Nice Work
Analysis (Critical Survey of Contemporary Fiction)
NICE WORK spans the winter term at Rummidge University, University, playfully modeled after Lodge’s own Birmingham, in the English Midlands. In observance of officially proclaimed Industrial Year, Robyn Penrose, a temporary lecturer specializing in feminist theory and the nineteenth century English industrial novel, is assigned to spend one day a week observing a senior manager at a manufacturing plant. She spends her Wednesdays at the low-tech factory of an engineering firm run by b y forty-five-year-old Vic Wilcox. Robyn, a feminist intellectual more comfortable with irony than iron works, and Vic, a proletarian who has worked himself into affluence, could hardly be mo re different in background and attitude. Yet, inevitably, despite Vic’s wife and Robyn’s bo yfriend, the two become romantically involved and learn to see the world through each other’s eyes. Lodge provides an informative excursion into the daily activities of workers at an industrial plant and department of English. His two main characters provide an entertaining dialectic between abstract and concrete, female and male, theory and praxis, and he offers the sentimental optimism optimism that the two can be reconciled. recon ciled. Lodge’s characteristic technique is to crosscut between the parallel and contrasting lives of an academic and a businessman, b usinessman, and his recurring plot, here as elsewhere, is that of cha nging places. The main characters of CHANGING PLACES resurface in NICE WORK in cameo roles. It is a novel that merits its title.
Nice Work (1988) (1988) is a novel by British author David author David Lodge. It Lodge. It won the Sunday the Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1988 and was also shortlisted for the Booker prize. In prize. In 1989 it was made into a four-part BBC four-part BBC television television series directed by Christopher by Christopher Menaul and starring Warren starring Warren Clarke and Haydn and Haydn Gwynne. The Gwynne. The University University of Birmingham served as the filming location of many of the scenes from this series
Plot summary
The book describes encounters between Robyn Penrose, a feminist a feminist university university teacher teacher specialising in the industrial the industrial novel and women's and women's writing, and writing, and Vic Wilcox, the manager of an engineering an engineering firm. firm. The The relationship relationship that develops between the unlikely pair reveals the weaknesses in each character. each character. Robyn's Robyn's academic position is precarious because of budget cuts. Vic has to deal with industrial politics industrial politics at his firm. The plot is a pastiche a pastiche of the industrial novel genre, novel genre, particularly particularly referencing North referencing North and South by Elizabeth by Elizabeth Gaskell. This Gaskell. This gentle ribbing acts to undermine the postmodern the postmodern and feminist position of Robyn, who accepts the hand of fate despite ridiculing its role as the sole restorative capable (in the minds of authors of industrial industrial novels) of novels) of elevating the female to a serious social position. Robyn acquires insight into the pragmatic ethos pragmatic ethos whose encroachment on university culture she resents and Vic learns to appreciate the symbolic or
semiotic dimension of his environment and discovers a romanticism within himself that he had previously despised in his everyday life. The story is set in the fictional city of Rummidge, a grey and dismal fictionalised Birmingham. It is part of the same series as the novels Changing Places, Small World , and Thinks .... In Nice Work , Philip Swallow is still head of the English Department from Small World and thus is Robyn Penrose's boss. Morris Zapp makes a cameo appearance in the last part of Nice Work , to add a plot twist where he tries to arrange for Robyn to have a job interview at his American university, Euphoric State (a fictionalized UC Berkeley), in order to stop his ex-wife from being a candidate for an open faculty position. Robyn Penrose makes a cameo appearance in Thinks .... Nice Work by David Lodge Summary: Nice Work is a surprisingly complex novel that can be perfectly well enjoyed on any level: as a comedy of characters, as a social satire, as an 'issue novel' and as a literary game. It does not have a terribly compelling plot, but the characters are brilliant and actually grow on you, the jokes are funny and the argument is pervasive. If you get bored by references to literature as well as social issues then this book is probably not for you.
