David Lodge, British Novelist Who Satirized Academic Life, Dies at 89 NYT | Top Stories John Cotter 4 January 2025 at 02:11 His 15 well-plotted novels teemed with romance and strange coincidence. An erudite literary critic with an ear for language, he also wrote a raft of nonfiction books. © Leonardo Cendamo/Getty ImagesDavid Lodge in 2017. Graham Greene was an early admirer.