Girl, 20 by the astounding Kingsley Amis

 Girl, 20 by the astounding Kingsley Amis

Sir Kingsley Amis was a genius, named the funniest author of the second half of the twentieth century, nominated for the Man Booker Prize three times, winning it once and he is also included on the All-TIME 100 Best Novels with Lucky Jim (reviewed here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html)

Having read the aforementioned chef d’oeuvre and followed it with another glorious, cosmic, medicine, adjectival work – Ending Up (notes on it are here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/07/ending-up-by-kingsley-amis.html) the terrific, formidable bliss felt when reading Girl, 20 comes as no surprise.

Girl, 20 reveals the period of the Flower Power generation, the liberation, redemption, social activism, confusion, absurdity feels as a mix after the 1960s, from the perspective of a few intriguing, challenging characters.

The narrator is Douglas Yandell, a young music critic that readers can identify with, in spite of his rigid, somewhat passé and fundamentalist views on modern compositions- he dismisses pop and almost everything that is not “classical” as just mere sounds, if not aggravated noise as in the case of some of the bands performing in the book or whose music is just heard in some of the bars and restaurants the protagonists pass through.

In a manner similar to Lucky Jim, one would probably wish the hero-narrator to get emotionally involved and become the other half of Penny, a girl he likes, but who seems unlikely to form a couple with Douglas aka Doug for most of the narrative.

The other, perhaps second most important character would be Roy Vandervane, a personage that we can find was based in large part on Leonard Bernstein (who seems to have a cinematic biopic coming up on big screens in the next few years) and who is at the same time overbearing, absurd, vain, self-absorbed to the Trumpian point and endearing, creative and a music genius.

Nevertheless, his intention to perform Elevation 9, a composition in which he tries to move into the realm of “modern music” outrages so much his best friend and critic that he tries some desperate measures, such as attempting to boycott, ambush by a ruse a concert where the once quintessential musical genius would compromise himself and the idea of serious, sacred creations, descending into the abject realm of loud disco noises.

Roy Vandervane is married for the second time to Kitty, a pretentious, sometimes obnoxious woman and he lives with children from his previous marriage, Penny and Cristopher and the monstrous six year old Ashley, who is spoiled by his father and mother, because one does not want to take the trouble to educate him, to the point where he maims the poor old dog of the family- the Furry Barrel.

The composer has a habit of forming relationships that are mostly sexual – he is interested in varied sex, including the “going down” that involves escaping the confinement of matrimony – up to the point where he becomes infatuated –perhaps even in love – with Sylvia, who is not even eighteen…indeed, one of the hilarious –if worrying- moments is when Kitty says that at the rate her husband has of going for ever younger female partners, he would start dating teenagers in a few years.

Sylvia has a violent language and manner, she is rude, forward to and beyond the insulting point- when Lady Vandervane visits for an explanation and supplication, the mistress decides to opt for a ferocious attitude, which is her style anyway, takes her clothes off and then nearly kills the much older woman.

Present on the scene, Douglas looks at the naked young woman and thinks he cannot see if the body is handsome, healthy, because it has the head of the Hydra, the abhorrent demon and he even considers homosexuality for some time, because he is so overwhelmed, enraged by the woman who has indeed managed at that point to create chaos, overturn the lives of Kitty, Penny, Gilbert and others involved.

Gilbert is the Penny’s boyfriend and one of the fascinating characters, who encourages Penny to ask help from Douglas, after having…sex with him, for the situation is so desperate that the best friend of Roy Vandervane seems to be the last chance that anybody could prevent him from abandoning his family in favor of the monster who is not even eighteen yet.

The conductor – composer is also involved in political and social challenges of the time, taking extreme stands on various issues- he tries to speak against apartheid in a very outré manner – he places a banner for the racists, in the windows of his expensive car, driving like a mad man, proffering insults at pedestrians and other passengers in cars, to make the point that those who are in favor of the cause are despicable.

It seems nonetheless that the privileged Lord Vandervane does not have his heart in the statements he makes – that the opinion of his son at least – for he keeps drinking champagne, enjoying an easy, more than comfortable, maybe even luxurious life and not running to fight on the frontline or abandoning the clubs and benefits of a wealthy man.

Roy Vandervane manipulates his friend Douglas a few times, including when he asks for a favor, as he needs an alibi for going out with his (too) young mistress and if the critic comes along, with Penny, the evening out would not look suspicious – although, the young man wonders if the father did not want his daughter to get close to him as the main objective of the special soiree.

Penny and Sylvia hate each other, indeed, the mistress has no hesitation in antagonizing anyone, she seems to care little for the world – when challenged by Lady Vandervane, she admits that love does not come easy for her, she might not love the married man, but this is beside the point, since she wants him to abandon his wife and marry her and this is what he would do.

Kitty tries to supplicate the much younger woman, speaking about the people she would hurt terribly – herself, Ashley, Penny, Chris – but the mistress-soon-to-be-wife says she does not care, even when asked to think about it, maybe she would not marry Lord Vandervane after all and she agrees to consider it, she states:

“Ok, I will think about it…and after a few seconds:

I did. The answer is no!”