A review by lola425
A Man of Parts: A Novel of H. G. Wells by David Lodge

3.0

This book did not read like a novel and that was not necessarily a good thing. I feel like I learned a lot about things I did not know and introduced me to another side of H.G. Wells, but it was not very compelling and I had to pep talk my way through it. I came away feeling that for all Wells' talk about sexual liberation for women that it was all lip service because the second that the "liberation" became troublesome for him or threatened to disturb his comfortable status quo, he encouraged the women in his life to accept more traditional roles. It is no wonder that most of his conquests were younger women, not because as he saw it, they were the only ones able to act on his vision, but because they truly did not know any better. They did not have the life experience to see through him. I imagine his wife spent a lot of time rolling her eyes behind his back. Strangely, I did not feel sorry for her, because she came across to me as strong, as if she saw Wells as he was, made a bargain with herself, and accepted her life as it was.