Nice Work is set around the unlikely relationship between Victor Wilcox, Managing Director of a struggling engineering plant, and Dr Robyn Penrose, a lecturer of English literature theory at Rummidge University. Robyn and Vic me et through a PR scheme designed to bring the Industry and the University closer at the time when both the Industry and the University are threatened by the emerging monster of financial services industries; at the time when making real things is going out of fashion and ex -English lecturers compete with barrow-boy yuppies at City merchant banks just before the Big Bang. Yes, we are talking Thatcher's 80's here and the historical and social realities are always there, explained clearly enough for those who don't remember or were not told. The story is, of course, the classic, topical - let's ca ll it 'Crocodile Dundee' - scheme, where two people from two different social spheres meet and go from more or less despising each other to developing understanding and more. This vehicle of a story is used to present the reader with the main two characters and a host of others. Those characters are superbly drawn, typical without being boring, vivid without b ecoming caricatures. Doctor Robyn Penrose, a daughter of a lecturer and a lover of a lecturer; thoroughly liberated and independent; follower of feminism and a passionate devotee of semiotic materialism. Robyn is confident, but not vain, stylish but not coquettish. Refreshingly, her intellectual belief that love is a textual construct does no t fall apart under the force of reallife passion of a real-life phallic male. Her academic b ackground, her intellectual backbone are not proven to be false and we do not discover that, underneath, she was really an emotional cripple.
I found it rather satisfying to read a novel in which the main female character is not some kind of victim (or even a survivor) of profound emotional trauma. It is also quite sad that it somehow had to be a book written by a man. Each of the character is a figure standing for a social group, for a world from which he or she comes from: down-to-earth, practical industry and the ivory towers of the academia. Their work habits and dress habits, their values and their mores; their prejudices and annoyances differ and clash; and observing this clash is rather funny. But of course Nice Work is not just a comedy of character and social mores. It is an "issue" novel and the main issue discussed and debated by and in the book regards the role and the form of university in the world of (disappearing) factories and (seemingly un stoppable) financial services. The contrast between a Managing Director's Office and a Lecture Hall is only one o f the many explored in the book. In one instance the grim realities of Rummidge as a whole are put against the well-dressed, well-heeled and refreshed by the sea-breeze comfort of the seaside university town where Robyn's parents live. In another we have the opportunity to compare Rummidge to Frankfurt, shiny and clean, modern and efficient. The Nice Work of the title refers mostly to Robyn's work and I have to say that, to my satisfaction, the University seems to come out of this ideological confrontation quite victorious. After piling the critique on the elitist set-up, the irrelevancies of theory, the mores, habits, prejudices and occasional utter stupidity of the academics the last word is given to young Dr Penrose, the human and humane but also competent and committed face of the academia and her shaken but still strong belief in the values represented by the University. I have to say that I passionately share this belief and am greatly saddened by the currently in vogue attempts to re-present and re-formulate academic institutions as some high-level vocational courses. The debate is in some ways more relevant now that it was in the 80s. All this serious stuff shouldn't shadow the fact that Nice Work is a very funny book indeed, not in a laugh-out-loud funny but rather smirk-with-delight funny kind of way. On top of this, Lodge plays with the language, plays with the characters, plays with the social stereotype and (of course!) engages in a ve ry post-modernist play with literary theory. The whole novel is, in fact, such a big game as it is self-referential to the extreme. 'Industrial novels', known in their time as 'conditions of England novels' are mentioned in one of Robyn's University lectures: "They are nov els in which the main characters debate typical social and economic issues as well as fall in and out of love, marry and have children, pursue careers (...) and do all the other things that characters do in a more conventional novel." These novels are where Dr Penrose's expertise lies and she happens to actually be a character in such a novel. Nice Work is quite obviously a 'condition of England novel' for the 80s. However much Lodge likes to take the mickey out of poststructuralism and literary theory, he himself engages in a most delicious, post -modernist, inter-textual game.
The way that sections describing Robyn's side of the story are presented differs subtly from the way Vic's story is told. His part is traditional, realistic, 'like novels should be'; while Robyn's side is more ironic, full of author's comments, reminding of digressional poem. The way that the book concludes is also straight from the "industrial novel". The solution to all the characters' worries comes deux ex machina, the only way the 19th century writers could find to resolve the conflicts described in the ir books. This resolution is described in the best realist tradition, moving and satisfying as in a proper realistic novel; so those reading on one of the more literal levels will not be disappointed. All in all, Nice Work is a surprisingly complex novel that can be perfectly well enjoyed on any level: as a comedy of characters, as a social satire, as an "issue novel" and as a literary game. The issues it explores (Industry, Academia and Finan ce) are still as current as they were in the 80's; sadly so. It does not have a terribly compelling plot, but the characters are brilliant and actually grow on you, the jokes are funny and the argument is pervasive. If you get bored by references to literature as well as social issues, or if you cannot stand David Lodge as such, then this book is probably not for you. Otherwise recommended.
