#lucky jim
BOOK REVIEW: Lucky Jim (1954) by Kingsley Amis
This book tells the story of an upper middle class white man in his early thirties working as a lecturer on medieval literature who thinks he deserves a better job and a prettier girlfriend, but spends most of his time complaining and drinking instead of actually working for either of these things. Most of the novel is spent making silly faces, lying, avoiding his responsibilities, and playing immature pranks on the people he loathes. In the end, he gets his rewards without making much of an effort and walks off into the sunset, having learned nothing at all.
Yeah.
Lucky Jim has not aged well.
That’s because it is a satire…about those kind of people…the ending is part of the joke…
I do discuss the satire thing in the actual review under the cut and why I still hate both the character and the ending. Despite his flaws, Dixon is supposed to be this schmuck we cannot help but root for. We are supposed to relate to his frustration with the pretentious types he has to deal with and sympathise with his contempt for it all - except that I do not want this moron to succeed.
I know the ending is supposed to be one big middle finger to the establishment and all that, I am fully aware, but it still really bothers me. As revolutions against the status quo go, this has got to be one of the laziest ones put to paper. He made some prank phone calls and stole some guy’s girlfriend after fainting during his big speech - so what?
It’s part of the joke that none of this is deserved (life is a fickle bitch, it’s all down to luck, and so on), but this feels hollow to me. It doesn’t offer any solutions, only a pessimistic shrug and the smell of cigarettes and stale beer.
So what?
Do you want a cookie for pointing out all the people you hate, Amis? What am I supposed to do with this?
I don’t know, something about this kind of “you are all robots and I’m the only one who is awake, man” satire just feels too easy to me.
(Note: I’m sure that you are a lovely person and none of this is meant to be a personal attack in any way. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Turns out I still had a lot more to say about this book! Anyway, who knows. Maybe satire and I just weren’t meant to be.)
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BOOK REVIEW: Lucky Jim (1954) by Kingsley Amis
This book tells the story of a middle class white man in his early thirties working as a lecturer on medieval literature who thinks he deserves a better job and a prettier girlfriend, but spends most of his time complaining and drinking instead of actually working for either of these things. Most of the novel is spent making silly faces, lying, avoiding his responsibilities, and playing immature pranks on the people he loathes. In the end, he gets his rewards without making much of an effort and walks off into the sunset, having learned nothing at all.
Yeah.
Lucky Jim has not aged well.
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