One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis is a spectacular novel, I have read it for the second time now and I was enthused…you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

One Fat Englishman by Kingsley Amis is a spectacular novel, I have read it for the second time now and I was enthused…you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other web pages on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

10

10 out of 10

 

I have already read A Fat Englishman https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/one-fat-englishman-by-kingsley-amis.html and I was so enchanted that I took it up again…indeed, I will read all of the Kingsley Amis oeuvre a second time, this time in chronological order, that is, following the order of their publishing

 

One Fat Englishman appears to be unique in that the main character is obnoxious, or at least he could appear that way, I for one sympathized, and surely identified with his shortcomings – some of them, I am not fat, and I am joking now, the repulsive sides, the homophobia, and there is so much I better stop do not represent me

However, the fury was there, and even now, in traffic, I cannot stop before swearing, when I am on the bike, and drivers appear bent on killing me ‘Of the seven deadly sins, Roger considered himself qualified in gluttony, sloth and lust but distinguished in anger…’ sloth, yes, check, and gluttony appears exaggerated, but then sweets are tempting

 

David Lodge https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/about-magnum-opus-changing-places-by.html writes the introduction, in which he finds that Kingsley Amis was gaining weight at some stage, his son, Martin said that it seemed like a goal, and then his wife writes on his belly ‘One Fat Englishman, I fuck everything’

Something like that, it also appears that the inspiration for this amusing, excellent novel came from his own stay in America, when he was (or they were, both spouses) involved in a fervent sexual activity, much like Roger Micheldene, the protagonist who declares he is in love with married Helene Bast, but has coitus with others

 

Irving Macher is his nemesis, a much younger man, if not nicer, who pleads for being ‘authentic’, steals the notes for a lecture, and worse, even seduces Helene, convincing her to run away with him, I however side with The Fat Englishman – he even tries to have a confession with Father Colgate, with becomes hilarious

In Take a Girl Like You https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/03/take-girl-like-you-by-magister-ludi.html the love story is ‘classical’, albeit the male personage is not ‘faithful’ in the traditional sense anyway, but here, The Fat Englishman would be dismissed by most readers as inappropriate for the much more attractive Helen Bast

 

One the other hand, ‘The Scandinavians are dear people but they’ve never been what you might call bywords for wit and sparkle, have they? Any more than the Germans.’ Roger Micheldene, for all his many flaws is so intelligent, amusing, granted, his rage is easy to take when reading about it, if in its proximity, it would be another matter

 

Comentarii

Trimiteți un comentariu

Postări populare de pe acest blog

In The Fade aka Auf Dem Nichts, written by Hark Bohm and Fatih Akin

  In The Fade aka Auf Dem Nichts, written by Hark Bohm and Fatih Akin In The Fade has won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, although in this cinephile's opinion, Una Mujer Fantastica- which has won the Oscar in the same category- Nelyubov or The Square would have been better choices. Having said that, Auf Dem Nichts is a very good, significant, remarkable feature, that attracts attention to violence against minorities, in this case the Kurdish community in Germany. It is therefore not one sided, we do not have only Muslim lunatics killing innocent "infidels", but also some extreme Europeans murdering the other side. The problem is that, unacceptable, horrifying and vile as these acts are, it appears that the overwhelming majority of atrocities are committed by zealots acting in the name of Islam- radical and unrepresentative as they are for this supposedly peaceful faith, although there are passages in its holy book that seem to insist on a violent jihad and ultimat...
Citiți mai multe

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice written by Larry Tucker and Paul Mazursky, directed by the latter is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, and Variety has published recently its Top 100 Comedies – or else, I have learned about this lately – where this feature has a top spot, as far as I remember it is higher that the 50th spot – speaking of these pages, you have access to my own more than five thousand notes on films from these and other compilations, together with another five thousand reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and You Tube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html you may even subscribe, if you wish

Imagine
  Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice written by Larry Tucker and Paul Mazursky, directed by the latter is included on The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, and Variety has published recently its Top 100 Comedies – or else, I have learned about this lately – where this feature has a top spot, as far as I remember it is higher that the 50 th spot – speaking of these pages, you have access to my own more than five thousand notes on films from these and other compilations, together with another five thousand reviews on magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other sites on my blog and You Tube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html you may even subscribe, if you wish     9 out of 10   First a correction: I wrote above that this comedy is within the first fifty of Variety’s Top 100, I just saw that it is in fact ranked 90 th , I could have edited the above, but maybe this way I will re...
Citiți mai multe