Product Description
An engaging study of Kingsley Amis, literary technician and popular story storyteller covering all his work from Lucky Jim to The Biographer's Moustache. ... Read more

Product Description
Posthumously published, the great man's trenchant, provocative and authoritative guide to the use and abuse of the English language.Sir Kingsley Amis, who died in 1995, occupied a unique position in the world of English letters: elder statesman, former angry young man, latter-day curmudgeon and, above all, comic novelist of genius. In all his work, and throughout his life, the use and abuse of the English language was one of his principal concerns. The King's English pungently, entertainingly and concisely conveys his love and knowledge of the subject to new generations of readers and writers.Here can be found all those linguistic pitfalls ('crescendo', 'disinterested', 'enormity') which lie in wait for the ignorant or the careless. And if you've ever wondered whether it's acceptable to start a sentence with 'and', or what you risk revealing about yourself by your pronunciation of 'liqueur', or whether or not to cross your 7s in the French style, Amis has the answer.By turns reflective, acerbic, combative and controversial, The King's English will find a place on the shelves of anyone who values the English language and cares about the way in which it is used. ... Read more

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This is a fascinating critical study of the life, work and milieu of one of Britain's best known and most popular novelists. Starting with a biographical overview of the influences on the developing writer while at home, at school, at Oxford, and at war, Dale Salwak goes on to offer the general reader a lively interpretation of all of Amis's novels, from "Lucky Jim" (1954) through to "The Folks That Live on the Hill" (1990), set against the ever-changing backdrop of the twentieth century. Dale Salwak makes extensive use of the major Amis archives, and draws on material from Amis's notebooks, letters, juvenilia and manuscripts, as well as upon his own discussions with Amis and many of his friends. Waving these sources with his own critical appraisal, Salwak plots each step in the development of Amis's imaginative vision throughout his writing career. This illustrated study, which includes a selective chronology and a complete primary bibliography, will be read with pleasure by those who are interested in learning more about Kingsley Amis, modern novelist. ... Read more

Product Description
Nearing sixty, Jake goes in pursuit of his lost libido. But is sex really worth it? As liberationists abuse him, a hostess bores him into bed – and even his wife starts acting oddly – Jake seriously begins to wonder.


From the Paperback edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good product, fast service, not so great reading.
The book arrived promptly in the condition in which it was advertized. The story itself stays in line with most of Amis' other novels so I wouldn't reccommend it for younger audiences or those who don't like to talk about sexual issues.

A modicum of sympathy for Jake
Yet another book for re-reading. I found that it had actually gained in thirty years. The language is still fresh and fun and when you visualize what you visualize you laugh. Not many books will do that for you.

Jake is not an easy character to like. Easy to understand, but is he really worth the trouble of trying to empathize? Yet, the author does something different. The reader does not identify, does nor empathize, but secretly admits that there is something about himself in Jake's thoughts and feelings. No, the reader is not a mysoginist, nor does he have problems with understanding women (or men, or anyone, come to think of it.) In fact there is nothing of Jake in the reader, it is the otherway around. The reader finds himself in Jake without much sympathy or empathy but with the thrill of discovery he does not want to get out. No, not yet.

Men and women and their relationships have not changed much for thousands of years.
Read Aeschilus, the Odyssey, Adam Bede, Marlowe, Flaubert and why not Jake's Thing.
Is it Kingsley Amis himself we are watching or Jake, the character who does not even understand what a character in a novel should be like? What difference does it make?

It was not easy, but I liked Jake, and I liked Kingsley Amis for writing about the "Thing", and I liked the writing.

Should be required reading in medical schools
Anyone who has had to seek out an elusive medical diagnosis should laugh aloud.The novel is scabrous and cringe-inducing---and uproariously funny.It should be required reading in all medical schools.

a great quote:
"...[T]heir concern with the surface of things, with objects and appearances, with their surroundings and how they looked and sounded in them, with seeming to be better and to be right while getting everything wrong, their automatic assumption of the role of injured party in any clash of wills, their certainty that a view is the more credible and useful for the fact that they hold it, their use of misunderstanding and misrepresentation as weapons of debate, their selective sensitivity to tones of voice, their unawareness of the difference in themselves between sincerity and insincerity, their interest in importance (together with a noticeable inability to discriminate in that sphere), their fondness for general conversation and directionless discussion, their pre-emption of the major share of feeling, their exaggerated estimate of their own plausibility, their never listening and lots of other things like that..."

been there, been there, been there...

