Ginger, You're Barmy [Paperback]

David Lodge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 1984

National Service: two years of square-bashing, kit layout, shepherd's pie 'made from real shepherds', PT and drill, relieved only by the occasional lecture on VD. Conscription has made Jonathan Browne and Mike 'Ginger' Brady prisoners of the British Army. But reckless, impulsive Mike and pragmatic Jonathan adopt radically different attitudes to this two-year confiscation of their freedom. Where Jonathan chooses to keep his head down, Mike can't help but rebel against those in charge. Then one day Mike goes too far, with consequences that threaten to overturn Jonathan's cultivated detachment from the idiocies of military life...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Lodge has written many bestselling novels, including THINKS and NICE WORK. His books have sold well over a million copies in Penguin. Formerly Professor of English at Birmingham University, he now writes full-time. He continues to live in Birmingham.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (February 23, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140066403
• ISBN-13: 978-0140066401
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,373,822 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The birth of an "angry young man", September 6, 2001

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ginger, You're Barmy (Hardcover)

This is Lodge's second book and it's far different from his later work. It's the story of the National Service experiences (in the mid-1950s) of Jonathan Browne, narrated by himself: His introduction to Basic Training, the friends and enemies he makes, the appalling stupidity and mental waste of the army, his final acceptance of it, and his marginal success through the two years until he's mustered out. It's also the story of Michael Brady, a casual friend from college who becomes Jonathan's near obsession, an Irish Catholic whose personal morality will not permit him to bend to the will of the army he so loathes. While this is not in any way a major work, it certainly shows an early promise that Lodge subsequently developed brilliantly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lodge in Embryo, September 19, 2002

By 

Jessica Weissman "poet and computer programmer" (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ginger, You're Barmy (Hardcover)

This is a compelling book; not the relatively lighthearted Lodge of later books and certainly not the funny Lodge. But the terrific use of language and the sharp observation are all there, perhaps not so sharpened as later. And Lodge is obsessed with slightly illicit romance, as in almost all his later books.

The picture of conscript life is heartfelt and believable, the involved plot less so.

But there's only one David Lodge, so go ahead and spend the hours it takes to read this one. Should probably not be your first taste of Lodge, though.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Angry Young Men, February 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ginger, You're Barmy (Hardcover)

Fans of post war, "angry young man" fiction (Amis, Sillitoe et al) will enjoy this realistic account of compulsory military service in the Britain of the mid-fifties. Quite atmospheric, cynical and accurate.