Description
Book SynopsisWelcome to the Palladium, Brickley. Once the grandest music-hall south of the river, now its peeling foyer is home to stale popcorn, a depressed manager, and a cast of disparate picturegoers who touch and shape each other’s destinies.
Amongst them is Mark, the cynical intellectual who seeks sensuality and finds spirituality; Clare, his girlfriend, who loses faith and discovers passion; Father Kipling, the scandalized priest; and Harry, the sexually frustrated Teddy boy.
In his astutely observed first novel, David Lodge ushers in a congregation of characters whose hopes, confusions and foibles play out alongside the celluloid fantasies of the silver screen.
Trade ReviewSharp and real -- Kingsley Amis
Quirky and original * Sunday Times *
The Picturegoers' appeal derives as much from the quality of the writing as for its absorption in a bygone way of life * Independent *
An excellent first novel... He has a wonderful eye for the tawdriness of our commercial world * Times *
