Small World

David Lodge

The literature professors gather for a conference. Lit professors -- professors of all stripes, but particularly lit professors -- do a lot of this, says David Lodge in his novel "Small World." They discuss Shakespeare and Eliot, Biblical imagery and sexual metaphors, sexism and racism and ism ism ism, and there's always someplace else to gather so as to see the world on the university's dime (or shilling, or guilder, or mark, or what-have-you).

Lodge's professors are a motley bunch. There's Persse McGonnigle, a virginal academic specializing in Eliot; Morris Zapp, a peripatic American who's fond of destructuralism; Philip Swallow, an unhappily married Englishman who's fond of Hazlitt; and several others, all of whom have their own agendas, and many of whom screw each others' wives and husbands and graduate students as they make their way around the world.

If there's a plot to the book, it's in the pursuit of a UNESCO chair of comparative literature, which brings with it a $100,000 stipend and the privilege of living wherever you like to spend it. But the point of the book is more in the crisscrossing of characters. McGarrigle (like his Arthurian namesake, Percival) is seeking a Grail, except in the form of a woman he falls in love with at a conference in England. Zapp, who's barely home to teach, would like the UNESCO position to cement his own position as the leadin g academic light in the world. Swallow is just trying to get respect and avoid his teetering marriage.

There are other characters with their own agendas, all equally narrow and oblivious to the others. This makes for great farce as their paths collide at the various conferences at which they meet. Lodge never takes his academics too seriously, even as he's obviously well-versed in their ways (and also in the cities they meet in; all are described so precisely you have to wonder how Lodge finds time to write).

In the end, as with all good farce, the good guys receive wisdom, the bad guys are exposed, and everybody has a good laugh. Including the reader. If you think academics are boring -- and, trust me, they certainly can be (just kidding, Sarah ... I'm referring to some of your colleagues :) ) -- David Lodge wouldn't disagree. But he also knows they can make for great reading. "Small Lodge" not only isn't boring, it's a heck of a lot of fun, and a fine, fine read.