Paradise News by David Lodge – author of the magnum opus Changing Places https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/05/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html and other excellent books - 8 out of 10

 

Paradise News by David Lodge – author of the magnum opus Changing Places https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/05/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html and other excellent books

 

8 out of 10

 

David Lodge has enchanted this reader with The Campus Trilogy, especially the first two volumes, Changing Places and Small World https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/05/enraptured-in-small-world-by-david.html the last, Nice Work, might have been a case of too high expectations, and I did not find it so exhilarating

 

To mention the last, but not least of the list of four novels (fie with Paradise News) How Far Can You Go https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/how-far-can-you-go-by-david-lodge.html was an exuberant satire, looking at religious people trying to find where the limits imposed by faith end, what liberties they can take…

Religion is present in Paradise News, in the first place, the hero, Bernard Walsh, is an agnostic Catholic priest – well, as agnostic, it would be an oxymoron to still call him Catholic, but this is amusing – and he talks about aspects of dogma, including what heaven would mean, in terms of intimacy, and some opinions on that

 

Will they have sex in Eden, those who reach that blessed realm, and then some experts have written about it, the way that angels can kiss from a distance, apparently, then about intimacy, possible, meaning some sort of sex, but in a platonic way, which is a contradiction in terms, but then this is that kind of outré scenario

Paradise would be located in Hawaii, albeit historians have tried to see where the inspiration for the bible would be placed in reality – they have looked at aspects from the holy texts, and then found some basis for the plagues, it seems that a huge volcano erupted, and the clouds brought some of the calamities on Egypt

 

Ursula is the aunt that lives in Hawaii, and she finds she has cancer which is in terminal phase, hence she only has months to live, so she wants to see her brother, Jack Walsh, and she contacts her family in Britain, and Bernard, Jack’s son, is the one that will get involved in this, eventually convincing his father to fly there

On the way, the hero of the narrative meets quite a few interesting people, one of them has some really provocative ideas on travel, he wants to do for this what Freud did for the family, he says that people do not want to go on holiday, they have just been brainwashed, and I can connect this with a novel by Kingsley Amis

In I Like It Here https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/i-like-it-here-by-glorious-kingsley.html Magister Ludi describes events based on his own experience, he had spent time in Lisbon, and he says something to the effect of ‘why travel, to see the replica of the Tower of London’, you have all the excitement back home…

 

In Paradise News there is talk of ‘travel as a religion’, and indeed, brilliant David Lodge was prescient, he published the book in 1991, 34 years ago, when mass tourism was already on the move, but had not reached the levels of the present, when the news announces protests in popular destinations, against visitors

We were talking about this at the sauna, it sounds crazy, because some of those areas rely so much on guests, but in Barcelona, they use water pistols against foreigners, with the message to go home, and then they express their desire to have ‘sustainable tourism, not mass tourism’, which is a fine balance to strike

 

Bhutan is one really special land, the last to bring in television and advertising, only a few decades ago, in the nineties I think it was, and they could see how happiness levels decreased, they also insist on the happiness measures, less on GDP, and they have a tax for tourists, there is a minimum to pay each day, Venice and other places consider taxes

When Bernard and his father land in Hawaii, the latter has an accident, he just walks into the road and he is hit by a car, so he has to spend time in a hospital – there is the question of insurance, what kind they have – and in a strange development, the son begins a relationship with Yolande Miller, the driver of the car…

 

Meanwhile, he tries to arrange things for Ursula, his aunt, who is in a nursing home of a rather modest level, the family thought she is well off, and then they find she is not, a situation that is again reversed, when some IBM shares are found in her security box – I wonder how much they would be today, when IBM has fallen way behind the likes of Microsoft, and the other tech giants, some of them passing the limit of three trillion dollars

Bernard has had a very awkward past, in sexual matters, which in fact would mean he does not really have experience, in his only previous bond, they rushed into trying sex, and thus he found he was unable to perform, however, he is lucky this time, because Yolande knows exactly what to do, and she sees he is a good, gentle, special man

 

Ergo, we have this unusual combination of sadness, Yolande will die soon, and solace, tenderness, and optimism that comes from what awaits some of the characters, even Yolande will get some closure, she can share with munificent Bernard the tragedy of her childhood, in which she had been sexually abused by her oldest brother, and furthermore, Jack found about it, and had not interfered, had not tried to stop it…

Yolande and Bernard may have a future together, against all odds, the fact that they are thousands of miles apart, and the man does not have a decent situation back home, nevertheless, maybe he gets some support from Ursula, and then who knows, we could have a happy end, after this finale, which is more ambiguous…

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”