English author, literary critic, and Birmingham professor David Lodge has given us a thoughtful collection of essays on writing, serving as an end-of-century bookend for E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. But given the particular century in which Lodge writes, he doesn't stop with prose but also considers stage and television work--he adapted Martin Chuzzlewit for the BBC-- giving the book its greatest strength. Lodge's range runs from academic musings to television scripts, a breadth worthy of any scribe here on the disparate, millennial cusp.


From Publishers Weekly
Lodge, a wry and stylish British novelist (Changing Places) and former university professor, has collected a fair sample of his literary criticism and re-formed it into an insightful and surprisingly unified look at the craft of writing. He says flat out that this is not a book of literary theory but an examination of the way writers go about their work. His aim, he writes, is "to demystify and shed light on the creative process, to explain how literary and dramatic works are made, and to describe the many different factors, not always under the control of the writer, that came into play in the process." The result is a book that should be required reading in any creative writing class not bogged down in dogma. Lodge reviews the work of a number of writers?Graham Greene, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Green, Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Joyce, Nabokov?but the heart of the book is a series of essays on adapting his own work, as well as Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, for television, and on staging a sketch by Harold Pinter; and the diary Lodge kept while his play The Writing Class was in production. Although his nonfiction writing style is not as free of its academic roots as he would like to think and his outlook is not as satiric as readers of his novels might expect, here is a collection that is both engaging and useful. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Lodge (Therapy, LJ 3/1/95) has assembled a collection of his previously published articles about fiction, drama, and television adaptations. The author's theme is the practice of writing, specifically, how he and others go about the creative process. He divides his work into two parts. The first examines the writings of English authors who have influenced him (James Joyce, Graham Greene) and an overview of the state of the novel today. The second part covers Lodge's experiences with adapting literary works for television and an essay on how the novel, screenplay, and stage play tell stories from different perspectives. Throughout, Lodge offers keen insight into how a writer gives birth to a work and techniques necessary to create a novel and screenplay. He also discusses the value, or lack of it, depending on one's perspective, of creative-writing courses. For anyone who wants to write the next great novel, this book should provide valuable counsel.?Ron Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., Kan.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Why do writers write about writing? David Lodge suggests that every creative writer's psyche harbors an "analytical, formalist critic" because (and he quotes T. S. Eliot to this effect) so much of the labor of writing is the reading, questioning, and alteration of text, that is, constructive criticism. This pragmatic aspect of literature intrigues Lodge far more than convoluted theoretical discourse, a personal preference that coincides with academia's recent move away from theory toward practice. Lodge maintains this "practitioner's view" throughout his lively collection of literary essays that include discussions of his own fiction, novels by Nabokov, Joyce, Anthony Burgess, and Graham Greene, and, in a section titled "Mixed Media," his experiences writing screenplays and adapting his work for television. Donna Seaman