Bit thingy about the thing
In a new millennium awash with exotic and mainstream treatments for the euphemistically phrased class of conditions referred to as `erectile dysfunction', Jake's Thing reads as an interesting period piece from less medically interventionalist times.

What exactly is Jake's Thing?Surely a decline in libido is to be expected as one approaches 60.Maybe his thing is no more than a reaction to his overweight, frustrated (and as we later learn desperate) housewife.According to his treating physician, Jake's Thing is a reflection of his failure to adequately express a myriad of repressed perversities.(Jake repeatedly denies the presence of even one solid perversity, maintaining that in this respect his `thing' is missionary relations with women possessed of very large breasts.)Another possible interpretation is that Jake's Thing is no more than a reaction to the increasing presence of feminists on and around his beloved Oxford who demand to be allowed equal access to the inner sanctums of the college.

Whatever the case, Jake, with the encouragement of his wife Brenda, decides to seek treatment for his thing.After a couple of very up close and personal encounters with a device known as a `nocturnal mensurator' Jake's doctor decides that group therapy is the only way Jake will release the emotional blockage that is negatively impacting on his theoretically fully functional thing.One thing that is most certainly not Jake's thing is group therapy.Let's just say that Jake comes to regret assuring his referring medical practitioner that he has no objection to exposing his genitals in public.

Not to spoil the ending but the Jake and Brenda do end up resolving the issue of the `thing' in quite different ways.It is virtually impossible to find any sympathy for Jake who's a stuffy Oxford don used to getting away with various infidelities, treating women as though they are sub morons, neglecting his wife and single mindedly pursuing his area of expertise, Minoan history to a suitable plateau of mediocrity. This is largely a result of Kingsly Amis missing the mark with his usually deft humorous touch.The interactions of the university academics are dry and dull rather than dry and droll making Jake's Thing and unworthy successor to other Amis novels such as the sparklingly amusing Lucky Jim.The other characters are largely uni dimensional, serving as foils to illuminate whatever slightly noxious personal quality Jake elects to showcase.The group therapy participants promise a variety of mad, bad and dangerous personal problems but just end up as bland as the rest.Brenda's most notable individual achievement, finale aside, is to lose weight.

Maybe the slightly sensational nature of the topic resulted in a more generous assessment of the quality of this novel when it was written.I'm not sure.Whatever the case, I can honestly report that I really didn't care for Jake or his thing.


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Customer Reviews (2)

Decent Biography But Arrogant Amateur Psychoanalysis
There were already at least two biographies of Kingsley Amis in print when Professor Bradford wrote this one.Professor Bradford's biography is both complete and well-written.

It is marred, however, by Professor Bradford's insistence that "Amis's fiction (is) one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking autobiographies ever produced."His point is not simply that Amis has modeled some characters on people he has known, nor that some events are paralleled in Amis's life.Virtually every writer of fiction draws from his life.He goes much further than that, claiming that nearly every character in Amis's novels and stories is intended to be Amis himself or somebody that Amis knew.

He starts with the contention that Jim Dixon, the protagonist of Lucky Jim, Amis's first and perhaps best-known novel, is Amis himself.Dixon, fresh out of college, is teaching in an obscure English college.Amis began teaching at University College of Swansea in Wales while completing his graduate thesis at Oxford.The parallels break down there, however.The plot of Lucky Jim involves Dixon's jettisoning his unattractive, somewhat mentally ill girlfriend and acquiring an attractive, nice blonde one.Amis married an attractive blonde woman while still at Oxford, more than a year before he began teaching at Swansea.Central to the plot of Lucky Jim is Dixon's status as an outsider, never explicitly stated but implied by many things, including the fact that he is from the north of England with an accent that immediately identifies him as such and the fact that he attended a university of no particular prestige (a passage in the third chapter hints that it may be the University of Leicester).Amis, by contrast, was born and raised in London, and, by Bradford's own account had a BBC accent.As already noted, he was an Oxford graduate.Whatever else Amis was, he was not an outsider, at least not by virtue of his birthplace, accent, or university education.

