Rating: 
Summary: An utterly hilarious book
Review: Over the years, there have been many attempts to establish a
"Deep Inner Meaning" for "Lucky Jim," but I wouldn't pay them
much attention if I were you. "Lucky Jim" is simply a hilarious
book. For me, it was a revelation -- I had no idea that a book
might leave me with my sides aching, weak from laughter, yet
ready to laugh again, as I recalled the phrase or the incident
which had initially tickled my funny-bone.One reason the book is so funny is that it gores some very
Sacred Cows. In its time, those sacred bovines very definitely
included provincial academics who were seriously into
Elizabethan madrigals and recorder concerts; Amis had the
genius to see these daffy eccentrics for the incredibly comic
figures they really were. Even more outrageously, the novel's
hero gets the girl of his dreams and escapes the dreary provinces
for a happy career in London, by abandoning the academic life
and going into (are you sitting down?) BUSINESS. Into... TRADE.
It is hard to imagine anything more non-U. In short, a masterpiece of comic English prose! Highest possible recommendation!!!
Rating:
Summary: Comedy is the noblest form of Stoicism
Review: No! No! Lucky Jim is so funny - so funny that I am left rolling around the floor, giggling and laughing in fits... ha, ha, ha, ha... The comedian, the satirist, the manic: Kingsley Amis! He is a lover of whimsy and humour in life oft dabbling in the hyperbole (maybe in a mixture of P.G. Woodhouse and Anton Chekov) ...ha, ha, ha, ha... To quote W. H. Auden: "Comedy is the noblest form of Stoicism."
Rating:
Summary: Like Wodehouse, if he were meaner spirited
Review: I must be on some kind of roll in my mainstream reading. First was the exciting revelation that Robertson Davies wrote the types of books that appeal to me in the same way that Jonathan Carroll's do, then came the surprise that Vladimir Nabokov was as clever as Borges, yet wrote at longer lengths. If Lucky Jim is any indication, now I've just discovered an author who combines the plotting skill of P.G. Wodehouse with the detail of Davies. My lord, three great new authors in one year--I'm not sure if I can handle it. Lucky Jim doubles as a book of high humor and as an attack on the staid British university system of its time (and maybe beyond--I'm no expert in its complexities). For me, it succeeds best in its first role, but that may be because if has lost some of its bite in the intervening years since its first publication. Jim Dixon, the title character, is a new lecturer in history at a mid-sized college. He finds the work almost stultifyingly boring, but the real horror is trying to achieve tenure when faced with Welch as his immediate superior. And then there's Margaret, his girlfriend, although he can't quite remember how she came by that designation, who, although pleasing enough to look upon, seems destined to be always upset with him, which is dangerous, since she tried to commit suicide when her last beau left her suddenly. Imagine Wodehouse writing a Wooster/Jeeves novel in which Jeeves becomes pure blind luck, Aunt Agatha is split into component irritations, and Bertie is a young teacher with a taste for drink and a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Then exchange the fantasy 1920s setting with a realistic early 60s one. The result is as fabulous, funny and appealing as a well-written Mad TV or Monty Python skit. On the strength of this novel, Amis became a spokesman for a generation of "angry young men." I'm not qualified to comment further on that, which means I need to do some self-education on the British novel in the 1960s. Amis seems to have been the Vonnegut equivalent for Britain, that is, a novelist whose social commentary was stronger than the genre in which their books were based, which landed them with a mainstream audience. Just looking at some of his other titles reveals that Amis had an affinity for popular literature, even though his was never ghetto-ized. I'm hoping that some of his other books, like The Anti-Death League, will be as rewarding as this.