From Kirkus Reviews
Having retired from theory-dominated academia in 1987, British novelist and critic Lodge (Therapy, 1995, etc.) reflects on the practice and practicalities of writing for a living in this engaging essay collection. Lodge has written ten novels, five works of criticism (The Novelist at the Crossroads, not reviewed, etc.), a play (The Writing Game), and a considerable body of essays and reviews. The book's first section includes pieces on some broad issues in writing (``Fact and Fiction in the Novel'') and deft, precise readings of modern writers, including essays on D.H. Lawrence, Henry Green, and Vladimir Nabokov, among others. Lodge delivers an excellent introduction to Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim, vigorously demonstrating why the book deserves to be remembered and reread. And as a Catholic, he sympathetically and informatively reviews discordant biographies of Graham Greene. There's a pleasant frankness and freshness about these pieces, as if Lodge, freed from the constraints of the university, can speak freely in a less formal voice. The pieces in the book's second section focus on Lodge's adventures in other media, including his work on a screenplay adaptation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, and another based on his own novel Nice Work (1989). When laboring over Dickens, Lodge actually finds himself trading traditional places with his director, as he argues for a dramatic reworking of the story over any lengthy fidelity to the text. He also includes excerpts from his diary having to do with the production of The Writing Game; they display Lodge's easygoing adaptability and persistent fascination with the theater, despite difficulties with casting, rehearsals, and reviews. Lodge sums up this theatrical departure from his campus novels as ``the most intensely interesting experience of my literary career to date.'' Neither wholly journalism nor academic theorizing, The Practice of Writing offers the best of both worlds. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
When it comes to the craft of writing, bestselling novelist David Lodge finds much to celebrate, analyze, and confess. In this absorbing collection of seventeen essays he ponders the work of writers he particularly admires, current and past trends in literary style, and the mechanics of the craft itself. Revealing, enlightening pieces on Graham Greene, James Joyce, Kingsley Amis and Anthony Burgess are interspersed with personal reflections on Lodge's own artistic and technical struggles. His insights into the contemporary world of publishing, and mass culture in general, are both trenchant and refreshing. As entertaining as it is edifying, this collection of fine writing about writing will prove valuable to students of the art as well as to Lodge's many, loyal readers who wish to know more about his own work.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this absorbing volume, acclaimed novelist David Lodge turns his incisive critical skills to his own profession, saluting the eminent practitioners of fiction who have influenced his writing, and explaining how literary and dramatic works are made and the many different factors that come into play in this process. The constant theme running through these essays is the mysterious process of creativity. Lodge discusses at length the work of writers he particularly admires - Graham Greene, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Green, Kingsley Amis, Vladimir Nabokov, and Anthony Burgess. He addresses the situation of the contemporary novelist, both aesthetically and institutionally, and describes the pleasures of the novelistic text. In delineating the different techniques required to work on a novel and a screenplay, he draws on the experience of adapting his own Nice Work and Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit for television, bringing a refreshingly expert candor to the problems that arise between the idea and the performance. The essays conclude with revealing extracts from the diary he kept as his play, The Writing Game, made its way to the footlights. Lodge's wit and intelligence are evident on every page of this entertaining and instructive volume, which should be of interest both to the practicing writer in any medium and to readers of Lodge who wish to know more about his own art.

FROM THE CRITICS

Jennifer Howard

Ever since the deconstructionists invaded the academy in the 1960s, there's been about as much love lost between the average critic and the average fiction writer as there is between a cattle ranger and a vegan. Luckily for the academy ￯﾿ﾽ and for the non-academic reader ￯﾿ﾽ David Lodge is no ordinary critic. He is, as he likes to say, a "practicing novelist," a humble term, suggesting that he plies his trade the way somebody with a law degree puts up a shingle and calls him- or herself a practicing lawyer. "Practicing," in Lodge's case, means that he has published 10 novels, some already classics; I'm thinking of his wicked academic satires, Changing Places, Small World, and Nice Work.

Unusual for a successful fiction writer, Lodge has been a professional critic. Until 1987, when he decided to devote himself full-time to writing, he taught English at the University of Birmingham. The prospect of theory doesn't make him flinch; he can sling jargon with the meanest poststructuralist. But he won't bat around jargon like "discourse" and "the negative of absence" unless he really believes there's something to be gained by it. As he proves over and over again in these "occasional" essays, he's one of the sanest, most reasonable and gentlemanly critics in the business. He's that rare soul who combines a scholarly love of close reading and textual analysis with an artist's almost boyish enthusiasm for writers he admires.

"Admires" is too weak a word for how Lodge feels about titans like James Joyce and Vladimir Nabokov, each the subject of an essay here. (Lodge's analysis of how Nabokov subverts the classic mystery/thriller form may be the most brain-tickling thing in the book.) "Most writers," he says, "are kick-started ￯﾿ﾽ that is, they begin by imitating and emulating the literature that gives them the biggest kicks." As a budding writer, Lodge says in an informal autobiographical moment (and there are many), he got the biggest kicks from Joyce, Greene and Evelyn Waugh, who get privileged treatment in The Practice of Writing.

