David Lodge

Although it took about half the book to warm to it, I stuck it out and eventually did enjoy it and found it fairly amusing, even if not as hilarious as billed. Thinly disguised Berkeley was a hoot to read about. I lived there for many years and worked on campus, after the People's Park episode, but nevertheless, it was still recognizable.

With the culture change in the Catholic Church in mid-Twentieth Century, our characters (all growing up in an unparalleled post war English affluence) must seek the answer to "How Far Can You Go?" in their own consciences. The old Jansenist Christian Doctrine of their parents and clergy is found wanting.
David Lodge writes with sympathy and experience about the confrontation that cradle Catholics found themselves engulfed in, as reform and revised ideas of faith took hold.

I've found all of Lodge's academic-related novels to be very enjoyable, often humorous and well-observed.

First read as a new lecturer, and again as a retired prof (when the situations looks much more familiar). Although the plot is worthy of a Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera, Lodge's 1980s academia still rings true a half century later. I chuckled throughout, but the situations, scheming personalities and invented contexts - especially the myriad layers of academic conferences, scrabbles for posts and praise - also reminded me of how good it was to retire.