1st Chapter
Victor Wilcox is a managing director at J. Pringle's. He is married to Marjorie and they have three children: Raymond, Sandra and Garry. Vic lies in bed waiting for his alarm clock to ring. He gets up and goes into the bathroom and hurries to get into the kitchen because he prefers being alone at breakfast. Marjorie comes downstairs and criticises him for smoking. She says that she will take Sandra to the doctor to put her on the pill, but in Vic's opinion his 17 year old daughter is too young for that. He isn't very fond of her having a boyfriend in anyway. The 25 minutes on his way to work are usually the highlight of his da y, because this is the only time he can relax and listen to the music that he likes. He passes through an area with a lot of factories, railway lines and it seems as if onl y poor people live there. Finally he arrives at the factory, where he works: Pringle's. Then we get introduced to Roberta Anne Penrose. She is about 33 years old and is a temporary lecturer in English literature at Rummidge University. She is hoping to get employed at the University, but the Dean doesn't sound very hopeful on account of the present cuts in the budget. Her boyfriend Charles works in Ipswich and that is why they broke up their close relationship and only meet at weekends. We learn about the "Industry Shadow Scheme", where some academic from Rummidge University is supposed to shadow on somebody in the industry. This is to improve the relationship between the university and the manufacturing process. Wh en both Vic and Robyn are introduced to the Shadow Scheme, both think of it rather as a nuisance; in fact,
Robyn only accepts this extra task in order to improve her chances of getting a job at the University. 2nd Chapter As Robyn is on her way to the factory she stops at a petrol station because she is lost where she meets Brian Everthorpe - an employee at Pringel's - by chance, who shows her the way. When Robyn finally arrives, everybody is very surprised that the Shadow is a quite attractive young female rather than a man like everybody had expected. Robyn gets shown around at Pringel's by Vic and her first impression is that the factory is old, dirty, ugly and is surprised that very few wom en work there. Most of the workers are from Asia and the Caribbean. The pin-ups hanging everywhere on the wall are very striking to her, and as a feminist this is very degrading for all these women as no man even pays attention to them anymore. Robyn participates in a meeting, learning that the managers plan to trick an Asian foundry worker into making a mistake in order to fire h im. She thinks it is unfair and consequently tells the man about the plan eventually provoking a strike of all Asian workers in the factory. 3rd Chapter When Robyn meets Charles she tells him about her first day at the factory - that same evening Vic visited her at home demanding her to come back to the factory to take back what she told the Asian worker about the management's plans to fire him to end the risk of a strike. On Saturday evening Sandra is in the disco with her bo yfriend Cliff. Raymond is not at home as well and Garry watches TV with his father. Marjorie reads the book "Enjoy Your Menopause". On Sunday Robyn's brother Basil visits her with Debbie, his girlfriend. Robyn doesn't like her, and thinks of her to be rather dull. None the less both Basil and Debbie make a lot of money working as merchant bankers. Yet Charles is very fascinated by the large sums of money that they both work with every day. 4th Chapter The following week Robyn arrives in the factory again and Vic is surprised to see her - he had not expected her to come after last weeks incident with the workers. The y drive to a rivalling company - Foundrax -- to find out about a cheaper offer that somebody has made to a customer of Vic's company. As the y are driving back, Vic invites her for lunch on Sunday - an offer that she accepts. She enjoys the evening at Vic's because everybody talks to her, only Marjorie is not very confident about the guest visiting them and spends all the time in the kitchen. After lunch Robyn and Vic have a walk together and talk about Sandra, who doesn't want to go to university. He asks her to tell Sandra something abo ut university.