If you're not already a fan, some of these essays ￯﾿ﾽ reflections on adapting Nice Work and Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit for television, for instance ￯﾿ﾽ will grow tedious. But if you want an outstanding thumbnail sketch of Graham Greene's career, or an analysis of how today's novelist negotiates between realism, creative nonfiction and metafiction, David Lodge ￯﾿ﾽ humane, urbane and always engaging ￯﾿ﾽ is your man. -- Salon

Publishers Weekly

Lodge, a wry and stylish British novelist (Changing Places) and former university professor, has collected a fair sample of his literary criticism and re-formed it into an insightful and surprisingly unified look at the craft of writing. He says flat out that this is not a book of literary theory but an examination of the way writers go about their work. His aim, he writes, is "to demystify and shed light on the creative process, to explain how literary and dramatic works are made, and to describe the many different factors, not always under the control of the writer, that came into play in the process." The result is a book that should be required reading in any creative writing class not bogged down in dogma. Lodge reviews the work of a number of writers-Graham Greene, D.H. Lawrence, Henry Green, Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Joyce, Nabokov-but the heart of the book is a series of essays on adapting his own work, as well as Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, for television, and on staging a sketch by Harold Pinter; and the diary Lodge kept while his play The Writing Class was in production. Although his nonfiction writing style is not as free of its academic roots as he would like to think and his outlook is not as satiric as readers of his novels might expect, here is a collection that is both engaging and useful. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Lodge (Therapy, LJ 3/1/95) has assembled a collection of his previously published articles about fiction, drama, and television adaptations. The author's theme is the practice of writing, specifically, how he and others go about the creative process. He divides his work into two parts. The first examines the writings of English authors who have influenced him (James Joyce, Graham Greene) and an overview of the state of the novel today. The second part covers Lodge's experiences with adapting literary works for television and an essay on how the novel, screenplay, and stage play tell stories from different perspectives. Throughout, Lodge offers keen insight into how a writer gives birth to a work and techniques necessary to create a novel and screenplay. He also discusses the value, or lack of it, depending on one's perspective, of creative-writing courses. For anyone who wants to write the next great novel, this book should provide valuable counsel.-Ron Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., Kan.

Kirkus Reviews

Having retired from theory-dominated academia in 1987, British novelist and critic Lodge (Therapy, 1995, etc.) reflects on the practice and practicalities of writing for a living in this engaging essay collection.

Lodge has written ten novels, five works of criticism (The Novelist at the Crossroads, not reviewed, etc.), a play (The Writing Game), and a considerable body of essays and reviews. The book's first section includes pieces on some broad issues in writing ("Fact and Fiction in the Novel") and deft, precise readings of modern writers, including essays on D.H. Lawrence, Henry Green, and Vladimir Nabokov, among others. Lodge delivers an excellent introduction to Kingsley Amis's novel Lucky Jim, vigorously demonstrating why the book deserves to be remembered and reread. And as a Catholic, he sympathetically and informatively reviews discordant biographies of Graham Greene. There's a pleasant frankness and freshness about these pieces, as if Lodge, freed from the constraints of the university, can speak freely in a less formal voice. The pieces in the book's second section focus on Lodge's adventures in other media, including his work on a screenplay adaptation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, and another based on his own novel Nice Work (1989). When laboring over Dickens, Lodge actually finds himself trading traditional places with his director, as he argues for a dramatic reworking of the story over any lengthy fidelity to the text. He also includes excerpts from his diary having to do with the production of The Writing Game; they display Lodge's easygoing adaptability and persistent fascination with the theater, despite difficulties with casting, rehearsals, and reviews. Lodge sums up this theatrical departure from his campus novels as "the most intensely interesting experience of my literary career to date."

Neither wholly journalism nor academic theorizing, The Practice of Writing offers the best of both worlds.