Girl, 20 (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Review
'Not only a very funny book, it also hits dozens of nails smartly on the head' (Observer )
'Kingsley Amis has a wicked ear ... and a stiletto pen for pseuds' (The Times )
'Kingsley Amis has a wicked ear ... and a stiletto pen for pseuds' (The Times )
Product Description
Douglas Yandell, a young-ish music critic, is enlisted by Kitty Vandervane to keep an eye on her roving husband - the eminent conductor and would-be radical Sir Roy - as he embarks on yet another affair. Roy, meanwhile, wants Douglas as an alibi for his growing involvement with Sylvia, an unsuitably young woman who loves nothing more than to shock and provoke. Life soon becomes extremely complicated as Douglas finds himself caught up in a frantic, farcical tangle of relationships, rivalry and scandal.
Girl, 20 is a merciless send-up of 1970s London's permissive society from a master of uproarious comedy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Funny, urbane and highly enjoyable!
I read this on holiday this summer (I know..) and it was a real treat.
Many had said that this was Kingsley Amis' hidden gem, and that it didn't get the attention it deserves - I agree.
Its sardonic send-up of liberal London is as relevant now as it was then. This is neatly woven in with a tight plot that is easy to miss amongst the hilarity and lust. Intricate detail and nuance are seamlessly communicated to the reader, and afterwards I was taken aback by how skilful the writing was.
I read this on holiday this summer (I know..) and it was a real treat.
Many had said that this was Kingsley Amis' hidden gem, and that it didn't get the attention it deserves - I agree.
Its sardonic send-up of liberal London is as relevant now as it was then. This is neatly woven in with a tight plot that is easy to miss amongst the hilarity and lust. Intricate detail and nuance are seamlessly communicated to the reader, and afterwards I was taken aback by how skilful the writing was.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's a pity that this novel isn't more widely available, especially given the notoriety of its author. It is a well paced and engaging tale of how an aging conductor's decision to pursue a relationship with a girl old enough to be his daughter alters the lives of those around him. Told in the first person in a very witty and irreverent style by the conductor's friend, we see the clash between the differing values of youth and age (pop vs. classic music, gentleman's clubs vs. discotheques, politics vs. apathy) and the sometimes disastrous effects of them mixing.
The narrator is pleasingly irreverent and, despite the sometimes overly wordy descriptive passages, comes across as amiable, if a little dubious of character. Indeed, there are no characters in this novel that are above reproach, everybody is dragged down and at times are forced to make decisions that are questionable. Herein lies the novel's charm and the author's skill. Most of the characters are obviously type-cast but everybody is given a complexity and ambiguity that greatly enhances the reading pleasure.
This book comes recommended.
The narrator is pleasingly irreverent and, despite the sometimes overly wordy descriptive passages, comes across as amiable, if a little dubious of character. Indeed, there are no characters in this novel that are above reproach, everybody is dragged down and at times are forced to make decisions that are questionable. Herein lies the novel's charm and the author's skill. Most of the characters are obviously type-cast but everybody is given a complexity and ambiguity that greatly enhances the reading pleasure.
This book comes recommended.
3 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
In Zachary Leader's biography of Amis, he quotes Christopher Hitchens as saying that, in `Girl, 20', Amis had `inflicted a satirical wound' on the `intellectual left'. He feels that this book, published in 1971, actually damaged the credibility of the left.
Kingsley Amis was an exceptionally perceptive writer, but he falls into the same trap that so many writers writing about the `swinging sixties' fall into, of conflating the radical left and hippy movements and assuming that all members of both were idiots, or at least failures. In fact the people who were idiots were the weekend hippies and armchair radicals who never took a risk in their lives and wore kipper ties and fantasized about being on television (or actually managed it).
Robert H Bell, a critic, in an accessible webpage about Amis's novels, feels this is a brilliant novel about people who lead `desparate, bleak and terrible lives'.
Personally I found all but one of the characters highly unattractive. We have a total wimp of a narrator, who takes everybody's side and never says no to anyone, a famous conductor with an IQ of 70, the narrator's girlfriend who competes with her partner in acquiescence, a nasty newspaper editor and a high-class 17 year old harridan, not to mention an odious small boy and his pathetic mother.
Excuse me while I collect myself.
The only attractive character is Vandervane's (ie the conductor's) daughter who has spirit and intelligence, and doesn't constantly assume centre stage pontificating like everyone else.
Because Amis is an excellent writer his surface cynicism is always layered over a certain `we're all in it together' empathy, which this girl somehow embodies.
Amis apparently once said, it wasn't that he didn't believe in God, it was just that he didn't like him very much. In his previous book, `The Green Man', the main character expands on this in a conversation with the Almighty that says a lot, perhaps, about the writer's feelings. It's almost as if Amis can admire the craftsmanship but can't figure out the plot.
As Martin Amis says, it is a sad book, but in my opinion it is the daughter and even in a way the preposterous conductor who show the way. If Hitchens thought the left were found out by this it only shows what a poverty of imagination he ultimately has.
I think he's right, however, in saying this is one of Amis's best books.
Kingsley Amis was an exceptionally perceptive writer, but he falls into the same trap that so many writers writing about the `swinging sixties' fall into, of conflating the radical left and hippy movements and assuming that all members of both were idiots, or at least failures. In fact the people who were idiots were the weekend hippies and armchair radicals who never took a risk in their lives and wore kipper ties and fantasized about being on television (or actually managed it).
Robert H Bell, a critic, in an accessible webpage about Amis's novels, feels this is a brilliant novel about people who lead `desparate, bleak and terrible lives'.
Personally I found all but one of the characters highly unattractive. We have a total wimp of a narrator, who takes everybody's side and never says no to anyone, a famous conductor with an IQ of 70, the narrator's girlfriend who competes with her partner in acquiescence, a nasty newspaper editor and a high-class 17 year old harridan, not to mention an odious small boy and his pathetic mother.
Excuse me while I collect myself.
The only attractive character is Vandervane's (ie the conductor's) daughter who has spirit and intelligence, and doesn't constantly assume centre stage pontificating like everyone else.
Because Amis is an excellent writer his surface cynicism is always layered over a certain `we're all in it together' empathy, which this girl somehow embodies.
Amis apparently once said, it wasn't that he didn't believe in God, it was just that he didn't like him very much. In his previous book, `The Green Man', the main character expands on this in a conversation with the Almighty that says a lot, perhaps, about the writer's feelings. It's almost as if Amis can admire the craftsmanship but can't figure out the plot.
As Martin Amis says, it is a sad book, but in my opinion it is the daughter and even in a way the preposterous conductor who show the way. If Hitchens thought the left were found out by this it only shows what a poverty of imagination he ultimately has.
I think he's right, however, in saying this is one of Amis's best books.
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