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La Vida En Sordina (2008)

by David Lodge(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Anagrama

review 1: endearing, funny, intelligent, droll... sad.David Lodge is one of those writers whose prose can carry me on even if i’m finding the plot and/or content a bit dull. which i am not with regards to this book. but i think i would read his words even if i did.i do think that Mr. Lodge perhaps likes to alternately indulge and poke fun at the nerdy academic’s restrained manner (especially in Britain) with regards to sex by writing some possible fantasies “out loud.” it makes for quite a saucy tale but one that also makes one roll one’s eyes a smidge.he also pokes his fun at deafness and uses semantic noise often to get there. like mondegreens but with spoken word, the protagonist, Desmond, is constantly mishearing things like his grandchild saying she got an icicle for ... morechristmas. “not much of a present,” he responds. the other family members laugh and immediately correct him: the child received a tricycle.as funny as this can be, there is a melancholy edge to much of it. nestled within the deaf humor is the story of disability, aging parents, adult blended families, a grad student with boundary issues, and even the macabre. the characters are wonderfully shown in their own unique lights in a lovingly humorous way. when Desmond’s son Richard comes to christmas he is described as being sneaky and then as acting like a guest at a party who knows not one soul there.i’m not sure i would call this book deep but it certainly does make you think about some things and gives few good laughs as it rolls snappily along towards a bittersweet ending.
review 2: A few pages from the journal of a retired British professor of Linguistics paint the tragicomic portrait of an ageing man and his relationship with his father at the onset of dementia, with a spouse whose professional career seems to start to thrive as his own comes to an end, and his struggle to come to terms with deafness. A bittersweet, funny as well as moving account of the infirmities of old age, the frailty of human life, and the quest to live life in a meaningful way. Lodge's language is elegant, his wit sparkling, and his asides about famous deaf people in history as well as linguistics very amusing. I am going to look up what other books Mr. Lodge has penned. less

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