Customer Reviews

Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis

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If you're interested in reading about the drinking life, where better to start than with a collection of writings on drink by Kingsley Amis, introduced by Christopher Hitchens? Though it weighs in at a mere 3.2 ounces, "Everyday Drinking" offers up enough drinking experience to float an aircraft carrier.

The book comprises three Amis titles. "On Drink" (1972) is a kind of informal treatise on drinking. "Every Day Drinking" (1983) is a collection of columns. "How's Your Glass?" (1984) is a set of drinking quizzes.

Though Amis provides a good bit of technical information and asks readers to produce no end of less-than-necessary information in the quizzes (he asks us to name a liqueur made with naartjies, for example), the main pleasures of "Everyday Drinking" are to be found in Amis's description of the drinking *life* and in his sublimely crotchety sense of humor.

Some people will object that Amis's repeated grousing about music in pubs is quaint, reactionary, and ridiculous. Such people are entitled to their opinions, of course, just as the rest of us are entitled to point out that such people are either drug-addled hipsters or ill-bred morons.

For those of you out there who are neither drug-addled hipsters nor ill-bred morons, here are a few choice sips of Amis:

* On the necessity of having a refrigerator to oneself: "Wives and such are constantly filling up any refrigerator they have a claim on, even its ice compartment, with irrelevant rubbish like food."

* On being a cheapskate of a host: "In preparing a gin and tonic, for instance, put the tonic and the ice and a thick slice of lemon in first and pour on them a thimbleful of gin *over the back of a spoon*, so it will linger near the surface and give a strong-tasting first sip, which is the one that counts."

* On the claim that the Irish taught the Scots the process of distillation: "The idea of a medieval Irishman inventing a rather complicated technique like that of distilling, or anything at all for that matter, is hard to credit."

* On Galliano: "Another Italian liqueur, Galliano, has gained a good deal of ground over the last few years, not as a drink on its own but as a constituent of the famous or infamous cocktail the Harvey Wallbanger, named after some reeling idiot in California."

* On drinking with wine snobs: "If asked what you think [about the wine], say breezily, 'Jolly good,' as though you always say that whatever it's like. This may suggest that your mind's on higher things than wine, like gin or sex."

Amis might be accused of being a bit harsh at times, as when he claims that the Pina Colada is "[j]ust the thing for the 95-IQ female" and that drinking lager and lime is "an exit application from the human race," but you have to admire a man who defends his convictions with such vigor. As someone who has been known to toss back lots (and lots) of Pina Coladas *and* lagers with lime when the weather's hot, I am more than willing to endure Amis's ridicule in exchange for the pleasure of having him ridicule wine snobs and Canadians.

He ridicules Canadians in a loving way, of course, just as he ridicules the Irish, Americans, and Kingsley Amis. As for wine snobs, they deserve their ridicule neat.

My one complaint about the book is that the introduction is on the short side. Hitchens is as entertaining as Amis, and an even better crafter of sentences, and I would have enjoyed a few more pages. Must have been pushing a deadline. Or running up against cocktail hour.

In a strange sort of way, Kingsley Amis does for drink what Anthony Bourdain does for food: with enormous humor and joy in life, both authors just say "go for it." It is probably no coincidence that they both loathe vegetarians, especially vegans.

I am not particularly sure that Amis is utterly scientific on the topic of drink (who is?), but he is utterly funny. And, for my two cents, he is funniest when he returns (again and again) to "The Wine Problem." As he mutters in his curmudgeonly way, there is no actual problem with wine itself: the problem is with inviting guests for dinner, who all arrive expecting wine AS A MATTER OF COURSE. If you don't serve them wine (even "plonk," British English for "rotgut"), you instantly lose social status. And Amis offers other examples: having dinner at an Indian restaurant featuring fiery curries, or at a Thai restaurant -- is this really the time to play the Wine-Snob Card? Or would you enjoy your dinner much much more if it were accompanied by beer? (M.F.K. Fisher would be nodding her head from A Better World.)

My own sainted mother once worked her own way around "The Wine Problem," when she realized that one of her guests (A Wine Snob) would drink only red wines -- and, thirty minutes before dinner -- she had only white wines. Well, she put red food-coloring into the white wine, and the great Wine Snob praised his delicious drink!

Just as perceptive: Amis divides the world into those who prefer cocktails, and those who prefer wine. He places himself emphatically in the first group, although he freely admits to chugging that da**ed wine from time to time ("particularly when dinner looks to be a long way off, and there is nothing else available.")

Amis himself led a highly entertaining life -- at least for outside spectators. He started off as a young Communist, but sooner or later began to come to his senses, and ended up as great friends with the likes of Robert Conquest. He wrote one of the funniest novels ever written ("Lucky Jim") and a great black comedy ("Ending Up.") By the end of his days, the former Young Communist was accused of being a "fuddy-duddy reactionary." The older Amis published such opinions gleefully, and said awful things like: "Who needs change?"

His "simplified recipe" for the Singapore Sling is lamentable, however, and he might actually have enjoyed such new baubles as the caipirinha.

A great little book for a quiet December evening!

Kingsley Amis writes in the breezy style of a good English gent, on a subject about which he has much knowledge and even more experience--boozemanship. This series of short articles provides an authoritative statement on what to drink and how to drink it, along with with a hefty jigger of Amis's profoundly hilarious sense of understatement.

