Classic Flop?
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I first read the thing back in the summer 1975 (I can be sure of the date because it was part of my University set reading - some `wit' had included this on the list of `books to study before coming' as it was supposed to have sketches of people still teaching at the university in it - if it did, I never met them).
I didn't find it very funny then, and I find it even less so now.
It is in the genre of `campus novels' - a particularly tacky genre - and is claimed to have been `seminal' - for which I shall never forgive it.
For those who don't know, campus novels are about College and University campuses; are written by people whose whole lives have been blighted by the college experience and consequently feel it incumbent upon themselves to inflict a similar blight on the rest of their and future generations; they usually attempt to be `hilarious' - and fail.
Campus Novels are loved by academics (a sort of S & M experience, I would suggest) and book critics (who tend to be failed academics - and consequently promote them as some sort of revenge taking experience). They pop up far too often on suggested reading lists and the like.
`Lucky Jim' supposedly changed the whole post-war generation ... with little evidence to support this, I am firmly `in denial'.
Jim Dixon is the sort of lout who, because he had nothing better to do and is too lazy to do anything anyway, enters the University lecturing profession dishonestly - claiming interest and expertise where he has none. The book follows this thug's adventures through a `red-brick' university where he causes drunken destruction and chaos wherever he goes. He exhibits the sort of socialist rhetoric you'd expect and lands a job at the end with a millionaire.
What is clear to me (although not so clear to many at the time of publication, or since) is that Mr Amis does not like Jim - he is an `oink' of the wrong class and only becomes respectable at the end as he moves into the pale blue conservative world. His luck is in escaping the not-really-university `red-brick' institution, whose academic standards and personnel are only a joke.
The so called humour is in fact barely disguised contempt for the genuine changes brought on by a World War that shattered the privilege of education and class (although not so effectively). Educating this sort of person is obviously a dumbing-down in the eyes of Mr Amis.
The excellent introduction to the Penguin Edition, by David Lodge, also points out the attack being made on Graham Greene - especially on `The Heart of the Matter'.
There are obvious connections and references - from suicide to doing `the right thing'.
All I can say is I re-read, `The Heart of the Matter' recently and was impressed: I re-read this slight book and found it severely wanting.
Fortunately Mr Amis went on to write better things - unfortunately, his politics went even further in the wrong direction.
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This is a good read
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I'm not altogether sure what attracted me to this novel. I think that I must have caught a clip of the black and white film of the book somewhere in the dim and distant past.
However, I'm glad that I did. It is a great story with laugh-out-loud moments along the way. The plot centres around Jim Dixon who's recently been appointed as a history lecturer at a provincial red-brick university. But Jim finds it hard to fit in with the stuffiness of post-war academia. To make matters worse he is still on probation and must make a good impression on Welch, the Professor of History, a man who Jim despises.
To complicate matters further Jim is trapped in a loveless attachment to Margret, a fellow staff member, but is attracted to Christine, the girlfriend of Welch's son, the obnoxious Bertrand who Jim has afew run-ins with. This is all set, as I mentioned earlier, in a post-war setting. Probably the late 1940's or at the latest 1950.
How these problems in Jim Dixon's life resolve themselves makes for a very amusing book. My only criticism is that there are places where the plot gets bogged down in too much narrative. For example, the first chapter is taken up almost entirely of the car journey from the university to the Welch residence. But don't be put off by that because it's worth reading on. I like the way that Jim experiences emotions that we can all relate to. Having travelled on trains for all of my life I could totally understand what Jim was going through on his not-so-smooth bus journey in the final chapter of the book. There are some great minor characters in this book too, like the other gentlemen that share the house where Dixon is lodging, and Mitchie the over-enthusiastic pupil.
In conclusion, I would say that this is a very enjoyable and funny book. Yes, it's a bit lumpy in places but it's better to read a good novel that'a a bit lumpy in places than to read a bad one that isn't. And I've absolutely no doubt that at some point in the future I will pull out my copy of 'Lucky Jim' and read it again.
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And the joke is....?
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This is Kinglsey Amis' first book and it shows. The cover describes it as "a flawless comic novel" and "brilliantly and preposterously funny". By page 100 I was still waiting for the joke. There is almost no characterization and very little plot. The eponymous hero, some kind of history lecturer in a barely-described University, is just not fleshed-out, either physically or emotionally. Even after reading the entire book I do not know what he looks like or anything about his background. The other characters are even less well drawn, if that were possible. The set piece scenes appear mainly to consist of boring parties and one boring lecture. The ending is one of the most pathetic I have ever read. Not recommended.
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A classic English comic novel
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The theme of pretentiousness is still relevant today, although Jim's misdemeanours seem very mild by comparison with contemporary mores. There are some sad moments, but on the whole this is a very funny book. It has to be approached as a period piece rather than cutting edge satire, but people still do things to please the boss.
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Classic English humour, showing its age
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"Lucky Jim" was Kingsley Amis' first novel, effectively written in collaboration with his friend, the poet, Philip Larkin. The idea came during a visit to Larkin at Leicester University in 1948 - Amis sent drafts to Larkin, Larkin returned them, heavily edited. First published in 1954, Amis introduces Jim Dixon, a junior lecturer at an English provincial university. Dixon is approaching the end of his first, probationary year and his senior, Professor Welch, is far from impressed. Jim stands little chance of being reappointed. He does his best to ingratiate himself with the professor, but he's socially inept, apparently accident prone, especially when indulging in his predilection for beer, lacks interest in his appointed subject - medieval history - and is consumed by sexual frustrations and fantasies. Dixon comes from the north of England, from the lower middle classes, from a world which is alien to the Oxbridge elite who dominate academic life ... even in a provincial university. Amis constructs humorous situation after humorous situation. Dixon's ineptitude is excruciating. His luck is a major theme - he doesn't seem to have any. Meanwhile, all around him are those who have been lucky enough to be born into the upper classes and who are unselfconsciously reaping the benefits of it. In its time, "Lucky Jim" broke new ground in satirising the academic world. The characters in the novel portray the pretensions, sterility, and advantages of the class system. Although greeted as a radical piece of writing and seen as transforming humour, even satire, "Lucky Jim" now appears dated. It has lost much of its edge and seems unrecognisable as a work which threatened the status quo. Its humour can now appear slapstick and trivial, the stuff of poor sitcoms. The class and sexual mores are set in another world. The rationing and shortages are certainly from another era. And the writing style has also aged - it's a bit laboured in places, a bit coy in others. Amis, himself, was born in South London into a lower middle class family. He attended public school, then Oxford University and was commissioned into the Royal Signals for wartime army service. He emerged to teach at Swansea University, then Cambridge. From the early 1960's he wrote full-time. Throughout his life Amis enjoyed a reputation as an outspoken wit. "Lucky Jim" remains a seminal piece of writing, but many contemporary readers will find its themes and style dated, its humour rather gentle compared to contemporary savagery. It's a very gentlemanly, very innocent, very English, and very middle class novel, still with its comic moments, but no longer with the edge and bite which earned it ... and Amis ... a radical reputation.
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