confirm the truth of Ralph's dictum, 'We can never know for certain what another person is thinking".

Comment: One more Wednesday for the scheduled TBR Challenge post. This time, the theme is "back in my day" and I've seen that our host, Wendy, the SuperLibrarian, has suggested something related to an old school vibe, which this book could match since it was published in 2001. 

Nevertheless, this time I've also considered this theme to suit something personal. I've thought of the idea as being something related to my old days of university, when I discovered this author. It's been 22 years since I've started my university degree... sometimes, it feels like yesterday...

In this book, in the fictional university of Gloucester, Ralph Messenger is a prestigious teacher and one who enjoys the perks of his career, such as traveling and meeting as many women as he can, even though he is married. His wife apparently doesn't mind it as long as it doesn't affect their social life around the university. Then, for one semester only, Helen Reed is hired to replace another teacher in the literature department and Ralph is incredible attracted to her but she resists his advances. It seems nothing will change when a sudden discovery starts off a series of events none of them could predict...

By now I've read several of this author's books although way before I've started this blog and that's why most aren't mentioned here. My absolute favorite, of which I have so many wonderfully funny memories is Small World, which is part of a series about university teachers. How much I laughed and laughed reading that book...! Since David Lodge was also such a teacher, a lot of his commentary was purposely very analytical under all the funny plots.

Thus, this is why all these thoughts kept playing in my head when I read the expression "back in my day". I know that was not the intended meaning, but to me it was what came to mind and it did remind me of a time in which I was a student. Very convenient too, that the plot of the book is set on university/educational environment, somehow it all made sense to my personal interpretation.

The plot is very simple, in fact, basically Ralph is pursuing women, namely Helen, and many things contribute to delay or avoid the decision of them being together. While all this is ongoing, the author keeps adding many cultural, literary, mathematical, philosophical layers of commentary and this alone made the book for me. I can understand why many readers have found this element of the novel boring or as if it's just fillers for what seems to be a very poor plot, but to me this is the true beauty of the author's writing. A lot of what he learned and taught as a teacher comes across and I did like the musings shared about several subjects.

The plot is, indeed, too simple and to make it worse, the end is too open and I've felt no character really had to learn something from their adventures and options. On one hand, this happens because the author just can't avoid it to add some humor to his stories and we do get the feeling some things are too unlikely they border on fun, and then, the point of the story is not to present a good vs bad scenario, but one in which people often do things or assume things and reality might not be that straightforward.

I also think part of more negative opinions is related to the characters, namely Ralph. He is truly unpleasant and his adultery behavior makes him seem loathsome, which is a pity since he is quite clever and some of the more interesting passages come from his thoughts. He also feels he is entitled to this adultery and I really struggled to feel any kind of positive emotion towards him and applauded Helen for resisting him. Of course, some plot situations happen and we get to think of the characters through different perspectives but this is not a subject that changes, Ralph remains unfaithful.

As things progress, we discover some other issues have different POVs and what felt obvious was not so. I think the author was clever in organizing what he wanted to convey, although I'm not yet certain exactly what. Perhaps that we, humans, cannot limit our actions to simple ideas and everything can have more than one POV? That what is in our private thoughts if shared could reveal a different side of us that isn't so if we don't share them? I think any reader can have completely different conclusions.

All in all, a book that made sense to me, but I can see why it doesn't for others. I like the author's style for the most part and this helps too. There are still a few of his books I haven't read which I will, at some point, but this one worked out well enough for me to have thought the experience positive.

Grade: 7/10