Like all David Lodge books, this one celebrates the absurdities of life, with all its twists and turns and unpredictabilities. But to a greater degree than other Lodge books I've read, "Souls and Bodies" has a poignant edge that reminds you that not all absurdities are funny.
The book chronicles the lives of about ten college schoolmates at the University of London who are bound by their participation in a Catholic New Testament Study Group. It begins with their senior year in college, 1952, and follows them through the mid-70's.
Far more than a tale of marriage, children, and mid-life crises (though all of these occur), "Souls and Bodies" relates how the changes in the Catholic Church are intertwined with these people's personal lives and relationships. The time period includes the institution of the Vatican II modifications to Church canon, as well as the political storms of the radical 60's and 70's.
The characters struggle to shed their 50's mentalities, sometimes with relief but other times with trepidation. They learn the joy of sex and the thrill of contraception. In some cases they are pulled along by changes in the Church, and in other cases they are pushing to bring about fresh changes. So much soul-searching, so little time.
To be honest, I don't know all that much about Catholicism, not being Catholic. Sure, I know Catholics, but any of them can tell you that you can't understand the CC unless you've been in it. But nonetheless, I enjoyed this book. Lodge neatly makes the story stand on it own even if it's not one long in-joke about the CC for the reader. No doubt Catholics (or "recovering Catholics," as we called them in college) would find it even more interesting.
I'll give it a "+" -- Lodge never disappoints in his sharp-witted accounts of human psychology and relationships.
Copyright © Kim Allen 2003
