O David Lodge habituou-me a bons livros e este não foi excepção. Este é um bom livro, mas achei que lhe faltava qualquer coisa. Está muito bem escrito, com um vasto leque de personagens, todas elas bem definidas. O que é que faltou? Um plot. Se isto fosse uma biografia de um grupo de pessoas estaria tudo bem, mas sendo um romance faltou algo. Habitualmente, os livros de David Lodge lêm-se depressa porque as histórias são cativantes e a sua escrita é simples, directa e rápida; no caso de How Far Can You Go?, Até Onde Se Pode Ir?, na versão portuguesa, se não fosse pela escrita teria demorado bastante mais tempo a terminar isto. ( )

Polly, Dennis, Angela, Adrian and their peers were bound to lose their spiritual innocence as well as their virginities on the way from the 1950s to the '70s. On the one hand there was the traditional Catholic Church, on the other the siren call of the permissive society - the appearance of the pill, the disappearance of Hell and the advent of COC (Catholics for an Open Church). It was inevitable that things would change radically. But how far could it go? How far could they go? And where would it all end? Find out in this razor-sharp novel of satiric insight and comic despair.

Le diable fait de nouveau irruption en littérature. Si David Lodge a revêtu l'habit infernal dans ce roman écrit en 1980, c'est pour poser quelques questions dérangeantes. Car le diable, c'est l'esprit qui nie, celui qui doute, qui regarde nos actions à la loupe pour en voir les failles et les ridicules. Avec son scalpel, son bistouri et son microscope, David Lodge dissèque, avec un plaisir certain, le grand corps de l'Eglise des années 50 et 60. Pour ce faire, il observe de près, de très près même, un petit groupe d'étudiants catholiques anglais et les chemins qu'ils suivent. Par quel miracle parvient-il à s'introduire dans tant de lits et dans tant d'âmes, comment s'y prend-il pour reconstituer avec une telle force les moindres détails d'une époque et d'un milieu ?

My first Lodge and a disappointing one. Troubled, rather sombre and slow.Not the Lodge I later came to know and whom i so deeply admire.Translated by my former teacher Johan Kuin, who was such an enthousiastic teacher on the School for Librarians.A deeply devouted catholic, who , immacutely dressed and married, couldn't see much in the adventures of Lodge's heroes. Compare this one to The British Museum Is falling down, who deals a bit withe same object, but has so much more spirit.But who am I compared to Anthony Burgess , who put this one with his best 99 novels of the 20th century. ( )

How Far Can You Go? is a fascinating, anthropological novel following the lives and religious development of a group of English Catholics from their days in a college church group in the 1950s, through the tumultuous years of the sexual revolution. The friends question their religious tenant and traditions as they face marriage, families, religious callings, sexual identity, and mortality. At the same time, the Catholic Church wrestles with Vatican II, the battle over contraception, internal reform efforts, and the charismatic movement.

The title jokingly refers to the question the young Catholic men asked their priests about “How far can you go with a girl?” But more substantively, the book asks how far the Catholic Church can alter its rituals and adapt to modern mores and still remain the Catholic Church. Or how far individuals can abandon their religious customs and personalize their faith and still remain Catholics or even Christians. On a different level, the title refers to how far a novelist narrator can insert himself into the story and still count the book as a novel.

This is an absolutely intriguing novel. It won the Whitebread Award for best novel in 1980. Anthony Burgess included the book in his list of the best 99 novels since 1939. Catholics, whether they lived through the changes depicted or came along after, other Christians, and general readers interested in religious cultures should find it mesmerizing.
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