Rating:
Summary: alcoholics rejoice
Review: Have you been scraping by all your life? Have your grades always been below average? Are you working in job that is beyond your abillities? Do you always feell your boss staring over your shoulder and is unemployment always just one step behind. If so then this book is for you. It is the underacheivers bible. The guide to revolution for the man who always feels he is inadequete. It is redemption for the child that never became a man. Most of all it is incredibly funny. A slow read at the start, but a read well worth it. Lucky jim is one of the most beautifull characters of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Campus comedy
Review: "Lucky Jim" is Jim Dixon--a junior lecturer of History at an English university. He doesn't enjoy teaching at all. He tries to avoid his students, and he really can't summon the enthusiasm necessary to prepare an upcoming lecture on "Merrie England"--even though it is supposed to impress his superiors into extending his employment. Jim begins to get himself in trouble when he spends the weekend at the home of Professor Welch. Welch is a marvellous character--the epitome of the waffling professor whose antiquated notions, unfortunately, carry great weight within the department. Jim knows that he must impress Welch if he is to stay employed. Unfortunately, proximity to Welch (and his obnoxious son, Bertrand) rather brings out the worst--or best in Jim--with hilarious results. Jim gets himself into a series of scrapes involving the mutilation of bed-clothing, impersonation, and even a fist-fight before his final joyous liberation from academia. I laughed out loud at this book. It was great fun from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: Two teeny little factoids
Review: I first read "Lucky Jim" in 1960, the week I graduated from college (a friend across the entry was getting rid of most of his for-fun books) and have been roaring with laughter ever since. I only want to add two little bits of information to the previous reviews: 1) I believe I have identified the "Welch tune" - it must be the beginning of the third movement of the first Beethoven piano concerto (the one that later has a part that sounds like "Tico-Tico"). 2) to appreciate the relevance of the epigraph, you have to know ALL the lyrics of all the verses of the song "Lucky Jim" - not just the chorus that is printed in the book.
Rating:
Summary: Great British Humor
Review: In the introduction to the Penguin edition of Kingsley Amis's 1954 novel "Lucky Jim," David Lodge puts forth several possible influences Amis relied upon when writing the novel. Probably the most significant theory advanced by Lodge is that Amis wrote his book with one eye on Graham Greene's novel, "The Heart of the Matter." Lodge convincingly argues that "Lucky Jim" is actually a comic inversion of Greene's story. Of course, if one has not read Greene's novel, this point may not register on the radar. But what is important is that Lodge proves to us that "Lucky Jim" is much more than a collection of funny scenes. Most will read this book because they have heard that it is uproariously funny, which it certainly is, as the book does contain enough humor to cheer up the most heartless people among us. However, don't get hung up on the humor and forget to look deeper. "Lucky Jim" is set in the seemingly unfunny world of academia, specifically British academia. The hero of the story, James "Jim" Dixon, is a young man on the make, fresh out of school and dutifully working at his first real job; a position in the history department at an obscure provincial university. Jim really hates his job. This hatred stems from the cast of assorted characters Jim must put up with on a daily basis. Jim's biggest problem is Professor Welch, the head of the history department. Welch is a forgetful fool who holds Jim's future job in the palm of his hand. Then there is Margaret, a neurotic fellow lecturer who latches on to Jim and won't let him go. Welch's son Bertrand, an arrogant "artist" who torments Jim while flaunting his girlfriend Christine (who Jim quickly becomes enraptured with, creating a tension that leads to several hilarious confrontations between the Welch family and Jim) also makes an appearance. Rounding out the cast of quirky characters is an annoying student who knows more about medieval history than Jim. Of course, Jim causes problems for himself with frightening regularity. He sets his bed on fire during a weekend retreat at the Welch's, delivers a lecture on "Merrie England" after imbibing way too much alcohol, and makes phony phone calls to the Welch house in an attempt to discredit Bertrand. The humor is classic British wit: slow and masterfully written in the way only the British can achieve. Jim's description of a hangover will bring a knowing chuckle from anyone who has ever downed too many at the bar. These scenes are extremely funny and help to drive the book to its happy conclusion. Amis spends an enormous amount of time poking fun at the British upper class. Welch and his family are endlessly skewered as Jim constantly shows them up. That Jim ultimately conquers his enemies must be Amis's way of showing the ultimate triumph of the "commoner" over the entrenched British aristocracy. This tension reached an acme after World War II, when the British educational system expanded its programs to include the British lower classes (it is no mistake that Jim mentions his stint as a lowly soldier in the R.A.F. during the war, thus qualifying him as a sort of everyman hero). What didn't work as well in "Lucky Jim" is the interaction between Jim and Christine. These encounters tend to be wordy and too steeped in emotional minutiae. Even