The British Museum Is Falling Down
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By David Lodge
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1 review
First published in 1965, this title tells the story of hapless, scooter-riding young research student Adam Appleby, who is trying to write his thesis but is constantly distracted – not least by the fact that, as Catholics in the 1960s, he and his wife must rely on ‘Vatican roulette’ to avoid a fourth child.
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St Just Thursday Evening Reading Group 1st August 2019.
The British Museum is falling down. David Lodge.
This book was not popular with the reading group: 'weird', 'boring', and 'predictable' were terms used to describe it. The narrative, written in 1965, now seems both contrived and dated. Racist terminology is used, for instance, and the preoccupations of the characters now seem irrelevant.
Some readers did find the book humorous, though most were annoyed with the main character, Adam Appleby, for being indecisive and pathetic. Most of the discussion we held was about the Catholic Church and our disagreements with its doctrine and policies (several readers were brought up as Catholics), and particularly about birth control, probably the main point of this book (and several other of David Lodge's titles).
One reader said she read the book in the 1960s when it came out, and had found it very amusing. We concluded that it hasn't stood the test of time very well.
