Girl, 20 [Paperback]

Kingsley Amis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1989

Life in London means glamour, fashion, finance and art. Consider then an aging conductor, husband in an unsatisfactory marriage, father to an unhappy brood. When a young woman responds to his overtures, he breaks the marriage and bursts the family...alas, everyone loses in this drama, for nothing puts people together again.

Kingsley Amis is one of England's finest men of letters.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Not only a very funny book, it also hits dozens of nails smartly on the head' --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Publisher

8 1-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 253 pages
• Publisher: Summit Books (April 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671671200
• ISBN-13: 978-0671671204
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #481,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant author weaves yet another witty, comic tale, July 24, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl, 20 (Paperback)

Kingsley Amis has again written a story of infidelity, destructive selfishness, and blatant stupidity and managed to make it hilarious. The basic story centers on a symphony conductor who, in an attempt to reawaken his lust for life, is having an ill-advised affair with a girl one-third his age. As you might expect, the disasters this creates in his life are quite entertaining. The narrator, an upper-crust music critic, speaks of the rapid disintegration of the conductor's family and his own love life with such detached snobbery, that even mundane events come alive with vivid humor. Especially funny is his description of a date that includes attending a wrestling event. One warning: Amis offers no clean-cut solutions, but turns expectations upside-down. The last page of Girl,20 comes as a surprise that will leave you wishing for more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not quite so Lucky, November 22, 2008

By 

John Davis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Girl, 20 (Paperback)

Girl, 20 is another fine and funny book by Kingsley Amis. Main characters include music critics, an orchestra conductor and violinist and there are conflicting views presented (Amis's?) about the value and competency of Gus Mahler's symphony #1. Girl, 20 not quite as uproariously funny as Lucky Jim. The ending caps the destruction of a family. Lucky Jim has a more satisfying ending.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Say Not The Struggle Naught Availeth, March 29, 2011

By 

conjunction - See all my reviews

This review is from: Girl, 20 (Paperback)

In Zachary Leader's biography of Amis, he quotes Christopher Hitchens as saying that, in `Girl, 20', Amis had `inflicted a satirical wound' on the `intellectual left'. He feels that this book, published in 1971, actually damaged the credibility of the left.

Kingsley Amis was an exceptionally perceptive writer, but he falls into the same trap that so many writers writing about the `swinging sixties' fall into, of conflating the radical left and hippy movements and assuming that all members of both were idiots, or at least failures. In fact the people who were idiots were the weekend hippies and armchair radicals who never took a risk in their lives and wore kipper ties and fantasized about being on television (or actually managed it).

Robert H Bell, a critic, in an accessible webpage about Amis's novels, feels this is a brilliant novel about people who lead `desparate, bleak and terrible lives'.

Personally I found all but one of the characters highly unattractive. We have a total wimp of a narrator, who takes everybody's side and never says no to anyone, a famous conductor with an IQ of 70, the narrator's girlfriend who competes with her partner in acquiescence, a nasty newspaper editor and a high-class 17 year old harridan, not to mention an odious small boy and his pathetic mother.

Excuse me while I collect myself.

The only attractive character is Vandervane's (ie the conductor's) daughter who has spirit and intelligence, and doesn't constantly assume centre stage pontificating like everyone else.

Because Amis is an excellent writer his surface cynicism is always layered over a certain `we're all in it together' empathy, which this girl somehow embodies.

Amis apparently once said, it wasn't that he didn't believe in God, it was just that he didn't like him very much. In his previous book, `The Green Man', the main character expands on this in a conversation with the Almighty that says a lot, perhaps, about the writer's feelings. It's almost as if Amis can admire the craftsmanship but can't figure out the plot.

As Martin Amis says, it is a sad book, but in my opinion it is the daughter and even in a way the preposterous conductor who show the way. If Hitchens thought the left were found out by this it only shows what a poverty of imagination he ultimately has.

I think he's right, however, in saying this is one of Amis's best books.