I've known of him for a long time, along with his brother son* Martin, but until last night I'd never tried reading any of his work. The book I chose is one of his lesser known, The Green Man.
Wicked, dry, hilarious and weird, all in an unholy amalgam. I'm only 30+ pages in, so I can't comment on its entirety, but it's been a great fun read so far. The sharpest-dagger kind of dark British humour.
I'm also convinced that it must have had some major influence on John Cleese, in the conception of his post-Python classic series Fawlty Towers. The Green Man is a haunted inn, with, among other things, a passive-aggressive domineering wife of the first-person narrator inn-owner, the seductive wife of a friend, seductive to both the narrator and his wife, apparently, and a disgruntled Spanish chef, who is wanting to go back to "Espain".
So, you Britsish folks here: Who amongst you has read Kingsley Amis, and what are your opines? And, to be fair, I'll ask my Yanksish and Canadesish friends as well, though mesuspects he's an unknown quantity to the first group . . . God, I'm starting to write like him.
Oh, hell, I'll even ask the French.
caw
*it's been pointed out to me in a PM that Martin is Kingsley's son, not brother. See? I told ya I knew of, but not much about.
Wicked, dry, hilarious and weird, all in an unholy amalgam. I'm only 30+ pages in, so I can't comment on its entirety, but it's been a great fun read so far. The sharpest-dagger kind of dark British humour.
I'm also convinced that it must have had some major influence on John Cleese, in the conception of his post-Python classic series Fawlty Towers. The Green Man is a haunted inn, with, among other things, a passive-aggressive domineering wife of the first-person narrator inn-owner, the seductive wife of a friend, seductive to both the narrator and his wife, apparently, and a disgruntled Spanish chef, who is wanting to go back to "Espain".
So, you Britsish folks here: Who amongst you has read Kingsley Amis, and what are your opines? And, to be fair, I'll ask my Yanksish and Canadesish friends as well, though mesuspects he's an unknown quantity to the first group . . . God, I'm starting to write like him.
Oh, hell, I'll even ask the French.
caw
*it's been pointed out to me in a PM that Martin is Kingsley's son, not brother. See? I told ya I knew of, but not much about.
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