The Picturegoers

The first novel from one of Britain’s best loved writers. Mark, the cynical intellectual, who seeks sensuality in the body of an ex-novice and finds spirituality; Clare, his girlfriend, who loses faith and discovers passion; Father Kipling, the scandalized priest; Harry, the sexually frustrated Teddy boy — just some among the crowd who make their Saturday-night pilgrimage to the peeling suburban Mecca of the Palladium, Brickley, and who touch and shape each other’s destinies. In his astutely observed first novel, David Lodge ushers in a vivid cast of characters, who play out the harsh and sometimes humorous realities of city life against a flickering backcloth of celluloid fantasies.