A Bottle in the Smoke [Hardcover]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1990

Julian embarks on a career as an aspiring actor and novelist, supporting himself as a bartender in a seedy pub frequented by other bohemians in London of the 1950s. Through an old school friend, Julian meets Anne and they fall in love. However, things do not go smoothly.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Narrator Julian Ramsey, met in Incline Our Hearts , continues his life story in another comedy of manners whose tone darkens as it chronicles the mistakes and wrong turns that determine the downward direction of his once-promising life. Recklessly having left his first job in London to become a writer and/or actor, Julian initially seems to encounter enormous good luck. He falls in love and marries Anne Lampitt, member of the aristocratic family with which Julian's guardian, Uncle Roy, has had a lifelong obsession verging on mania. Next, sinisterly charming womanizer Raphael Hunter, once the seducer of Julian's cousin Felicity and now a famous man of letters via his biography of one of the Lampitts, uses his influence to get Julian's novel published. Disaster follows. Looking back after four decades, Julian realizes that he was callow, obtuse, egotistical and self-deluded; his elegiac tone is balanced by the rich humor and compassion with which he describes his friends of that period: the scruffy denizens of the neighborhood pub, his egregiously eccentric landlady and her long-suffering husband, and the insouciantly insufferable members of the Lampitt family. Enriching the narrative are Wilson's ( Tolstoy ) ironic comments about the craft of biography as well as religion, human relationships and memory. As he ruminates on the changes in character wrought by time and events, Julian will whet readers' appetites for the concluding volume in this witty, poignant, luminously intelligent series.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This second novel in a proposed trilogy that began with Incline Our Hearts ( LJ 12/88) continues the life story of Julian Ramsey, a 20th-century David Copperfield who is surrounded by a Dickensian gallery of characters. Having survived his years in boarding schools and military service in the first book, Julian now faces the experiences of working in a pub, falling in love, and writing a novel. Characters from the first book play major roles in this one; it's best to read Incline Our Hearts first to appreciate fully the actions of Julian's relatives and friends. A prolific novelist and a prize-winning biographer ( Tolstoy, LJ 8/88), Wilson is one of England's most versatile contemporary writers. Highly recommended.
- Dean Willms, Fort Collins P.L., Col.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First US Edition edition (August 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670832219
• ISBN-13: 978-0670832217
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,405,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sequel to "Incline Our Hearts", November 28, 2010

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Bottle in the Smoke (Paperback)

This is the second of five novels in the Lampitt series: (1) Incline Our Hearts, (2) A Bottle in the Smoke, (3) Daughters of Albion, (4) Hearing Voices, and (5) A Watch in the Night. The first book is about the childhood and adolescence of Julian Ramsay, growing up in England in the mid-twentieth century with his uncle and aunt in a small-town vicarage and then at boarding school. In this second installment, Julian works in a pub, gets married, and publishes a novel. In all the books, Julian's life is entangled in strange ways with the lives of various members of the Lampitt family, including author James "Jimbo" Lampitt, and Jimbo's biographer. What I'm especially enjoying about these novels so far is Wilson's observations about growing up and adulthood.

I recently discovered A. N. Wilson's novels, and I wish he'd written more of them. (He's written lots of nonfiction, including biographies of Tolstoy and C. S. Lewis.) I also highly recommend Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows.