As an academic I'm definitely the target market but it was heartwarming and even though it was written years ago, it seemed very up to date with where academia is now.

Narratively speaking, this is probably the most satisfactory of the three Lodge’s campus trilogy. Nice Work focuses on only two characters: the academic and the industrialist rather than the ragtag and confusing bunch in Small World. It probably has the best diverse intellectual arguments/discussions I’ve read on society between the opposing parties. Sadly, , there is some casual racism which cannot be excused because it was written in the 1980s: "black faces with white eyeballs" mentioned a couple of times and other examples are offensive and just lazy. There is also a degree of voyeurism about Lodge’s writing when describing more intimate scenes, particularly one unlikely event that burned a hole in my brain when I read it first 25 years ago. It leaves you wondering who is meant to get the biggest thrill: the writer or the reader. I think this is a common fault of older male writers. He’s also a bit mean on middle-aged wives of characters, particularly Marjorie, the industrialist’s wife, describing her as “a middle-aged podge…with a roly-poly body..” attempting to justify Vic’s adulterous intentions. This is a common theme through Lodge’s campus books conveniently forgetting the serious shortcomings of the husbands themselves and it is sometimes hard to entangle the chauvinistic voice of the character from the author. Having said that there is some great writing and there is a real change of tone when an understanding begins after a great deal of antagonism between the two widely different central characters . At first it seemed that the link between the two earlier books in the trilogy was tenuous with only the university and a couple of staff members a common theme. However with the arrival of the celebrated Professor Zapp at a party later in the book on the link was satisfactorily established.