Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis 10 out of 10

 Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis

10 out of 10

Considering this is the sixth masterpiece read by the undersigned by the phenomenal Kingsley Amis, after the glorious Lucky Jim, Ending Up, Girl, 20, The Old Devils, That Uncertain Feeling, all reviewed on this blog http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html, it could be expected that this reader is enthused by this marvelous writer, considered to be the best in the comedy department, at least in the second part of the last century.

The hero of this magnum opus has some features and moments when he becomes an antihero, such as when he engages in a tirade, at Oxford, where he is a don, aged 59, teaching Ancient Mediterranean History, on how detrimental the acceptance of women would be, in a speech that is not just sexist, arrogant and abusive, but it may be affected by the state he is in, a massive Hangover, after a night during which he had cheated on his wife, in a rather remarkable fashion, considering that the title of the book refers to the main issue in it, the Thing is the penis and the main character has an impotency problem, complex as it is, for he seems to perform when the occasion arises and he is ‘free’ of constrictions, but he does not want ‘it’ anymore, in correlation perhaps with the said antagonism he feels towards women.

Jake Richardson is married with Brenda, who is about twelve years younger, but has gained a lot of weight in the last years – statics we learn from Dr. Rosenberg, the psychotherapist who would try to solve the sexual problem of the protagonist indicate that being overweight is frequently the reason for the issue – who has a friend that the hero does not like, indeed, in one of the first scenes, he arrives at home with a more expensive bottle of wine than the Tunisian, table variety and when he sees that he has to offer some to the guest, he tries to switch bottles, only to be impeded by the arrival of the two women in the kitchen – the master work has many hilarious scenes, as fans of the author would know, albeit the tone if most often serious.

Jake is given some ‘homework’, which includes consulting pornographic materials, having ‘non genital sensate sessions’ with his wife, attending some consultation in a specialized section of a clinic and eventually, joining a workshop where other people with various challenges, including Geoffrey, the peculiar husband of Brenda’s friend, a man who appears to have trouble understanding almost anything – the hero thinks this man is unable to follow the arrow sign to the men’s room  and he would have found a business card a tough nut to crack, which is more than interesting and ironic considering later developments .

Winnie is an attractive young woman, actually the only one, included in the workshop, who is ‘unable to control her life’, in the words of the ‘facilitator of the seminar, Ed, but when she follows and tracks Brenda and her husband home, she first claims that she is in fact acting a part and is there only to expose the setup as a fraud, albeit the older woman spots her real interest in her spouse, who would indeed receive a visit from the girl, when he is in Oxford, where she tries to have sex with him, only to be rejected and then engage in a mouthful of vicious insults and imprecations…

The hero has another clash with women, who are picketing Oxford, in protest against the sexist attitude of that and other institutions, who were not allowing women to join at the time – 1970s – partly with the pretext that those places of higher education destined for women only would suffer if others would relax their entrance policies and thus would result in fewer candidates for the specialized ones, but that was just a bogus reason and Jake Richardson is asked by the dean to present the argument in favor of admitting women, while a colleague would present the opposite view…at the meeting, after stating that this inevitable and woman have to be admitted, sooner, rather than later, the hangover man descends into a sexist attack on women, indiscriminate and pathetic.

Granted, he had been earlier in a position where he talked about illiterate students, one young woman came to speak about her paper and seemed to be rather disinterested, some of those in the picket line rubbed themselves against the teacher and called him a ‘wanker’,  a term he would have to investigate about and ask a fellow, homosexual teacher, but this is no reason to be so absurd and outrageous, in fact it does more to explain maybe the deeper causes of the impotency, a serious inadequacy, stated at one point when the antihero – as he is at stages – declares that he does not feel the ‘shame and guilt’ attributed ad nauseam by Rosenberg, for those feelings would have been more reasonable in the past, not in this present where ‘permissiveness’ is the word.

Actually, Jake is sure that the age when everyone knows everything about what is expected during, before and after coitus will have dramatic consequences – not for Rosenberg and his guild, that would get so much more business – because at the time when the hero was young and so active – he had a reputation as a womanizer and that past is the reason why he still does some dangerous things, such as when Winnie comes again to get close to him, he accepts returning to the seminar and join the group at what turns to be a nearly tragic outing – men and women had no idea what to expect from sex and thus it was less calamitous when things would not work for the best, whereas in the present, there is an overwhelming burden of expectations…

Just like the previous five books that this reader has had the immense pleasure to read before, this magnum opus by the fantastic Kinsley Amis is spectacular and a joy to engage with.