Author Description

Product Description Kingsley Amis arrived on the English literary scene with the publication of his classic novel Lucky Jim in 1954, and few writers since have provoked such wildly disparate degrees of laughter, admiration, and dismay in the reading public. For better or worse, Amis was known almost as much for his personality as for his work as a novelist. His outspoken nature (one columnist called him a literary rottweiler), his unfashionable praise for Thatcherism, and his devotion to whiskey kept him in the public eye. But in this, the only authorized biography of Amis, Eric Jacobs skillfully captures that personality with sympathetic detail and healthy doses of Amisian wit, spinning a narrative that mirrors the sprightliness and originality of his subject's work. "Fond and very readable." (The Observer) From the Publisher 10 1.5-hour cassettes From AudioFile Kingsley Amis is not easily brought into focus. Eric Jacobs's effort to do so requires Stuart Langton to relate the outrageous experiences of one of England's most prolific comic novelists and raconteurs. Amis's fondness for thumping British literary icons, his wry wit, his selfish philandering, his strict intolerance of boring conver-sationalists, and his disgust at pretense filter right through from author to biographer to narrator. Langton maintains an Amisian level of British mock-indifference throughout, com-fortably handling a demanding range of literary, political, and social discussion. All of these give voice to Amis as indifferent student, accomplished poet, passionate socialist, pub regular, dubious father, colorful novelist, passionate Thatcherite, science fiction editor, even critical editor of Ian Fleming's Bond novels. L.V.B. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine