Review by Marianne Knowles
During the summer of 2005, I came across a book called Author, Author in a bookshop in Japan, which I was very pleased about. Not only was this book in
English amongst myriad Manga and totally indefinable fiction, (I had not, and have still not learned Japanese) but it was also written by one of my favourite authors, David Lodge.
It is a tad challenging, I imagine, to write a historically sound account, even with the magic of the novel form, of a person you greatly admire and a master in an art that you have practiced rather successfully yourself.
Yet through Author, Author, David Lodge triumphantly flows narrative in a literary representation of his esteemed subject Henry James. Utterly engaging description aids a well formed story, and an apt use of language transports the reader to James’ own time and place, whilst a multi-layered complex structure help form the protagonist himself.
By contrasting James’ ping pong between success and professional devastation with George du Maurier’s dramatic (and not unchallenged) rise to fame, Lodge provides an anchor to his novel’s journey. The stability keeps both James and Lodge on the straight and narrow, provides consistency and produces a rich and credible tale.
Lodge retains his trademark irony, (‘in any case I hate the idea of selling books as if they were brands of soap,’ reports Lodge of James during 1880s), and the way the book is constructed, not necessarily in a linear fashion, is not completely unheard of in Lodge’s art of fiction; while Author, Author finds brilliance in the form of a new kind of creation.
Through James, Lodge builds hopes and dreams; he raises them up, crashes them down, and leaves you with, at least, a deep sense of justice and, in all likelihood, many a seed of creativity. Never was a there a more inspiring book for reader or writer.
Author, Author by David Lodge (Penguin, £7.99) is out now.
Marianne Knowles writes lots of things about lots of things and hopes to become very good at it one day - she has lived and lives in Manchester, Nottingham and Japan and has a degree in Linguistics.