Out of the Shelter [Paperback]

David Lodge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 24, 1986

The restrictions of a wartime childhood in London and subsequent post-war shortages have done little to enrich Timothy's early youth. But everything changes when Timothy's glamorous older sister, Kath, invites him to spend the summer at Heidelberg. Kath, who left home long ago to work for the American army, introduces her sixteen year-old brother to a lifestyle that is deliriously fast, furious and extravagant. Dazzled by the indulgent habits of the American forces, but at the same time sensitive to the broken spirits of the German community, Timothy will find that his holiday is an unforgettable rite of passage in more ways than one.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the first American edition of an atmospheric, often comic, semi-autobiographical novel, Lodge ( Nice Work ) adroitly limns the maturation of Londoner Timothy Young. During WW II, his family passes most nights in the air-raid shelter in his friend Jill's garden. After a bomb kills Jill and her mother, Tim and his mother are evacuated to the country, but soon return to London where, making his First Confession, Tim is wracked with guilt for concealing that he and Jill had touched each other's genitals. Terrified of Hitler, Tim has nightmares after seeing what was "supposed to be a funny film" about him-- The Great Dictator . Even after the war, goods are scarce and food still rationed. Later, when Tim is 16, his older sister, Kath, who works for the U.S. Army in Germany, suggests that Tim spend the summer with her. Away from his claustrophobic and puritanical working-class home, Tim is initiated into adulthood; he comes to terms with his own and Kath's sexuality, and his abject fear of the Nazis is conveniently alleviated by a meeting with an ex-Nazi who proves to be a gentle, melancholy old man.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam~mass (April 24, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140083758
• ISBN-13: 978-0140083750
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,624,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply felt and deftly told autobiographical novel, November 19, 1997

By 

Eileen Galen (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Out of the Shelter (King Penguin) (Paperback)

British writer and critic Lodge's smart and tender novel begins in London during WW2. The narrator, Timothy, is a much-loved child in a middle class home. The voice is intimate and childishly sincere and perfectly suited to Lodge's intentions: sympathetic understanding of a very likable kid. Characters are affectionately but not cloyingly drawn, and bad things happen, too. Eventually Timothy goes to postwar US-occupied Germany to visit his much older sister (in Lodge's actual past, it was an aunt). It's a heady experience. Some of the best Lodgeisms are in this novel: the untrustworthiness of happiness, which he fears is simply "a ripening target for fate;" the meaning of travel; leavetaking and loss; loyalty to home and the known vs. the desire for adventure and newness; the powerful lure of the material world; love and eroticism and their yearned-for occasional convergence.Funny, too. This novel is a gem and a great yarn besides.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fifties seen from the sixties, January 25, 2001

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Out of the Shelter (King Penguin) (Paperback)

A teenager from an overly respectable family in the cramped restricted England of 1951 gets a glimpse of the good life lived by affluent Americans in Germany. Having lived in Britain and visited Germany in the fifties and come to America in the sixties I could identify with much of it. Lodge tries to use the US/UK contrast to make a point about the uses of adversity and the trauma of poverty. The problem with this is that, as a paradigm of restrictiveness and backwardness the England of 1951 wasn't that bad. I meet people now in the US from Bangladesh, Egypt, Haiti and points East and South for whom the culture shock of American wealth and freedom is infinitely greater. Fiction may not be the right vehicle for the point he wants to make. I understood more from the introduction (in which he suggests that the poverty of 1950's Britain was due to government policies)and the epilog. In the introduction he mentions an epilog by Don Kowalski that was excised from the original edition and has not been reinstated in this one. It would be interesting to read that.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like boyhood tales from your favorite uncle, December 25, 2000

By 

"yorkshirepudding" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Out of the Shelter (King Penguin) (Paperback)

"Out of the Shelter" is a gentle story written with a spirit of generosity. I think Lodge has some affection for all his characters, even his villains. Reading this book feels like hearing your favourite uncle telling stories of his boyhood.

For all this, it certainly isn't Lodge's best book. (It originally came out in 1970, his third book.) Bits feel clumsy, lacking in confidence - sometimes there's a bit too much explanation of characters' motivation and transitions between scenes can be jarring. The narration is peculiar in places, as if it was originally written in the first person and then quickly rewritten with an omniscient narrator.

I'd still recommend the book.

Further recommendations: If you're looking to read your first book by Lodge, try `Changing Places'. If you already love Lodge, this is a great way to continue the affair. You might also like books by Alison Lurie and Wallace Stegner.