some of the dialogue between Jim and Margaret ends up becoming rather tedious compared to the rest of the book. This is probably due to the comedic scenes in the book; they are so funny that everything else pales by comparison. But the dialogues do serve an important purpose in the story: they reveal the concerns of people trying to make their way in a world that places them at the bottom of the ladder. "Lucky Jim" would make an excellent gift for anyone who needs a good cheering up. It also might help someone who is nervous about speaking in public for the first time (the embarrassment Jim suffers because of his drunken speech will show anyone that their attempt at oration cannot possibly approach the disastrous level Jim reaches). Any people submerged in the agonies of their pre-tenure years should also read this book. "Lucky Jim" is funny, eloquent, insightful, and should be read in conjunction with Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" for the ultimate experience in British humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Lucky Whim
Review: "Lucky Jim" is self-indulgence on Amis's part masquerading as 'satire'. His portrayals of certain characters -- namely, the selfish, incompetent Welch family -- are implausible to the point of distraction. The character of Jim Dixon would be likeable enough, if not for the unfortunate fact that Amis develops his protagonist's personality through Jim's constant mockery of his professor's family. At the book's end, the only really good thing we can say about the guy is (as 'Gore-Itchbag' puts it), "It's not that you've got the qualifications .... You haven't got the disqualifications, though, and that's much rarer." Jim is a bloke with a good head on his shoulders, but has no desire to do anything beyond drink a pint of bitter at the nearest pub and chat up the lovely Christine. Not a bad guy, really -- just not interesting enough to balance out his nasty distaste for and sophomoric pranks aimed at the Welch family. But that's not to say the book lacks any merit. There are incidents as exciting and/or comic as in any other novel ruled by middle-class convention (one reviewer above noted the hangover scene in chapter 6; see also Jim's coup at the ball and his drunken debacle of a speech). In terms of writing, you will not find prose more clear or brisk than Mr. Amis's -- and Jim's overwhelming feelings of ill-will are somewhat excused by the sheer originality, fluidity, and wit of his turns of phrase. The simple punchline metaphors always stand out ("like Genghis Khan meditating a purge of his captains"; "Welch's nose itself, a large, open-pored tetrahedron"), but the best moments show off the author's flexibility with language, like the running gag of Jim's "Welch tune": "This tune featured in the rondo of some boring piano concerto Welch had once insisted on playing [Jim] on his complicated exponential-horned gramophone ...and Dixon had fitted words to it ... 'You ignorant clod, you stupid old sod, you havering get...' Here intervened a string of unmentionables, corresponding with an oom-pah sort of effect in the orchestra. 'You wordy old turdy old scum, you griping old piping old bum...'" and so on. In short -- if any character were half as rich and friendly as Amis's pen, this book would be engaging. As it is, one closes it wondering why they bothered to spend 200 pp. with such middling, dull people.
Rating:
Summary: An exercise in comic catastrophe. Hilarious
Review: In the interests of full disclosure I must admit that I am something of an Amis fan. I do understand, however, that Amis is a bit of an acquired taste. There are some of his works that just aren't written to appeal to a mass market. This is not one of those. Far and away Amis' most accessible novel, Lucky Jim deals in comic catastrophe. The hapless Jim Dixon a newly employed assistant lecturer in history at a small British university, attempts to settle in and make a good impression. He encounters one disaster after another. As events unfold, it's clear that Jim is anything but "lucky". Not the least of his problems is his eccentric boss Professor Welch, but also contributing are a madrigal gathering at Welch's house, Jim's infatuation with Welch's obnoxious son's girlfriend, not to mention the obnoxious son himself, little wars with the other tenants at his boarding house, and the necessity to deliver a showcase lecture on "Merrie England." This latter requirement provides the setting for one of the funniest academic spoof sequences in all of English literature. The book was first published in 1954 and some of the language--presented as colloquial in the book, is a bit dated. This doesn't really detract from the story--it really just add a level of quaintness. This is the only real criticism on can put forward, however. This is satire of a high order as rendered by a master. Recognized as one of the 100 best books of the 20th century by whatever group of highbrows it was that put that out in late 1999. This is one that actually deserved to be on it. Lucky Jim proves great literature need not be dull or depressing. This is a truly great read.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless humour
Review: Kingsley Amis is not, in my opinion, one of the greatest comic writers - that distinction is split between P.G.Wodehouse and Evelyn Waugh - but in "Lucky Jim" he matches anything written by these two masters. It is laugh out loud funny, and precisely written to wring the utmost humour out of a mannered economy of words - it is no coincidence that Amis went on to write a guide to English usage, "The King's English". This is a lesson in how to turn a simple plot into greatness.
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