Kingsley Amis: A Biography [Hardcover]

Eric Jacobs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Kingsley Amis, in a 40-year writing career which began with "Lucky Jim", has produced more than 20 novels, several collections of poetry and countless other writings. He is a controversial figure, a Communist in his youth, an "Angry Young Man" in his 30s, he is now often seen as the epitome of the choleric right-wing clubman. In this biography, Eric Jacobs delves deep into Amis's life, revealing the man behind the literature, his early childhood in south London, his school and university life, his marriages and his novels. It is a compelling study of the man and his work, revealing Amis to be a more fascinating, driven and complex man than the stereotype suggests.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A man who considered boredom the worst offense in fiction and nearly the worst offense in life, British novelist Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) is wrought larger than life in Eric Jacobs's engaging biography. Through his student years at Oxford (where "drinking, smoking, and behaving badly" formed the basis for many a friendship), his marriages and simultaneous affairs, his less-than- stellar teaching career, and his highly routinized years as writer and pub dweller, Amis was a merciless raconteur both in print and in person. He shunned all manner of things phony, fashionable, and, of course, boring, and honed his intellect into the acerbic observations that run through all his novels, from Lucky Jim to You Can't Do Both.

Jacobs plays to the Amis anti-academic mentality. The biography contains no scholarly apparatus and is happily footnote-free. The many colorful anecdotes are drawn from scotch-laced afternoon conversations with Amis in his later years and from peppery correspondence between Amis and such lifelong friends as poet Philip Larkin (whom Amis befriended because they were "savagely uninterested in the same things"). Jacobs is diligent about forming connections between the characters in Amis's fiction and the real-life sorrows and anxieties of their author: losing his virginity when an Oxford undergraduate to a girl who primed him with a sex manual is closely replayed in the novel You Can't Do Both. The overall effect is a clear view into a man of outrageous wit and genius and into the large legacy of novels, poetry, and essays he bequeathed. --Joan Urban

From Library Journal

Praised as a superb prose stylist, British writer Amis, who died in 1995, was nonetheless controversial, variously labeled a Communist, Thatcher conservative, alcoholic, misogynist, and philander. Even in The King's English, an entertaining manual that is hardly meant to be exhaustive, Amis's wit and candid opinion prevail. Anyone wishing to distinguish between the words belly and stomach (don't even consider tummy) or feeling particular angst over the crossed 7, the disappearance of Latin, and the use of such popular expressions as in-depth, in terms of, or whatever will find a discerning explanation. For insight into Amis's life and work, readers can turn to the authorized biography by Jacobs, a Fleet Street journalist and broadcaster. Amis wrote 24 novels, including the acclaimed Lucky Jim, plus several works of poetry and nonfiction. Focusing on the novels, Jacobs deftly reveals a man who is not always admirable or likable but is certainly intriguing. Recommended for literary collections.ARobert Kelly, Fort Wayne Community Schs., IN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1 Us ed edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312186029
• ISBN-13: 978-0312186029
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,314,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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