A review by mikaaa
Nice Work by David Lodge

informative medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

A pretty weird read to me. Firstoff it had racist undertones, only portraying POC as minimum wage workers who often take drugs and I also don't like the idea that sex work in itself degrades women. While pictures of naked women are definetely not okay, I don't like that the narative repedatively said, the existence of these sexy pictures only degrades women. The prose in the first chapter was also horrible to read for me and it took too long for the characters to meet but after the first chapter the prose improved a great deal.

Now to the plot: I really don't know what to make of it.
Let's start with the things I liked: The narrative didn't present Robyn as weird for her demands of equal justice, the book did include a nu,ber of interesting discussions and I am very greatful Robyn didn't fall in love with Vic. Now for the rest: I think my main problem is that motivations are so so wrong. Yes, Vic does in the end take down the sexy posters, but it seemed to me he only did it because he liked Robyn. I don't even mean that he tried to impress her but the reason that he listened to Robyn in the first place mainly seemed to be that she was attractive and sometimes on his side. If Robyn had been a to him unatractive lesbian for example I cannot imagine him reaching the same level of insight. Vic's change does not primarily happen out of an understanding how his behaviour is sexist, it happens because an attractive women is inspiring him. A few lines of the narative also sounded very weird to me like the repeated mention of the breasts of Robyn's friend or the destription of her own pyhsique. I also don't know what to make of the end since the problems are magically solved through a big lump of money.


In general an interesting read but I was very happy when I was done with it.

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