My bookclub read this Kingsley Amis book after hearing it referred to as a modern classic and very funny. The consensus opinion in the bookclub meeting was, eh, not so much. Only two people had finished it, though. I was not one of them. I did finish it that night, and liked it better after finishing it. And I noticed that although none of us found it that funny, we did laught a lot talking about it.

The book is the story of Jim Dixon, who has his first college teaching job in one of the less prestigious British universities. He doesn't like the job, or most of the people. He is in something, not quite a relationship. wth Margaret, who recently swallowed too many pills over despair over another man. He meets another woman, Christine, who is dating the son of his chairman. It is a recipe for disaster, but it all turns out right in the end. ( )

Any book that can make you laugh aloud and want to get back to it even after some dull pages must be worth 4 stars. I wouldn't go to 5 because the characterization of some key people - the loathsome Bertrand most significantly - is too punch-bag, and when Jim is about to throw up his hopes of Christine out of some dutiful fidelity to the ghastly Margaret, whom he has seen through so thoroughly, Amis seems to be sticking his oar in a bit clumsily on behalf of the plot. But the important thing is that it's a really enjoyable book, and that rare thing - a funny book. Most minor characters are superbly drawn. Masses of anger and misery under the comedy. ( )

One of my favorite books of all time. Being a graduate student in history myself, I can relate to Jim Dixon on a number of levels. Especially the feeling that the worth of my work too can "...be expressed in one short hyphenated indecency (15)." There are many passages of this book that are laugh out-loud funny, especially the parts where Jim visits his adviser, Prof. Welch, for a weekend of madrigal singing.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading about the foibles of academia and the pretentiousness of some of those who inhabit it. ( )

So British, so funny - especially if you ever went to graduate school, or as one of my friends said, if you have ever been drunk. ( )