First, I have never laughed so hard. This book is so funny. Amis has a turn-of-phrase that is incredible. It is also filled with arcana and nuance on the world of booze. I may even try some of his recipes. I truly enjoy the "different" read and books not boring. This is definitely in that category. You don't have to be a drunk to enjoy this book on "drink" and all the social niceties associated with it.

Highly recommended!

It's great to see Amis's finest work, _On Drink_, back in print at last. I had a second-hand copy but it was worth buying this to get the other two books included in the volume. The volume is attractively printed and bound and unabridged, and is a great gift too.

My only (minor) complaint is that the Amis's own texts (as opposed to the additional front matter) have been edited according to American punctuation conventions. This work is literary enough that the author's details should have been unaltered.

Kingsley Amis sure packed a lot of knoweldge into this book. He just doesn't go on telling us everything there is to know about alcohol, he also tells us how it can be best used for parties. I also liked the section on weight loss for a drinker.

If you like to read about drinking this may be where you want to start. Hilarious! I often find English humor funny to begin with but the chapter on how to throw a wine party is classic.

I've read LUCKY JIM, Amis's hilarious novel about Jim Dixon, a marginal associate professor at a second-rate university who is aggrieved by a pompous boss, has a funny scheming mind, and enjoys a drink or three. Well, EVERYDAY DRINKING suggests that the perspective of the fictitious Dixon might have come easily to Amis, since his voice in ED shows a sensitivity to pomposity (wine snobs), amusing party stratagems (how to serve inferior wines while presenting yourself as a wine expert), and great practical knowledge about the complete drinking experience, which ranges from stocking your bar to tending your hangover to periodic abstinence.

Reading ED raises this question: Why bother to buy a mere informative guide about wines and spirits when Amis gives you plenty of information but packaged with great common sense and a comic novelist's droll narrative skill. For example:

"General Principle 1: Up to a point (i.e. short of offering your guests one of those Balkan plonks marketed as wine...), go for quantity rather than quality. Most people would rather have two glasses of ordinary decent port than one of rare vintage. On the same reasoning, give them big drinks rather than small...Serious drinkers will be pleased and reassured, unserious ones will not be offended, and you will use up less chatting-time going round to recharge glasses."

At the same time, ED can be read as a cautionary text, in which sophisticated pleasure becomes excess. As Christopher Hitchens observes in the introduction: "...the world now knows what Kingsley's innumerable friends had come to realize, which is that booze got to him in the end, and robbed him of his wit and charm as well as his health." To this reader of LUCKY JIM, this also seemed the sad and likely fate of Professor Dixon.

Nonetheless, ED is recommended for the drinking man (and woman) who seeks a specialist's informed pleasure in what is surely the world's primary (public) leisure activity.

A collection of essays that entertain, enlighten, and enhance the enjoyment of imbibing. There are some real hits here, especially Amis' advice on how not to get drunk. The reflections about wine are not at first very clear to American readers, since our appellations are different from those in Amis' native Britain, but once you get into the book, it becomes clearer. An included glossary, placed at the front, proves helpful here.

The quiz section is tiresome, and kind of a waste of space, but if you take time to mine the answers, you can learn a lot of alcoholic trivia. That alone will be useful when you're playing the "Potent Potables" category on Jeopardy!

If you want a funny and thorough handbook on drinking, this one's for you. I liked the book, but as an infrequent drinker I found myself floundering in its depths. Even when I was in over my head, though, I enjoyed the late author's wit and wry humor.

There's a lot in this little book. An encyclopedic collection of three previously published essays, it covers everything from which wine goes with fondue (Neuchåtel will help you "force it down") to how to handle a hangover (drink more alcohol). There are dozens of drink recipes, and the back has a series of funny quizzes, each on a different type of alcoholic beverage.

But in the end, all this attention and intelligence devoted to drinking left me a little sad. Here was a man with such a graceful way with words, yet he spent so much time drinking or recovering from drinking. Indeed, the introduction mentions that "the booze got to him in the end, and robbed him of his wit and charm as well as of his health." What a shame.

On that jolly note, here's the chapter list:

I. On Drink

Introduction

Drinking Literature

Actual Drinks

Tools of the Trade

The Store Cupboard

First Thoughts on Wine

Further Thoughts on Wine

Wine Shopper's Guide

What to Drink with What

Abroad

Mean Sod's Guide (Incorporating Mean Slag's Guide)

The Hangover

The Boozing Man's Diet

How Not to Get Drunk

II. Every Day Drinking

III. How's Your Glass?

Introduction

List of Abbreviations

Quizzes:

Wine -- Elementary

Wine -- Intermediate

Wine -- Advanced

Wine -- France

Wine -- Germany

Wine -- Italy, Spain, Portugal

Wine -- Others

Beer in General

Beer in Particular

Vodka

Aperitifs and Such

Gin

Liqueurs

Rum

Cognac and Armagnac

Brandy (One Step Down)

Distillation

Minor Spirits

Scotch Whiskey I

Scotch Whiskey II

Whiskies and Whiskeys

Port

Sherry

Madeira, Marsala and Others

Cocktails and Mixed Drinks

Inventors and Inventions

Pousse-Café I

Pousse-Café II

Pousse-Café III

Alcohol and Your Interior