A review by grubstlodger
The Alteration by Kingsley Amis
4.0
The Alteration is my first Kingsley Amis and I realised I’ve gone a little sideways into this author’s work.
Set in an alternative world where Martin Luther was reabsorbed by the Catholic Church, The Alteration’s depiction of a Catholic Britain is surprisingly similar to The Society of Time’s. Forward progress has been heavily retarded, both sociologically and technologically. While there is a high-speed train that goes from London to Rome on seven hours, pure science is banned and scientist is literally a dirty word.
Amis has a lot of fun with this world, imagining what artists and thinkers may have done in this world - though it doesn’t always make sense. Shakespeare is an unknown figure, despite the fact he was probably a secret Catholic in our world. The book plunges us in the notion by describing a cathedral with ceilings by Blake and Turner, stained glass by Reynolds and a new Hockney Ecce Homo. Another aspect of the world is how socially and commercially, the country is still in an early-modern era, with individual shopkeepers but no large businesses or corporations. The Church is the only mega-corporation is the only one allowed to exist. Even the population is at lower, earlier levels.
What about the story though? Hubert is an eleven year old boy with a beautiful voice and the church wishes to ‘alter’ him by removing his testicles to keep his voice unbroken. He is understandably unsure about the whole idea. Not only is he interested in the idea of sex and family but he lives in a patriarchal society into which he will never actually grow into a fully realised man.
There are people who wish him to escape this fate, especially a diplomat from New-England - what we may call America. Interestingly, the hints of this place as a land of freedom are undercut by the definite suggestion that New England is a racial dystopia just as bad as the Catholic world.
The end of the book comes somewhere between cop-out and tragic irony and every character ends up in their allotted, God-given place.
This was an enjoyable book set in a really interesting other world, not quite a full-strangling dystopia but a dark and intriguing work.
Set in an alternative world where Martin Luther was reabsorbed by the Catholic Church, The Alteration’s depiction of a Catholic Britain is surprisingly similar to The Society of Time’s. Forward progress has been heavily retarded, both sociologically and technologically. While there is a high-speed train that goes from London to Rome on seven hours, pure science is banned and scientist is literally a dirty word.
Amis has a lot of fun with this world, imagining what artists and thinkers may have done in this world - though it doesn’t always make sense. Shakespeare is an unknown figure, despite the fact he was probably a secret Catholic in our world. The book plunges us in the notion by describing a cathedral with ceilings by Blake and Turner, stained glass by Reynolds and a new Hockney Ecce Homo. Another aspect of the world is how socially and commercially, the country is still in an early-modern era, with individual shopkeepers but no large businesses or corporations. The Church is the only mega-corporation is the only one allowed to exist. Even the population is at lower, earlier levels.
What about the story though? Hubert is an eleven year old boy with a beautiful voice and the church wishes to ‘alter’ him by removing his testicles to keep his voice unbroken. He is understandably unsure about the whole idea. Not only is he interested in the idea of sex and family but he lives in a patriarchal society into which he will never actually grow into a fully realised man.
There are people who wish him to escape this fate, especially a diplomat from New-England - what we may call America. Interestingly, the hints of this place as a land of freedom are undercut by the definite suggestion that New England is a racial dystopia just as bad as the Catholic world.
The end of the book comes somewhere between cop-out and tragic irony and every character ends up in their allotted, God-given place.
This was an enjoyable book set in a really interesting other world, not quite a full-strangling dystopia but a dark and intriguing work.