Rating: 
Summary: Holds Up Well
Review: Lucky Jim holds up awfully well for a comic novel about British academics circa 1947. Tweed jackets and glasses of sherry, medieval musical's and lectures so dull, one must drink a bottle of good scotch to get through the muddle.
Jim Dixon is hanging on by his academic fingernails. Professor Welsh could hire him on for another year, but first Jim must be Welsh's scholastic slave. Margaret is the dowdy love interest and she has a way of locking a bloke up with hysterical outburst and suicidal pill popping. The effete Bertrand, Welsh's son has the lovely Christine and a penchant for snobbery and married women. Christine is a London girl and out of Jim's league. Somehow Jim and Christine come together because they both disdain the heavy-handed collegiate snobbery.
Kingsley Amis made his career with this novel. It is a classic and I think will hold up for all time.
Rating:
Summary: Lucky You....if you read this book
Review: "Lucky Jim" is Jim Dixon - who appears to be a most unlucky man. He recently landed a university teaching job, but he's miserable. Terrible at his job, Dixon is left wondering throughout the book whether his position will be continued. In addition to his job woes, he seems to have great contempt for most everyone around him, including his neurotic girlfriend, Margaret. Things worsen when he's invited for a weekend of music at a senior professor's home and he meets the professor's son - Bertrand. A buffoonish artist, Bertrand nevertheless has an alluring girlfriend, the lovely Christine. Dixon unsurprisingly is drawn to Christine, despite her stuffy manner and seeming arrogance. Embarrassing Bertrand and stealing away Christine become him main priority. In the meantime, he still needs to prepare a lecture on "Merrie England" that will be attended by his superiors and local town dignitaries. Will he survive?The novel is a model of dry British wit - at times laugh-out-loud hilarious. Dixon is a fantastic literary character - a cynic who personifies the scorn we all feel at times. As Amis writes about Dixon, "all his faces were designed to express rage or loathing." In addition to his cynicism, Dixon is incredibly irresponsible and engages in all sorts of mischievousness, resulting in hilarious predicaments. Nevertheless, you cannot help but root for him to succeed. The writing is spectacular - each scene bristles with detail and nuance. In particular, Amis beautifully portrays difficult interpersonal situations frankly and accurately, replete with requisite humor. Although the book drags at times, it's a first-rate read. Most highly recommended, particularly for readers who enjoy novels set in academia.
Rating:
Summary: Being out of control
Review: Jim Dixon is a man painfully aware of his loathesome existence which he in turn sparks up with booze and constant inappropriate wisecracks. He is best when he gives way to his impulses- saying aloud the insults that his innermind is shouting to another, drinking far too much before giving a speech in front of a jam-packed lecture hall where his job rests on the outcome, and being unable to stop making phoney phonecalls to his boss' wife and 'braying' artist son. He finishes writing his speech and then hops around like an ape only to be observed on the bed by his enemy. He is constantly at war with one of his housemates and plays childish pranks to get his goat. Though the setting is post-WWII British University, the character has much in common with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's the part of us that never stops being a class clown. He is a 'bore monitor' like a canary in a cage who suggests he be hired to go in and assess the bore level of every party or gathering. He is constantly falsifying his abilities and interests and inevitably getting called to task in humiliating but hilarious scenes. While it takes a chapter or so to get into, the book quickly becomes contemporary- he takes rolling of the eyes to a new level. I loved it.
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