You Can’t Do Both by Kingsley Amis, my favorite author, more than twenty of his books are reviewed on my blog, where the best thing is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html - 10 out of 10

 

You Can’t Do Both by Kingsley Amis, my favorite author, more than twenty of his books are reviewed on my blog, where the best thing is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

10 out of 10

 

Just like the other more than twenty novels, a biography and the fabulous The King’s English https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-kings-english-guide-to-modern-usage.html all mesmerizing magnum opera, and You Can’t Do Both is in the same superb category, a book I enjoyed tremendously

 

It is disappointing to see that it has only 189 ratings (190 now) and only fifteen (updated at 16, with this one) reviews, but to go about my old horse – in a world where the orange gangster is leader in the ‘greatest democracy’, what can we expect, there would be much worse outcomes than this book having such a tiny audience

Robin Davies is the main character, I was going to say hero, but he is not exactly a role model, and that makes him more accessible, as in it would be difficult for me to identify with somebody who is near perfect, but given his flaws, well, I can be that ungrateful, evasive, however, the protagonist has a lot to admire in is character

 

Religion is one of the topics: What kind of love is it that has to be asked before it’ll give, asked nicely too, so you’re supposed to go down on your bended knees to plead for whatever it is? Art thou troubled? Yes. And what’s God’s answer to that? Not, In which case I’ve clearly fallen down on the job, but, Right, you just follow the laid-down procedure and I might consider doing something or other about it one day. And secondly, Rector, there are some situations where mere help isn’t much of a help. What about ugly girls or blind people or deformed people or people with the wrong taste in sex that no amount of trying will ever take away? When that kind of thing comes along God’s answer is not, Whoops, here I go slipping up again, but, Get into the groveling position and thank me for giving you such a spiffing chance to be brave, and if I feel like it I might give you a hand. By helping you to be brave, nothing more constructive or troublesome or serious than that. So please don’t tell me how nice God is, what with him always answering our prayers and all. He can’t exist without being a shit, and I wouldn’t dream of saying flatly he doesn’t exist, just that the world and everything in it are indistinguishable from a world et cetera in which he doesn’t exist.’

 

This is one of the most sarcastic, accurate criticism of religion that I know of, Kingsley Amis has said ‘it is not so much that I do not believe in him, I hate him’, something along these lines, and that is quite evident above, where Robin more than likely takes the opinion of the author and shares it with the readers

He has a father that is very peculiar and difficult to deal with, a climax is reached when Robin has a girl at the house, beautiful, innocent Nancy Bennett, she was allowed to be a guest, instructed to behave – she has a sister that had run with a man, and she is now a single mother, which was so much condemned decades ago, when the story takes place – she is a virgin, but she loves this young man and they cross the line

 

When the parents return home from a visit, the father sees somehow that the young ones have had sex, and he makes a such a fuss about it, he summons a meeting and insists that he has no choice but to throw the girl out, such a ridiculous posture – spoiler alert, he dies some chapters down the road, so, good riddance

Nancy and Robin will live together, but he is not careful one day, and she gets pregnant, nevertheless, he is not ready to commit, despite what others say, including his brother, Geroge, and he wants to ‘enjoy his freedom’, which makes so much sense in our time, but it was a completely different game back then, in the fifties

 

What am I saying about these days, there are a few billion that think like in the Middle Ages, elect the likes of the orange goon, who has supporters around the globe, other villains that emulate him, and these hoi polloi would act in such despicable ways, and on the matter of sex, abortion, well, look at what they do

Robin says that abortion – called curettage at that point – would be the solution, for he does not want marriage – he is very selfish, we see at this stage even better, concerned about having sex with many girls, which sounds so honest and normal, except he has met the perfect partner in Nancy and we could think…

 

Girl, maybe you are better without him, you are definitely superior in so many ways, except he would become (spoiler alert) a doctor and reader at Oxford, with the potential to get tenure, some time later, and she did not have his education, only certainly she understands the world better and has high principles

Most important, she knows love, incidentally, the happiest people in the world have been studied by psychologists, and the result is available – the happiest humans have strong relationships with family and friends, not money, wealth and the like, notwithstanding the fact that it is not good to be homeless, that does not gratify one

 

Abortion was illegal, but for one hundred pounds, a few thousand in the present currency, they find a doctor, and they travel to Cardiff, where they are minutes away from the procedure, and we have that reversal of fortune that Aristotle thought was essential in a good drama, like Oedipus Rex say, and they decide…

To keep the baby, that is the man has to have this change of heart, she was all for it, but he was not in love, and only some sense of duty, principles and the feelings he had for her, not adoration though, make him want to marry this wonderful Nancy

https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/memoirs-by-kingsley-amis-author-of-take.html

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’