Product Description

Centered in Rummidge, a sprawling industrial town in the English midlands, Nice Work confirms Lodge's rare capacity to be thought-provoking, moving, and very funny. "A singularly brilliant and invigorating performance."--Chicago Tribune.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53624 in Books
• Published on: 1990-07-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"His tongue caustic, and his take on British society provocative and funny, Lodge skewers virtually every aspect of Thatcherite Britain in this top-notch satirical novel," observed PW . 35,000 first printing.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Robyn Penrose is a lecturer in 19th-century literature at a university located in the fictitious English Midlands city of Rummidge. Vic Wilcox is managing director of Pringle's, an industrial casting company located in a grimy suburb. They are thrown together as part of a "shadow scheme" concocted by their superiors in response to a governmentally ordained "Industry Year." Entering into the arrangement with considerable skepticism and lack of appreciation for the other's mode of life, they get off to a rocky start, but then slowly develop a mutual respect and even liking for each other (and in Vic's case something more). Nice Work is, indeed, a "nice" novel. Lodge spoofs in a nonjudgmental way both the pretensions of academia and the materialism of the upper-middle business class. While lacking in stylistic elegance, this is a well-told tale full of gentle humor that should, despite its setting, have broad appeal to Americans.
- David W. Henderson, Eckerd Coll. Lib., St. Petersburg, Fla.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Deconstructionist Masterpiece
This is the only book I have ever read, fiction or non-fiction, which makes the issues of postmodernist literary and social criticism really clear without oversimplification, doing so partially by embodying them in the characters and actions of a living, breathing novel. For this alone Lodge gets 5 stars. I regard Nice Work as head and shoulders above Lodge's other novels, although Trading Places is pretty good. Highly recommended.

Lodge get's it right with this one.
Nice Work is the third in Lodge's trilogy send-up of academia and stands as a significant departure from the previous two novels. The cast of characters from the first two entries is all but gone and the book takes a satirical look at academia from the corporate point of view.

The story revolves around on of those truly bureaucratic inventions that in the end never seem to serve any real purpose. In this case, it Industry Year, a celebration of industry in Britain at the height of the Thatcher ear when English business is in full retreat from the opening of markets and fierce foreign competition.

As part of this nonsense, Robyn Primrose, fierce socialist intellectual and lecturer on 19th century English literature is assigned to "shadow" Vic Wilcox, the managing director of a local foundry and manufacturing concern, to "foster greater understanding between the collegiate and business communities".

Wilcox is doing his best to remake his company into a competitive concern that can make a go of it for the long term. Primrose is a sheltered child of privilege whose left wing theories aren't tinged with any experience of the real world.

Naturally, this situation provides full fodder for Lodge's wonderfully wacky satirical vision, and he does his utmost to make the best of the situation, to wonderful effect.

This book isn't nearly as outright funny as the previous entries ion this trilogy, falling more along the lines of amusing rather than comical. Yet, I liked it best of the three. The books isn't as cluttered by the huge--and often confusing--cast of characters that populated the first two books. The pace is more subdued than the frenetic pace of the earlier books, and the characters much more fully drawn. If this effort produced far fewer "laugh out loud" moments, it was nevertheless the most satisfying of the three books.

Many complain these books are outdated--I don't find them so. They wonderfully chronicle a past time. That's like saying Dickens or Twain shouldn't be read because they are outdated. It doesn't make sense.


Lodge has a witty, effervescent writing style and a wonderfully sardonic world view that make for very enjoyable reading. This trilogy is well worth your time.

NICE is a word you use when you have nothing else to say
I was reluctant to read this book, but I let the reviews on the jacket and the prizes it won/nominated for influence my decision. Nice Work isn't a bad book, but it isn't a good book either. It is the story of a businessman and a Literature and Women's Studies professor who are thrown together due to a project that is part of Industry Year in Great Britain. It is the very cliche tale of two people who are different in just about every way who discover that they have things in common and can learn from each other. No offense, Mr. Lodge but how many times has this tired formula been used in books, films, etc.

The problem with this book is that there is nothing distinguishing about it. It is rather generic. It isn't comical enough or enough of a true social commentary to have any sort of an impact on you. However, the saving grace of this book is that it is well paced. Despite the fact, that I found the writing and story banal, the author kept it moving along and kept me reading until the conclusion. The conclusion is the most unfortunate part of the book. Without divulging it, beware that the conclusion is contrived and from the school of happy endings. I believe that with a more original story Mr. Lodge has the talent to produce a good novel and will probably try another one of his books. I recommend that you don't read this one.