On and on it goes, with Bradford claiming that Simona Quick, the waif-like nineteen-year-old in I Want It Now, is really Jane Howard, Amis's second wife, who was in her mid-forties at the period in which the book was written and takes place, that Amis has split himself between two characters in Girl, 20, that the ten-year-old boy who is to be castrated to preserve his pure, youthful voice in The Alteration is in fact Amis in his mid-fifties, worried about declining .... prowess, and that Amis has split himself into four different characters in The Old Devils, attributing to them such unusual characteristics as the fact that they all drink too much.

Bradford and his editor also get some facts wrong, either by design or by laziness.On page 206, he claims that, in One Fat Englishman, "Micheldene is obliged to take part in a game of charades and is asked to become the embodiment of 'Englishness'".In fact, the other characters try to act "Britishly", and it is Micheldene who is to guess what the word is.This is not a very important point, but consulting the novel itself is all that is necessary to get it right.

Similarly, Bradford, in claiming that Jake Richardson, the title character of Jake's Thing, is actually an older Jim Dixon (who, by Bradford's thesis, is Amis under a different name), asserts on page 305 that "Jake's given name is James", while, in the novel itself, Jake's given name is, in fact, Jaques, pronounced "Jakes".One might argue that the French "Jacques" (Richardson's ancestors came from France) is the equivalent of the English "James", but the chain of reasoning is now one link longer, and, once again, consulting the novel would have been sufficient to provide correct information.

Fascinating book, unconvincing thesis
Since Kingsley Amis was one of the most interesting and amusing 20th century English novelists, any book that closely examines his complete work is bound to be welcome. As well as the sheer gut-busting humour and insight of his first and best known novel, Lucky Jim, Amis was an excellent story-teller capable of serious reflection about the human condition. He just didn't believe in being pompous and self-important about it. Some of his books - The Anti-Death League, for instance, or The Green Man - serve up a fascinating blend of dry humour, drama, characterisation, philosophy and even suspense.

Obviously the man who wrote these books - not forgetting poetry, critical essays and biographies - was himself quite complex. The life and soul of any party, though many were hurt by his scathing wit, Amis was scared of the dark and even being alone, and was apparently prone to sudden attacks of pure existential fear. The tendency to identify him with Lucky Jim, his first and most famous anti-hero, was strengthened by the gradually spreading awareness of the chronic womanising which broke up both his marriages. Yet it seems that Amis much regretted these domestic disasters, conceivably having failed to understand that marriage offers real, though easily overlooked, benefits to husbands as well as wives.

Bradford's thesis is simply that, denials to the contrary notwithstanding, all of Amis' fiction is drawn directly from his own life experience. All he manages to demonstrate, however, is the meaninglessness of this position. Of course every author draws on experience for material - otherwise all fiction would be fantasy. When Bradford is reduced to arguing that "Simona... has characteristics so completely different from Jane's as to virtually announce themselves as covering devices", the poverty of his basic idea is clearly revealed. If a character resembles anyone Amis ever met, he must have copied that character from real life. But if the character is completely different, the same inference is drawn.

Otherwise, the book is well written and evidently based on research as thorough as Amis' own (for a surprising rigour was one of his best qualities). This impression is hardly spoiled by occasional infelicities and repetitions - and at least when Bradford revisits the same text twice, he tells the same story each time. Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it will surely encourage any reader to get hold of Amis' novels and read them (or re-read them, as the case may be).

Is it evil to smile at the thought of how Amis would have fumed if he could have read the manuscript himself? Not really - it is the sort of joke he would have appreciated, and perhaps accompanied by his famous "crazy peasant" face. ... Read more

Product Description
When a series of murders performed by a killer with a peculiarly thin blade take place in London, Detective Superintendent Bill Barry is recalled from retirement. Doctors, psychologists, lawyers and politicians join in the hunt, but the biggest crime is yet to come. First published as a six-part serial in "The Sunday Times" newspaper in 1975, readers were encouraged to send in their own solutions to the mystery after episode five. For the first time, the winning entry is published here in book form, together with Amis' own denouement. Kingsley Amis is also the author of "Jake's Thing", "Stanley and the Woman", "The Old Devils" and "Difficulties with Girls". ... Read more

