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| Lucky Jim (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Kingsley Amis
Creator: David Lodge
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $5.44
You Save: $9.56 (64%)
New (35) Used (39) Collectible (3) from $5.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 26706
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0140186301
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780140186307
ASIN: 0140186301
Publication Date: September 1, 1993
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: older English Penguin
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| Customer Reviews:
 Relief for Academics September 28, 2004
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I read this book roughly three times a year-- whenever the world of academia becomes intolerable. I know the plot and several pages by heart, but it never gets old.
At first glance, it seems like an indiscriminate stab at any intellectual who, a la Welch, is wildly passionate about his or her subject-- Amis pissed off a lot of people that way. My father, a professor, refused to read "Lucky Jim" because he remembered all of the intolerable anti-intellectuals who hauled the book around in their back pockets when it was published in the fifties, and it's hard to blame him-- but ultimately, I think the joke is on the anti-intellectuals. Amis is an academic man himself. Once you drop below the surface of it, he isn't jabbing at intellectuals at all-- after all, Jim admits that history, "well taught," is a necessary discipline; it's just that he's not the one to teach it. Michie, for my money the one true intellect in the entire book, is only bad in that he makes Jim feel inadequate; he's revealed at the end to be a perfectly decent person. And the fact that Jim leaves academia in the end for a spot as a personal secretary doesn't necessarily reflect badly on academia; after all, he's simply going to be paid for doing what he already did for free at the college-- he's moving on to a new career as a "boredom detector."
You could be upset with this book if you respect learning-- but I wouldn't bother. I am hyper-sensitive to that kind of thing myself, and I think that finally this comes down on the side of REAL intelligence, whether you find it in a college or in the private sector.
Also, for those who think that Welch is an overdrawn caricature, I can report that I had a class from a man just like him. I used to sing the "Welch tune" in lecture, just to get through the day.
 Very well written, but... September 24, 2004
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Jim is lucky, primarily because everything comes together so well for him by the end of the book. And that's part of the problem with this classic. There's an unnecessarily implausible happy ending that didn't need to occur. Jim Dixon is the quintessential anti-hero. Gliding through life at the campus, trying to succeed by not truly trying. Skating through life; chasing the beautiful woman, Christine, partially due to the fact that it will annoy Christine's boyfriend, Bertrand; drinking too much at inappropriate occasions; being disrespectful to the department head, Mr. Welch, for no apparent reason other than he is Dixon's superior. All of these ingredients make for a very funny book, but do not reasonably add up to the book's conclusion, which in my mind was the book's only flaw. Amis's writing is terrific, however, allowing the reader to get deeper into the mind of Dixon than most other books' primary characters.
Holds Up Well August 8, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Lucky Jim holds up awfully well for a comic novel about British academics circa 1947. Tweed jackets and glasses of sherry, medieval musical's and lectures so dull, one must drink a bottle of good scotch to get through the muddle.
Jim Dixon is hanging on by his academic fingernails. Professor Welsh could hire him on for another year, but first Jim must be Welsh's scholastic slave. Margaret is the dowdy love interest and she has a way of locking a bloke up with hysterical outburst and suicidal pill popping. The effete Bertrand, Welsh's son has the lovely Christine and a penchant for snobbery and married women. Christine is a London girl and out of Jim's league. Somehow Jim and Christine come together because they both disdain the heavy-handed collegiate snobbery.
Kingsley Amis made his career with this novel. It is a classic and I think will hold up for all time.
Lucky You....if you read this book July 9, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Lucky Jim" is Jim Dixon - who appears to be a most unlucky man. He recently landed a university teaching job, but he's miserable. Terrible at his job, Dixon is left wondering throughout the book whether his position will be continued. In addition to his job woes, he seems to have great contempt for most everyone around him, including his neurotic girlfriend, Margaret. Things worsen when he's invited for a weekend of music at a senior professor's home and he meets the professor's son - Bertrand. A buffoonish artist, Bertrand nevertheless has an alluring girlfriend, the lovely Christine. Dixon unsurprisingly is drawn to Christine, despite her stuffy manner and seeming arrogance. Embarrassing Bertrand and stealing away Christine become him main priority. In the meantime, he still needs to prepare a lecture on "Merrie England" that will be attended by his superiors and local town dignitaries. Will he survive?The novel is a model of dry British wit - at times laugh-out-loud hilarious. Dixon is a fantastic literary character - a cynic who personifies the scorn we all feel at times. As Amis writes about Dixon, "all his faces were designed to express rage or loathing." In addition to his cynicism, Dixon is incredibly irresponsible and engages in all sorts of mischievousness, resulting in hilarious predicaments. Nevertheless, you cannot help but root for him to succeed. The writing is spectacular - each scene bristles with detail and nuance. In particular, Amis beautifully portrays difficult interpersonal situations frankly and accurately, replete with requisite humor. Although the book drags at times, it's a first-rate read. Most highly recommended, particularly for readers who enjoy novels set in academia.
Being out of control June 25, 2004
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Jim Dixon is a man painfully aware of his loathesome existence which he in turn sparks up with booze and constant inappropriate wisecracks. He is best when he gives way to his impulses- saying aloud the insults that his innermind is shouting to another, drinking far too much before giving a speech in front of a jam-packed lecture hall where his job rests on the outcome, and being unable to stop making phoney phonecalls to his boss' wife and 'braying' artist son. He finishes writing his speech and then hops around like an ape only to be observed on the bed by his enemy. He is constantly at war with one of his housemates and plays childish pranks to get his goat. Though the setting is post-WWII British University, the character has much in common with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's the part of us that never stops being a class clown. He is a 'bore monitor' like a canary in a cage who suggests he be hired to go in and assess the bore level of every party or gathering. He is constantly falsifying his abilities and interests and inevitably getting called to task in humiliating but hilarious scenes. While it takes a chapter or so to get into, the book quickly becomes contemporary- he takes rolling of the eyes to a new level. I loved it.
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