Rating: 
Summary: Bumbling Jim
Review: I tried very much to like this book. Despite the winning, you'd think, combination of a delightful setting - stuffy academia, lampooned - and a bumbling, cursed protagonist in Jim Dixon, this is a horrible, disappointing book. True, there are several worthwhile, really very funny bits, though far too few; these are buried in unending, unrewarding, often plainly aggravating prose. Thank heaven for the dialogue's expert rescue of the sluggish pace. I admire what Amis Sr. was after, and did come to care somewhat for certain of his characters. But I just didn't find Dixon sympathetic, despite wanting and expecting to. Writer Kate Christensen filed this title under "Loser Lit", guaranteed to make you feel better about your own situation, whatever it may be. How surprising, then, that it should wreak havoc with my disposition, leaving me sour from start to finish. Not at all the book I wanted it to be, sadly, and I really was rooting for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Still Reeling
Review: This early masterpiece of Kingsley Amis inspires such peals of laughter and raves of admiration that it will put you in a good mood for a week after finishing it. Jim Dixon is a World War II vet who has somehow become a medieval history lecturer at a provincial English university. He worries about keeping his job and meanwhile loathes the self-absorbed pedant who will decide whether to keep him or not: "No other professor in Great Britain, [Dixon] thought, set such store in being called Professor." With the axe hanging over his head Dixon falls for the girlfriend of his boss's son, Bertrand. A ruthless social-climbing artist, Bertrand is one of the most intolerable snobs I have come across in literature. You will be impressed by Dixon's campaign for the lady Christine-- sometimes carried on as much to prick Bertrand as to win her affection. Dixon is a remarkably funny character, and part of Amis's genius is that we like him far more than we should. He starts off rather childish, spitefully penciling moustache and glasses on a face in someone else's new magazine. As the plot moves along at an increasingly rapid pace, we see the necessary defense mechanisms in his many contorted facial expressions and pseudo-polite manner. So often does fear or calculation lead him to think one thing and say the opposite that the moment when he first does say exactly what he is thinking will move you to stand up and cheer. LUCKY JIM had me putting it down often--not in boredom or disapproval, oh my, no!--I just had to pause time and time again to laugh and recover, to let Amis's brilliance sink in--his deceptively calm tone, his nimble use of the language. Occasionally Amis will turn a giggle-inducing phrase in the style of P.G. Wodehouse, but most of his humor is the unavoidable belly-aching kind. Funnier than and just as sharp as Evelyn Waugh, Amis's influence can be seen--albeit in much wackier fashion--in the 1990s novels of Stephen Fry. Not just a comic novel, this, but a work of true and timeless literary merit. We shouldn't forget that Amis has Dixon wrestle with a few demons that are not put down easily by anyone. But I guarantee it won't be chance that will have you rolling on the floor if you pick up LUCKY JIM.
Rating:
Summary: hilarious
Review: This book was a brilliant satire on so many things. He captured the politics of life in a university, for sure, but there was so much more. The characters were great, and the relationships were really hilarious. I think this was one of the best battle of the sexes yet, because Jim was definitely in battle.
Rating: 
Summary: A satisfying satire
Review: This book brings to mind the joke about academics being so cut-throat because the stakes are so low. Anyone who has viewed the unsavory and mediocre underbelly of an institution of higher learning will appreciate Dixon's inability either to succeed or to care. Plus, a strangely uplifting ending. Go figure.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: In contrast to most of the reviews below, I did not find this novel to be all that funny. CATCH 22 is a funny novel. LUCKY JIM is amusing, and made me smile, not laugh. But it is also brilliant. One of the best novels I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: I bought this book because of the rave reviews. I thought it was funny, but not a side-splitter- I didn't laugh out loud once. Don't buy this if you are looking for a slapstick laugh-riot kind of book, but do buy it if you like a good relationship based story and you can relate to the inanity of academia. It's a good story. You care about the characters by the end, and it's well done. I really liked this book.
Rating:
Summary: This should be your all-time favorite novel
Review: Without a doubt the funniest book I have ever read. The added bonus: "Lucky Jim" surveys the dread one used to feel when hearing professors prattle on interminably; it gets to the nut of the ire one experiences when being confronted by self-important bores; it crystallizes the sense one has that all the really pretty girls are out of reach, and being snapped up by self-important bores and prattling professors. Though the phrase "life-affirming" is overused, trite and, frankly, almost always misused, in the case of "Lucky Jim," it is incredibly apt. This is the book I read when I just feel like nothing is working right, and that I'm a total impostor. Sorry to get all "Stuart Smalley," but there it is: "Lucky Jim" is side-splitting and whatever the opposite of "buzzkill" is.
Rating:
Summary: a witty view of academe
Review: The story is told from the point of view of a university professor (Dixon) who really doesn't fit into the world of academe. That in itself is very funny. A university prof who hates teaching classes, is bothered by overachieving students, writes journal articles on topics he doesn't like, and ridicules the chair of his dept.... I'm sure there are many academics out there with similar inclinations.
Rating:
Summary: This book has aged a bit but is still a must-read!
Review: I am 16 years old. I was required to read a book off of a list for my Honors English class. This looked like the best book to read. It has aged a bit, and I found some of the situations difficult to relate to (because I'm 16) but I absolutely loved this book. Make sure you get it!
Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Book I've Ever Read
Review: The protagonist is all us -- anyone, that is, who is somewhat browbeaten by the people in our lives (bosses, girl/boyfriends, etc.). Amis' ear is perfect, the situations are comical yet plausible, the characterizations perfect. I re-read Lucky Jim every couple of years and have foisted it happily on many others, and the book has never failed to win another convert. Absolutely the funniest book I've ever read.
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