Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Collision avoidance, June 1, 2001
David Lodge by his own admission has been writing novels since he was 17. He's in his sixties, now, and is a master of the craft. He has produced coming-of-age novels, comic romps, academic novels, comical and bittersweet stories of yearning and loss - along with a variety of other conventional and experimental works. He has a big heart. In addition he is a prolific critic and essayist. He is great at parody, and has firm and interesting opinions regarding Catholicism, academia, modernity, the writing life, sex, death, relationships between friends, spouses, and lovers - among many other things. "Thinks" is both an academic novel and a comedy of manners - containing elements of all of the above. Within a plot both complicated and much too simple the fictitious University of Gloucester provides the setting for the events. A bright, sexually and intellectually restless - and highly verbal - married but chronically adulterous scientist, Ralph Messenger (a dead ringer for Lodge himself, down to each facial feature) meets a younger female writer-in-residence at the school. She is a grieving widow, feeling out of place, away from her home in London, and out of sorts. They close in on one another and pull away - throughout the novel. It's a troubling (and troubled) dance. The story unfolds by means of the transcripts of Messenger's stream-of-consciousness on-the- fly musings into a tape recorder. (In perfect Lodgeian fashion, Messenger self-consciously edits the transcripts.) Messenger fancies himself a modern, but is confounded by some of modernity's trappings. In alternate chapters, the diary entries of Helen Reed, a novelist of some acclaim and considerable self-awareness, are used to let us in on her thoughts and feelings. So what's the problem? Messenger is a familiar man: we've watched him in action in other novels of Lodge's. Unfortunately in this one he possesses much less of the the tenderness, the heartrending confusion, and (sometimes comical) sexual frustration and/or energy - and vulnerability - that made so many of Lodge's previous protagonists so irresistibly appealing. In addition, Messenger/Lodge's self-referencing begins to seem precious. Characters from past novels (including Robyn Penrose from "Nice Work") make cameo appearances that seem almost token. Helen Reed's diary entries are not sufficiently believable- for they are often wooden, much too full of tedious description of the obvious - and usually lacking in any trace of the register of a diary. She doesn't seem to be writing for herself, but for Lodge's presumed audience. This is a real problem in this novel. The story entertains by means of plotting and timing. As usual from David Lodge there is wit and parody, self-consciousness without narcissism, humor and foolishness, desire and the reasonable wish to connect - occasionally running amok. In addition there is Lodge's basic decency toward all. I had hoped for more, though, from such a capable mind - and wonderful writer.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Midsummer-night's Dream for baby boomers, August 13, 2001
David Lodge himself points out in Thinks that there are only a finite number of plots, and he has chosen the most common: boy meets girl, or in this case, narcissistic cognitive science professor meets Anita Brookner-heroine-like novelist. The results are intriguing enough that I recommend this book, just do not expect Lodge's customary pell-mell style of uncontrolled hilarity or angst driven quests for truth. These characters are already secure enough in their lives that now it's just a matter of fine tuning. As Ralph Messenger pursues visiting creative writing teacher Helen Reed (I don't think it would be giving anything away to mention that their first kiss is practically in the Garden of Eden), he also regales us with facts about the field of consciousness. But more fun is the student essay mimicking studies of bat consciousness written in the style of Samuel Beckett. Most of Messenger's thoughts are presented in a stream-of-consciousness form while hers are journal entries, both styles that I found to be easily readable. What bothered me more was the feeling that the many discussions of artificial intelligence wound up serving as a red herring to the real theme, which has more to do with the state of personal morality in our relativistic age than with whether or not a machine can imitate human life. In the course of the slowly wending plot of will- they -or -won't- they adultery, Lodge has time to describe in accurately nuanced detail a university setting complete with academic interests, faculty parties, architecture, families and conferences, each element honed closer than he's ever honed before. That is the gentle magic of Thinks; Lodge has taken a simple plot, added postmodern elements of style and content and then, if you accept the few contrivances that make the plot work, won us over with an unexpectedly satisfying ending. In an age when religion, law and society no longer provide sanctions against possible immoral actions Lodge has found a way to set his characters down on solid ground.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Witty, intriguing, and lots of fun!, June 2, 2001
This captivating comedy of academic manners has a satisfying weightiness lacking in most other books of its genre because it is also intellectually challenging. Here Lodge indulges his interest in the esoteric subject of cognitive science--the study of consciousness and the processes of thought--by giving us two intriguing characters at opposite extremes of the cognitive spectrum and then letting the sparks fly, at first intellectually, then "socially."
Ralph Messenger is the clever and manipulative Director of the Holt Belling Center for Cognitive Science at the imaginary University of Gloucester, a nuts-and-bolts scientist investigating the physical, quantifiable aspects of thought and consciousness. Helen Reed, a visiting lecturer and grieving widow, on the other hand, is an artist, a novelist who celebrates feeling, imagination, and creation. When Ralph, an unapologetic woman-chaser, finds Helen irresistibly attractive, their totally different worlds collide, exposing the reader to various theories of cognitive science but also illuminating the limitations in explaining the soul, love, relationships, imagination, and the creative life.
Clandestine rendezvous, academic gamesmanship, office politics, secret lives kept hidden from spouses, and even involvement in pornography all contribute to the ensuing complications and suspense. The sometimes farce-like action is kept in check, however, by the very real presence of death, which hovers over the action and grounds the comedy, adding to the realism and providing a setting for arguments about whether the soul and Heaven can exist in a strictly scientific world.
The many delights of this novel are highlighted by Lodge's choice of appropriate points of view for his characters. Ralph's self-involved maunderings are in stream of consciousness, constantly flitting from his serious research to daydreams about sex. Helen's reminiscences appear in introspective journal entries. Third person narratives, which advance the story line, are interspersed with a variety of clever diversions-including parodies of Martin Amis, Irvine Welsh, Samuel Beckett, Fay Weldon, Henry James, and Gertrude Stein by Helen's students. Thinks is a literary treasure trove which will keep you fascinated and involved, even if you, like me, have no huge interest in cognitive studies. Mary Whipple
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