A review by isauldur
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
4.0
Despite this book being written in the 50s by an English author, it weirdly reminded me of The Great Gatsby. In both books, social interactions are focused on, and a lot is implied by the things the characters say (or don't say). There is a subtext to most conversations that is easy to miss if you're bad with social cues (like me!).
Except in this novel, we have good old Jim Dixon to cut through the crap. He's that sarcastic friend you have that you don't quite like, but you hang out with because he's funny and kind of refreshing sometimes. Jim is a jerk in this book, and he's the protagonist. However, the author makes the genius decision to make everyone else as much of a jerk or, at least, annoying to a degree.
We all know someone like Mr. Welsh, whose attention span stretches only as far as his nose. Or someone like Bertrand, a stuck-up jock-like guy who thinks he's smarter than he is because he has a minor skill (in Bertrand's case, it's painting). And it's not like these characters get their "comeuppance" or that Jim puts them in their place (in fact, that's exactly what I expected to happen at the end, with Jim's Merrie England lecture being a sarcastic Robin Williams-esque speech denouncing the status quo). Jim just refuses to interact with them in their pompous, pretentious terms. When he does interact with them in such a way, he only does it because he's at risk of losing his job. The book starts with Jim trying to impress his boss, and ends with him laughing in his boss's face...for no particular reason. Jim just finds Mr. Welsh and his family comical, so he laughs.
In the middle of all this social politicking there is Christine, a woman who has mastered the art of wading between the world of the Welshes and Jim's world. She can be stiff and stuck up as well (Jim refers to this attitude as a governess attitude), but she can also be blunt and, let's face it, more grounded. When Jim commits a faux pas in the Welshes' house (at which he's staying for the weekend), Christine helps him cover it up, and laughs alongside Jim while doing it. Jim likes her because, well, she's pretty, but also because she, like him, is tired of the usual fake politeness (a fake politeness that unravels as the novel goes on). She likes him because she realizes that, in the end, Jim likes her for who she is, not for what she could be. She starts the novel as Bertrand's current lover (out of many, we are told), and she appears, at least outwardly, ok with being there only to enhance his image. But later she confesses that, in the long run, she would not be able to take it. To Bertram, she's nothing but a conquest, just a prize to be won and placed on the mantel. To Jim, she's like him, the only island in a world full of airheads. And, of course, she's pretty. (There's some dated views of pretty people being good and ugly people being bad in this book).
And then we have Margaret, Jim's current girlfriend. When we first meet her, she's a sweet (bordering on saccharine) woman who is right and proper, and she just survived a pill overdose. Everyone around her (the Welshes, her ex-boyfriend, even Jim) are concerned for her mental state. Jim is terrified of leaving her (since he doesn't really liker her that much, and now that Christine is in the scene, he'd rather move on to her), because he's afraid of how it may impact Margaret's emotional stability. The whole novel, he is tied to her out of obligation. By the end, however, it is revealed that Margaret faked her overdose and wanted instead to have Jim (as well as her ex-boyfriend) show up and freak out at the thought of losing her, as a form of twisted revenge on them for not treating her the way she wants them to. This, naturally, finally prompts Jim to leave her for good with a clean conscience.
By the end of the novel, the rigid social norms of courtesy have all but unraveled. We learn that Bertrand is not above a physical fight. Margaret can be just as manipulative as anyone else. One of Jim's roommates, Johns, keeps snitching on him throughout the novel about the little pranks Jim pulls. Carol, a friend of Jim's, is cheating on her husband with Bertrand, and her husband is ok with it. Even Mr. Welsh passive-aggressively tells Jim that he's going to be let go, instead of being straightforward. It turns out that Jim and Christine fit right in with this crowd, only they don't have pretensions of being better than that.
The end justifies the book's title as Jim lucks out with a new job in the big city and a new girlfriend. It's almost absurdist in that Jim doesn't really change, but everything works out for him as if by magic, because why not? That's just the type of novel this is. It's funny, witty, strange at times but very liberating by the end. I had not heard of Kingsley Amis before, but now I want to read his other works. Lucky Jim was a lucky find.
Except in this novel, we have good old Jim Dixon to cut through the crap. He's that sarcastic friend you have that you don't quite like, but you hang out with because he's funny and kind of refreshing sometimes. Jim is a jerk in this book, and he's the protagonist. However, the author makes the genius decision to make everyone else as much of a jerk or, at least, annoying to a degree.
We all know someone like Mr. Welsh, whose attention span stretches only as far as his nose. Or someone like Bertrand, a stuck-up jock-like guy who thinks he's smarter than he is because he has a minor skill (in Bertrand's case, it's painting). And it's not like these characters get their "comeuppance" or that Jim puts them in their place (in fact, that's exactly what I expected to happen at the end, with Jim's Merrie England lecture being a sarcastic Robin Williams-esque speech denouncing the status quo). Jim just refuses to interact with them in their pompous, pretentious terms. When he does interact with them in such a way, he only does it because he's at risk of losing his job. The book starts with Jim trying to impress his boss, and ends with him laughing in his boss's face...for no particular reason. Jim just finds Mr. Welsh and his family comical, so he laughs.
In the middle of all this social politicking there is Christine, a woman who has mastered the art of wading between the world of the Welshes and Jim's world. She can be stiff and stuck up as well (Jim refers to this attitude as a governess attitude), but she can also be blunt and, let's face it, more grounded. When Jim commits a faux pas in the Welshes' house (at which he's staying for the weekend), Christine helps him cover it up, and laughs alongside Jim while doing it. Jim likes her because, well, she's pretty, but also because she, like him, is tired of the usual fake politeness (a fake politeness that unravels as the novel goes on). She likes him because she realizes that, in the end, Jim likes her for who she is, not for what she could be. She starts the novel as Bertrand's current lover (out of many, we are told), and she appears, at least outwardly, ok with being there only to enhance his image. But later she confesses that, in the long run, she would not be able to take it. To Bertram, she's nothing but a conquest, just a prize to be won and placed on the mantel. To Jim, she's like him, the only island in a world full of airheads. And, of course, she's pretty. (There's some dated views of pretty people being good and ugly people being bad in this book).
And then we have Margaret, Jim's current girlfriend. When we first meet her, she's a sweet (bordering on saccharine) woman who is right and proper, and she just survived a pill overdose. Everyone around her (the Welshes, her ex-boyfriend, even Jim) are concerned for her mental state. Jim is terrified of leaving her (since he doesn't really liker her that much, and now that Christine is in the scene, he'd rather move on to her), because he's afraid of how it may impact Margaret's emotional stability. The whole novel, he is tied to her out of obligation. By the end, however, it is revealed that Margaret faked her overdose and wanted instead to have Jim (as well as her ex-boyfriend) show up and freak out at the thought of losing her, as a form of twisted revenge on them for not treating her the way she wants them to. This, naturally, finally prompts Jim to leave her for good with a clean conscience.
By the end of the novel, the rigid social norms of courtesy have all but unraveled. We learn that Bertrand is not above a physical fight. Margaret can be just as manipulative as anyone else. One of Jim's roommates, Johns, keeps snitching on him throughout the novel about the little pranks Jim pulls. Carol, a friend of Jim's, is cheating on her husband with Bertrand, and her husband is ok with it. Even Mr. Welsh passive-aggressively tells Jim that he's going to be let go, instead of being straightforward. It turns out that Jim and Christine fit right in with this crowd, only they don't have pretensions of being better than that.
The end justifies the book's title as Jim lucks out with a new job in the big city and a new girlfriend. It's almost absurdist in that Jim doesn't really change, but everything works out for him as if by magic, because why not? That's just the type of novel this is. It's funny, witty, strange at times but very liberating by the end. I had not heard of Kingsley Amis before, but now I want to read his other works. Lucky Jim was a lucky find.