Vic has to go to Frankfurt because he wants to buy a machine for the factory and wishes for Robyn to come with him. She decides to go with him. Before they depart for Frankfurt Basil calls to tell her that Charles has an affair with Debbie. 5th Chapter Vic picks up Robyn up and tells her that she will be his personal assistant in Frankfurt. Upon arrival, they meet Dr. Winkler and ne gotiate about the price of the machine and Robyn comes into handy as she is able to speak German and helps Vic to avoid a trick selling him a worse machine. In the evening go out for dinner and to night club and Vic's - having discovered his fascination for Robyn a long time ago gets a great wish fulfilled when they have sex together. Vic confesses his love for her, but she refuses him telling him that she doesn't believe in the concept of love. Back in England, Vic calls her a lot and also wants to get divorced in order to marry Robyn. In the Easter vacation she visits her parents and writes a book about women in the 19th century. As she returns she finds many (love-) letters from Vic but she throws them away without having read any of them. She also gets a letter from Charles in which he tells her that he wants to split up to be together with Debbie. Marjorie buys a lot of new clothes and shoes and wants to make herself attractive for Vic. 6th Chapter Robyn goes to a party where she meets professor Zapp who wants to read her manuscript. She leaves the party immediately and spends all night to print out her book, to give it to Zapp who is leaving the next morning. She is asked how the report about the Shadow Scheme is coming along and gets the information that Vic has organized to shadow her in the coming summer term. One day she gets a phone call from Professor Zapp who is fascinated by her script and wants to offer her a job at an university in the US. A little later Robyn receives a letter from her uncle in Australia telling her that she has inherited a lot of money from him. She decides not to accept the offer and to stay in England. Vic loses his job at Pringle's and gives him a big part of the money, because she doesn't really need it, so that he can start his own business. Vic grows closer to his wife and family again who are all willing to help and support him with his new company. Setting
The story of Vic and Robyn takes place in the imaginary city of Rummidge. It can be found on maps where today's Birmingham is located (red mark). A distinctive feature is that the main setting Rummidge is a fictive city but in other respects David Lodge refers to real cities like Frankfurt (Germany) or Ipswitch (blue mark).
Characterization Victor Wilcox:
One of the main characters is Vic Wilcox, the Managing Director of "Pringle and Sons Casting and General Engineering". He works hard and his motto is: "There is no such thing as a free lunch" (p. 116). He is a follower of market capitalism, traditional morals and stringent business values. As a passionate believer in "buying British" he believes in British Industry. That is the reason why Wilcox drives a Jaguar which is a part of his favourite occupation; the way to work every morning when he feels well and freely. His favourite music is slow tempo, jazz and soul by female vocalists like Jennifer Rush or Sade. Vic is married to Marjorie who is in the menopause and they have three children; Sandra, Raymond and Gary. Besides his problems in the factory he feels unsatisfied with his private life. While he's going through a kind o f mid-life crisis he treats Marge a little ruthless. When he spends time with Robyn he is fascinated by her independence, her intellect, her open mind and of course by her good, natural looking. With the help of Robyn Vic acquires a taste of poetry and an understanding of a difference between metonymy and metaphor. Roberta Ann Penrose:
Another main character is Robyn Penrose, a temporary English lecturer at the University of Rummidge. She is a specialist of the 19th century industrial novel and the role of women in literature. She was born in Australia and her father is an academic historian. Robyn is liberated, independent and a follower of feminism and a passionate devotee of semiotic materialism. She is confident but not vain, stylish but not coquettish and wears loose dark clothes that do not make her body into an object of sexual attraction. That shows she pays more attention to the inner values. When she is chosen for the "Industry Year Shadow Scheme" she doesn´t want to go to the factory at first. And when Vic shows her the factory she is shocked about the fact that just a few women work there and that many erotic pictures hang on the walls. For her the factory looks like hell and because of her obstinacy she tries to change that. Although she has an affair with Vic in Frankfurt she does no t fall madly in love with him, neither is she swept off her feet by his infatuation. For her love is still a textual construct. The development of Robyn shows that she admits that universities don't grow on trees. Also she dispels some doubt about the elitist set-up of the academia as opposed to no-frills polytechnics. She starts to reflect on how things are made but finally the experience reinforced her engagement to collegiate way of life and the values of freedom and knowledge. Each of the characters is a figure standing for a social group, for a world from which he or she comes from: Vic stands for the "down-to-earth", practical industry and Ro byn stands for the ivory towers of the academia. Charles:
Charles is Robyn's boyfriend since their student days in Su ssex but now they have just a weekend relationship. It seems that Charles takes his studies more serious like Rob yn but she nevertheless was better than he was. He has landed a plump job as lecturer in the Comparative Literature Department of the University of Suffolk. But later he gets a job as merchant banker where he meets Debbie again, the girlfriend of Robyn's brother Basil. Later he has even an affair with her. Marjorie:
As the wife of Vic she is a housewife and cares for the children, especially for S andra. Vic thinks that she is treating her like a doll. Marjorie likes to buy new things not only for her daughter but for herself as well and so it seems that she is the opposite of Robyn. While Robyn looks natural, Marjorie tries to look attractive to Vic. But the more she does to be attractive for him the more unattractive she becomes in his eyes. Maybe she does all that because she feels bored at home. As Vic loses his job she sees a chance to give her life a new sense in finding a job. Philip Swallow:
He is Dean of the Literature Faculty at the University of Rummidge. This character has aged. He looks tired, careworn and slightly seedy and he is passable deaf. When he can't understand what people say he tries to guess it with bizarre results. Brian Everthorpe:
He is Marketing Director of Pringle´s. He is big and has bushy sideboards and a RAF-style moustache. Brian is often late at work like on Robyn's first day at Pringle´s when they meet each other on the petrol station and where he shows Robyn the way to the factory. His humour is a little bit coarse. Beside his normal work he secretly works for his own company which is delivering sun-beds. Marion Russell: Marion is a student of Robyn and she has many part-time jobs to support herself at the University. Later in the story she works in a company which offers a service called kissograms and she turns up as a kissogram for Vic when he is holdin g a works meeting at Pringle´s.
Basil:
Basil is Robyn's younger brother. Robyn gets to know that he is rich now and he shows it by driving a BMW. He works at a Bank and earns a lot of money. Robyn is surprised because in the past her brother used to sit in a room above a pub and listened to punk music. Debbie:
Debbie is Basil's girlfriend. She is a pretty, pale faced girl with blond hair cut like Princess Diana's and a figure of almost anorexic slimness. She has got a cockney accent. That shows that she comes from the middle class. Robyn doesn't like Debbie but Charles can't withstand her. Quotations
In the following you will find our interpretation about th e meaning of the quotations at the beginning of the separate Chapters. Introduction (p. 9): "Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, and fed by different food, and ordered by different manners…' 'You speak of -' said Egremont hesitatingly." The author gives a hint to the two different lifestyles of the working class and the academics. He also shows their ignorant behaviour to each other.
1st Chapter (p. 11): "If you think … that you like a romance is preparing for you, reader, you were never more mistaken. Do you anticipate sentiment, and poetry, and reverie? Do you expect passion, and stimulus, and melodrama? Calm your expectations, reduce them to a lowly standard. Something real, cool and solid lies before you; something unromantic as Monday morning, when all who have work wake with the consciousness that they must rise and betake themselves thereto." He introduces the story by demanding the reader not to expect a romance or something emotional and passionate but a real and solid story.
2nd Chapter (p. 91): "Mrs Thornton went on after a moment's pause: 'Do you know anything of Milton, Miss Hale? Have you seen any of our factories? Our magnificent warehouse?' 'No,' said Margaret. 'I have not seen anything of the description as yet.' Then she felt that, by concealing her utter indifference to all such places, she was hardly speaking the truth; so she went on: 'I dare say, papa would have taken me before now if I had cared. But I really do not find much pleasure in going over manufactories.'" Gaskell shows the disinterest of the white colour workers in industry (represented by Margaret). These people are more interested in intellectual things (like literature, art etc.) It's quite another world for them.
3rd Chapter (p. 151): "People mutht be amuthed. They can't be alwayth a learning, nor yet they can't be alwayth a working. They an't made for it."
This excerpt is about the importance of everyone's private life. Nobody should be forced to do the same, monotonous (boring) work mainly under bad conditions all day, like Danny Ram. This kind of working class could be seen as a threat to social order (i.e. the blue collar workers).
4th Chapter (p. 189): "I know so little about strikes, and rates of wages, and capital, and labour, that I had better not talk to a political economist like you." "Nay, the more reason," said he eagerly. "I shall be only too glad to explain to you all that may seem anomalous or mysterious to a stranger; especially at a time like this, when our doings are sure to be canvassed by every scribbler who can hold a pen." The relationship between Margaret and Thornton is similar to the one of Robyn and Vic. Robyn doesn't know much about industry in contrast to Vic who doesn't appreciate the work of academics.
5th Chapter (p. 265): "Some person hold," he pursued, still hesitating, "that there is a wisdom of the Head, and that there is a wisdom of the Heart. I have not supposed the head to be all- sufficient. It may not be all- sufficient; how can I venture this morning to say it is!" The narrator is convinced that wisdom in an intellectual way isn't valuable without considering social or emotional aspects (development of Robyn's and Vic's attitude towards their prejudices).
6th Chapter (p. 319): The story is told. I think I now see the judicious reader putting on his spectacles to look for the moral. It would be an insult to his sagacity to offer directions. I only say, God speed him in the quest! The text wants the reader to find an attitude or a moral on his own. The narrator says that it wouldn't be fair to take influence on the reader's quest.