Product Description
This collection is vintage Amis from a succcession of good years. A selection of his non-fiction pieces in the form of reviews, articles, broadcasts and letters are gathered together in this book. Topics such as writers and writing, "abroad", eating and drinking, music, language, educational and social questions are examined. Such Amis hobby-horses as arts subsidies, literary prizes and jazz are also featured as well as writers such as Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell, Anthony Burgess and Ian Fleming. Among poets, the great Victorians are celebrated, and serious consideration is given to Philip Larkin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sophisticated period piece and darn good read
I am surprised that no one has taken the time to review this classic--a great favorite of mine. I am not really an Amis fan, finding most of his novels too cynical and women-hating to bear. The plot of this book centers on an evil woman also, but Amis's sympathetic treatment of the protagonist--a teen age boy, growing up in post-war Britain, makes this book a softer, kinder offering than some of his more celebrated creations.

The story revolves around a cleverly-thought out murder in a dowdy British suburb in the late forties/early fifties. The protagonist, a school-boy of extraordinary sensitivity, but also endowed with a real helping of good sense, gets roped into the cover-up and resolution of the murder. Along the way, he comes into contact with several beautifully drawn out characters.Like other Amis characters, the characters feel terribly real and plausible. Unlike other Amis characters, they arouse sympathy--even unto the villain. Particularly touching is the portrayal of the protagonist's father--a war veteran who struggles to uphold the vestiges of middle-class respectability and who, when push comes to shove, does the honorable thing, despite the dire implications to his self image.

I'll close by mentioning that this book is a period piece. Amis lovingly describes the little details of daily life in Britain of the late forties and early fifties. Highly recommended.

Not your average mystery
I find it truly refreshing that once in a while one can come across a book that is odd and strangely good at the same time. I thorougly enjoyed reading The Riverside Villas Murder and was engrossed the whole time. I highly recommend it.

Rather strange little mystery
The Riverside Villas Murder contains a boy detective in the typical tradition-- sort of. We've read the kind of book before where a boy is interested in a woman and his youthful curiosity gets him involved in amurder that surrounds her. What's strange about this is that the book seemsamazingly preoccupied with the boy in question's sex life. Not that I'm aprude, but it's rather jarring and odd to have that sort of thing mixed inwith what in other respects is a fairly traditional detective novel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

LAST NOVEL OF SIR KINGSLEY AMIS
SIR KINGSLEY AMIS DIED ON OCTOBER 22, 1995.THIS WAS HIS LAST NOVEL.First Edition hardcover, published in London by Flamingo, a division of HarperCollins. A GOOD COLLECTOR'S BOOK.Dust cover with original first-issue art. The book is bound in black buckram with bright gold spine lettering. A HILARIOUS PLOT THAT ONLY AMIS COULD HAVE DEVISED. His unmistakable style of satire is coupled with the most peculiar characters, and ridiculous situations abound. This one's about a young biographer with a moustache (a feature despised by his older subject) and a strong instinct for womanizing... Will he be able to lose the moustache AND resist the charms of his subject's wife (who likes younger men) to get his advance from the publisher?IT WILL KEEP YOU IN STITCHES!
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Product Description
This is an anthology of Kingsley Amis's choice of poems. In his introduction he explains that the collection comprises his favourite poetry, not necessarily a collection of what he regards as being the best of English poetry. Kingsley Amis' book "The Old Devils" won the Booker Prize in 1986. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a good but surprising selection!
stories by Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, M R James, Chesterton, Joyce, Maugham, Irwin Shaw, Wodehouse, Nabokov, Angus Wilson, Anthony Boucher, Brian Aldiss, H. Beam Piper, Elizabeth Taylor, and Dick Francis. ... Read more

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A meeting at Oxford University during World War II signalled the beginning of a lifelong friendship between two outstanding contributors to 20th century English literature: Philip Larkin, poet, and Kingsley Amis, the prolific novelist. Selected from correspondence written between 1943 and 1985, these letters offer an entertaining and illuminating insight into the prejudices, exasperations and in-jokes of two literary greats. A linking commentary complements the writers' own words as they relate events in their personal lives, report on their work in progress, and generally rail against the modem world. ... Read more