Changing Places

by David Lodge

Book Overview

Euphoric State University with its whitestone, sun-drenched campus and England's damp red-brick University of Rummidge have an annual professorial exchange scheme, and as the first day of the last year of the tumultuous sixties dawns, Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp are the designated exchangees. They know they'll be swapping class rosters, but what they don't know is that in a wildly spiraling transatlantic involvement they'll soon be swapping students,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140170987
• ISBN13: 9780140170986
• Release Date: October 1979
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Witty, accurate, compelling ("dated" misses the point)

As a British graduate student at UC Berkeley, the campus upon which "Euphoric State" is closely modelled, and as a graduate of an English university similar to "Rummidge," which doubles for Birmingham, I can vouch for the accuracy of Lodge's beautifully-wrought satire. I zipped through "Changing Places" in less than a day and can't remember the last time I enjoyed a novel so much. Lodge was a visiting professor from Birmingham who taught at Berkeley in the late 60s (Philip Swallow is thus a kind of alter ego), and thirty-two years after the action takes place, there's much that's still recognizable here. The satire of academic life in England and America hits the bullseye, the characterizations are broad but retain a sympathetic humanity, the drama is compelling and amusingly risqué. There's also a nicely constructed vein of self-referential literariness that emerges on occasion, without being obtrusive. Accusations by some readers that the novel is "dated" miss the point - one might as well say Jane Austen is dated. Yes, the era of campus radicalism and sit-ins has receded into history, but the comparisons Lodge draws between English and U.S. campus life, academic politics and professors are still mostly valid. (Perhaps the biggest difference is that British academics have since come closer to their U.S. counterparts in having to worry about "publish or perish.") It's fascinating to note that many of the minutiae have not changed: British lecturers still give grades like Swallow's ultra-precise B+/B+?+; Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue ("Cable Avenue" in the book) is still a living monument to hippiedom (albeit somewhat commercialized now) and its People's Park ("People's Garden") survives unfenced and enjoyed by the community. Two caveats: readers addicted to neat-and-tidy Hollywood endings may be disappointed; everyone else should take care to read "Changing Places" first, proceed to "Small World," and then go on to "Nice Work."

A very funny novel and a wonderful read

David Lodge's "Changing Places" had me in stitches. It's such a funny book. The prose is highly readable, crisply written and races along so charmingly that it's hard to put it down once you've started. Although Philip Swallow and Morris Zapp are drawn from the two contrasting cultures they symbolise, they are never allowed to degenerate into caricatures. Both are highly real and believable characters, sharing much the same human frailties. While Zapp is unashamedly direct, hollow and crass, Swallow is rather more reserved, diffident, but with the same potential though not the guts for dishonesty. It is only by "changing places" that they become themselves, albeit in a different environment. Even the behaviour of their wives change when subjected to the opposite cultural influences. Admittedly, the setting of the "exchange" in the late 60s (with all the references to student protests and pot smoking in university campuses) has tended to date the book a bit. But who cares, when you derive such enormous pleasure, laughter and fun from reading what must seem like a novel for the ages. I can see thousands reading it 50 years into the new millenium.

A smile on my face

It's now nine years since I read Changing Places, and even today I start glowing whenever I see a copy. Personally, I very much prefer Morris Zapp and Euphoric State University to Philipp Swallow or Rummage, but both sides of this hilarious transatlantic parallel are just so funny and heartwarming. Needless to say, I've read every Lodge book since, and Changing Places is clearly the turning point to the great writer he has become.

Guilt-Free Entertainment for Intellectuals!

David Lodge experiments with many literary styles in this book, progressing from narration to letter collections, finishing with a dramatic script at the end. The Britsh professor's conversion from stifled to swinging is sexy, and the American's discovery of deeper purposes than power and promiscuity is rewarding. Such an entertaining piece which can equally stimulate the intellect is rare. David Lodge is a truly talented writer- a must read!

A great Anglo-American satire

As someone who went through the British educational system and has also worked at an American university, I can vouch for its accuracy. Its description of the British system is brilliant and biting. Lodge's evocation of "finals" reflects my own experience and quite moving in its own way. Strictly speaking it may be dated, but only in the sense all novels are dated. If you like this book, you will also enjoy Evelyn Waugh's "The Loved One", another all-time favorite of mine.