- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (26 Sep 1985)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140076093
- ISBN-13: 978-0140076097
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.2 x 1.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 527,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Set in South Wales and centred round the librarian John Lewis, this story describes his relationship with Elizabeth Gruffyd-Williams and the adventures they have together. From the author of "Lucky Jim" and "Take a Girl Like You".
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3 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Great novel
22 Aug 2002
Amazon Verified Purchase
This is my favorite novel of all time, and became a wonderful movie with Peter Sellers in the lead role of Welsh librarian stuck between a snotty upper class and his underpaid position in Swansea Wales as a bookstocker in a provincial library.
His wife is marvelous, as is Mai Zetterling, an upper class Swedish tart who puts him through his sexual paces as he tries to secure preferment.
The world of this novel is so wonderful. Even the children are believably surrealistic. How could it have ever gone out of print?
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The hapless life of a Welsh librarian
7 May 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Is an employee ever promoted on his or her own merit, or is upward mobility always a function of friendship or politics? Kingsley Amis provides a sly, silly, and perceptive answer to that question in his second novel, That Uncertain Feeling.
John Lewis would like to be elevated to the position of sub-Librarian, but it is lust rather than ambition that leads him to pursue Elizabeth Gruffydd-Williams, the village socialite, whose husband is on the committee that will make the selection. That Lewis is married with children causes him to feel some guilt, albeit only when he is in his wife's presence, particularly when she is telling him to have whatever fling he desires so long as he does not burden her with knowledge of his infidelity (a reaction he should know better than to believe). Lewis is much too ineffectual to have a successful affair, but his attempts to woo (and bed) Elizabeth provide ample fodder for the sort of domestic comedy at which Amis excelled.
Poking fun at all things Welsh was a Kingsley Amis specialty. The cast of That Uncertain Feeling includes the sort of eccentric Welsh characters that Amis created masterfully: an arrogant poet, a "nut-faced" clergyman, busybody neighbors, know-it-all committee members, and a wide variety of drunks. Amis also made a career of skewering the pretentious class -- those with a little more money who look down on those with a little less -- although the relatively well-to-do in That Uncertain Feeling are roasted over a low flame. None of the novel's characters are evil or truly unlikable. Even the badly behaving Lewis is endearing, all the more so by the novel's end, when he seems to have learned something from the consequences of his error-prone life.
I don't know if Amis was capable of writing an unfunny sentence. Employing modes of humor that range from dry wit to slapstick, Amis placed his hapless librarian into one awkward situation after another. Amis' ability to write comedy that is simultaneously low key and outrageous has rarely been matched. That Uncertain Feeling is filled with the sort of humor for which Brits are famous: self-effacing commentary; insults exchanged in unfailingly polite language; even a bit of gratuitous cross-dressing.
The ending has the feel of an epilogue -- everything that has gone before suddenly changes, as if Amis didn't know where else to go with the story and decided to abandon it -- but that's a minor complaint. There's probably a serious point buried amidst all the lunacy but I didn't strain myself to search for it. The sustained laughter is quite enough reason for modern readers to search out this 1955 novel.
John Lewis would like to be elevated to the position of sub-Librarian, but it is lust rather than ambition that leads him to pursue Elizabeth Gruffydd-Williams, the village socialite, whose husband is on the committee that will make the selection. That Lewis is married with children causes him to feel some guilt, albeit only when he is in his wife's presence, particularly when she is telling him to have whatever fling he desires so long as he does not burden her with knowledge of his infidelity (a reaction he should know better than to believe). Lewis is much too ineffectual to have a successful affair, but his attempts to woo (and bed) Elizabeth provide ample fodder for the sort of domestic comedy at which Amis excelled.
Poking fun at all things Welsh was a Kingsley Amis specialty. The cast of That Uncertain Feeling includes the sort of eccentric Welsh characters that Amis created masterfully: an arrogant poet, a "nut-faced" clergyman, busybody neighbors, know-it-all committee members, and a wide variety of drunks. Amis also made a career of skewering the pretentious class -- those with a little more money who look down on those with a little less -- although the relatively well-to-do in That Uncertain Feeling are roasted over a low flame. None of the novel's characters are evil or truly unlikable. Even the badly behaving Lewis is endearing, all the more so by the novel's end, when he seems to have learned something from the consequences of his error-prone life.
I don't know if Amis was capable of writing an unfunny sentence. Employing modes of humor that range from dry wit to slapstick, Amis placed his hapless librarian into one awkward situation after another. Amis' ability to write comedy that is simultaneously low key and outrageous has rarely been matched. That Uncertain Feeling is filled with the sort of humor for which Brits are famous: self-effacing commentary; insults exchanged in unfailingly polite language; even a bit of gratuitous cross-dressing.
The ending has the feel of an epilogue -- everything that has gone before suddenly changes, as if Amis didn't know where else to go with the story and decided to abandon it -- but that's a minor complaint. There's probably a serious point buried amidst all the lunacy but I didn't strain myself to search for it. The sustained laughter is quite enough reason for modern readers to search out this 1955 novel.
An english comedy about the vagaries of married men
25 May 2011
Format:Hardcover
I found this book in an opportunity shop during a cold rainy holiday, which I think was a lucky find given the book seems to be no longer in print. It is about John Lewis, a relatively unimportant assistant librarian and his dealings with Elizabeth, a temptress of a woman.
The characters in the story are wonderfully developed and can be related to very easily. John, providing comic moments on almost every page, has a disdain for the elite and the upper crust and their expectation of automatic respect. I think he's also something of a misogynist, or at least overly critical in his own mind. Elizabeth is an upper crust socialite who is used to getting what she wants and will manipulate all and sundry to get it.
This book was my first foray into the literary world of Kingsley Amis and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the vacation because of it. His commitment to prose and the laughter of the reader is very welcome. I think this may be the beginning of an obsession.
The characters in the story are wonderfully developed and can be related to very easily. John, providing comic moments on almost every page, has a disdain for the elite and the upper crust and their expectation of automatic respect. I think he's also something of a misogynist, or at least overly critical in his own mind. Elizabeth is an upper crust socialite who is used to getting what she wants and will manipulate all and sundry to get it.
This book was my first foray into the literary world of Kingsley Amis and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the vacation because of it. His commitment to prose and the laughter of the reader is very welcome. I think this may be the beginning of an obsession.
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