Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

One fun source of books for my staggering TBR pile is Workman Publishing’s “Page a Day Calendar for readers.  Every morning I am greeted with a novel, biography, history, or poetry for my reading pleasure.  I knew about Kingsley Amis through the Booker Prize, which he won in 1996.  Lucky Jim is considered by many critics to be his best comic novel.

According to the biography in my copy, Kingsley Amis was a novelist, poet, and critic widely regarded as one of the greatest satiric writers of the 20^th century.  He was born in suburban South London.  He attended St. John’s College, Oxford on a scholarship where he began a lifelong friendship with poet Philip Larkin.  He served in the British Armey during World War II, and upon his “demobbing” – as the English put it – he finished his degree and joined the faculty of the University College of Swansea in Wales.  Lucky Jim, his first novel, was published in 1954.  He also taught for a year at Princeton University.  Amis published 24 novels, including his Booker Prize winner, The Old Devils.  He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1990.  He died in 1995. 

Lucky Jim is the story of Jim Dixon, a beleaguered lecturer of Medieval History.  Hanging onto his perch at an unnamed provincial university and capturing the girl of his dreams are his principle occupations.  Despite the age of this novel, it struck me as remarkably timely even today.  I place it on a shelf with other of my favorites set in academia, such as Beet, The English Major, Stoner, and Straight Man.

A cautionary word, the British humor is typically dry and requires some close attention to get the jokes.  Here is a sample of Amis describing a hangover: “He lay sprawled, too wicked to move, spewed up like a broken spider-crab on the tarry shingle of morning.  The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again.  A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse.  His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as a mausoleum.  During the night, too, he’d somehow been on a cross-country run, and then been expertly beaten up by secret police.  He felt bad” (60).

In an introduction by the critic and writer, Keith Gessen, Jim Dixon is modeled on Philip Larkin.  When Amis sent the manuscript to his friend for comment, Larkin responded that he ought to make Dixon more like Amis.  A funny exchange ensued with a catalogue of faces Amis could use. 

Amis gave up teaching, because it interfered with his writing.  Eventually, Amis surpassed his friend Larkin in notoriety, and the two drifted apart, despite a dedication to Larkin.  Kingsley Amis’ debut novel, Lucky Jim, is a hilarious romp through academia in the aftermath of World War II, and Amis deserves the acclaim he garnered.  5 Stars

--Chiron, 12/3/15

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge

Twice short-listed for a Booker Prize, David Lodge, a British author has a novel in a sub-genre I really enjoy – novels set in Academia.  His 2008 novel, Deaf Sentence, is a darkly comic tale of Professor Desmond Bates and his wife Fred, who is a partner in a home décor and design business.

Professor Bates headed the linguistics department at a university.  He began losing his hearing, and when he was offered an early retirement he took it.  Fortunately, his wife had partnered with a friend in the opening of her business, and as he retired, the business picked up, and the couple had a healthy income.  He also cares for his elderly father, whom he visits once a week to spend the day.

Desmond occasionally regrets his retirement.  Lodge Writes, “At first it was very enjoyable, like a long sabbatical, but after eighteen months or so his freedom from routine tasks and duties began to pall.  He missed the calendar of the academic year which had given his life a shape for such a long time, its passage marked by reassuringly predictable events: the arrival of the excited and expectant [freshman] every autumn; the Department Christmas party with its traditional sketches by students mimicking the mannerisms and favorite jargon of members of staff; the reading week in the spring term when they took the second year to a residential conference centre in the Lake district; the examiners meetings in the summer term when, sitting round a long table heaped with marked scripts and extended essays, they calculated and classified the Finals results like gods dispensing rewards and punishments to mortals; and finally the [commencement] itself, processing to organ music in the Assembly hall, listening to the University Orator fulsomely summarize the achievements of honorary [graduates], shaking hands afterward with proud parents and their begowned children sipping fruit punch fruit punch under the marquee erected on the Round Lawn, after which all dispersed to a well-earned long vacation.  He missed the rhythm of the academic year as a peasant might miss differences between seasons if they were suddenly withdrawn; and he found he missed too the structure of the academic week, the full diary of teaching assignments, postgraduate supervisions, essay marking, committee meetings, interviews, and deadlines for this and that required report, tasks he used to grumble about but the completion of which, however trivial and ephemeral they were, gave a kind of low-level satisfaction, and ensured that one never, ever, had to confront the question: what shall I do with myself today?  In retirement, he confronted it every morning as soon as he woke” (28).

This passage seems eerily prescient as inch toward retirement myself.

David Lodge has a couple of items, which gave me pause; however, I quickly adapted to his style.  Of course, the long sentences and extensive use of the English Major’s carefully protected and hoarded punctuation mark – the semi-colon.  But all in all, a pleasant read for anyone who has spent more than a few years in academia.  David Lodge’s novel, Deaf Sentence, holds a well-earned spot on my shelf of fiction set in academia.  5 stars.

--Chiron, 11/28/15