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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | PRZS3000001976 | PR1307 O43 1987 | Open Access Book | Creative Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Winner of the 1986 Booker Prize. Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one main ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirred when they are joined by professional Welshman Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife, Rhiannon.
Author Notes
Kingsley Amis is generally considered one of the "angry young men" of the 1950s. He was born in London in 1922 and educated at the City of London School. He received a degree in English language and literature from St. John's College, Oxford, in 1947. Until 1961 Amis lectured in English at University College, Swansea, and for the following two years at Cambridge.
In 1947 Amis published his first collection of poems, Bright November. Frame of Mind followed in 1953 and Poems: Fantasy Portraits in 1954. His first novel, Lucky Jim (1954), established his reputation as a writer. He followed with That Uncertain Feeling (1956), and I Like It Here (1958).
A longtime James Bond devotee, Amis wrote a James Bond adventure after the death of Ian Fleming in 1964. Amis's study of the famous spy was titled The James Bond Dossier (1965). Amis received the Booker Prize for the Old Devils (1986). Amis's later works include Memoirs (1990), and The King's English, a collection of essays on the craft of writing well.
Amis was knighted in 1990. He died in 1995.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 2
Booklist Review
A wicked yet not unaffectionate look at the way old age-and belated international celebrity-transforms a social set whose friendships were established in earlier, more optimistic times. (D 1 86 Upfront)
Library Journal Review
``The Old Devils'' are aged drinking partners whose number is enlarged and enlivened when poet Alun Weaver and his wife Rhiannon return to Wales. Alun is a letch, a ``frightful shit'' in the words of one acquaintance, and Rhiannon still a beauty. Like pebbles dropped into a still pond, the Weavers set off a series of emotional waves that are still breaking at novel's end. Along the way Amis has characteristic fun with sex, drink, and fakery yet displays a largess of spirit lacking in his other geriatric comedy, Ending Up (1974). At least one happy ending is awarded here, to a character who had written off maturity as ``an interval between two bouts of vomiting.'' This winner of Britain's Booker Prize is caustic, verbally dextrousand highly recommended. Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
