Novelists Veeky Forums would like if they weren't so caught up in acquiring prestige by reading faddy, prolix things like IJ, or scholar's writers like Joyce, etc.
Kingsley Amis
>satirizes the excesses of modern culture, especially the excesses of the progressive elements of modern culture in many of his best novels, Girl, 20, Lucky Jim, etc. Does this so well that both sides, progressive and conservative, attack him for being bigoted and lowbrow respectively.
>keen grasp on things like irritation, self-destruction, the pleasure of cruelty, etc, not often captures in novels about the 'great issues of our time.'
>captures everyday detail and interaction especially well
>writes in an accessible but not plain style, full of clever metaphors, dialect, defamiliarizing descriptions, jokes, etc.
>writes both literary and genre (spy, ghost, alt-history) effectively.
Carson Sanders
Where should I start with Amis? Been meaning to get into him lately because my friend sold him to me as a fun old crotchety fuck.
Lucky Jim maybe?
Christopher Price
Amis is one of the writers who was more popular on here in the past. Lucky Jim was mentioned in just about every thread dedicated to humorous novels. I think that stopped because Veeky Forums is triggered vy academia these days. That said, I think Veeky Forums could enjoy some Martin Amis as well.
Gabriel Sullivan
Veeky Forums like Kingsley even though he's just a shittier version of maugham
it's his faggot son that we hate
David Clark
Lucky Jim is good if you're down for a campus novel. The Alteration is a good choice if you enjoy works set in alternate histories.
Leo Lee
>Kingsley and Maugham even remotely the same nigger what
Chase Peterson
You can start anywhere with Amis- he isnt Joyce. Girl, 20, Lucky Jim, The Green Man, Anti-Death League, are all among his best.
Josiah Bennett
Lucky Jim is the standard but I'd suggest Girl, 20, The Green Man, or Ending up as starting places. You should read Lucky Jim eventually because it is historically important, and good, but it isn't his best imo.
Ending Up is a great and short novel about old people being assholes to each other. Girl, 20 is Amis' take on the Age of Innocence (everything is going to shit,) except it's the 60s and not the turn of the century in New York. The Green Man is Amis' take on a classic ghost story, mainly a guy drinking in a pub-inn.
Benjamin Peterson
>satirizes Eh, pass. I graduated high school a while ago.
Matthew Jones
He's shitty Waugh if he's shitty anything.
Christopher Walker
Overly English satirists that made a living parodying high society? I mean i'll grant that Maugham had more serious, critical work with stuff like Sixpence and Bondage, but outside of that they are very similar. I'm guessing the only Mauham you read was Of Human Bondage. Read something like Cakes and Ale and you'll understand the similarities better
David Price
I've read Of Human Bondage, Cakes and Ale, The Razor's Edge, and someof his short fiction. As an earlier poster said, he's a shitty Waugh if anything. Their approaches are entirely different. Waugh and Amis are much more humorous than Maugham ever tries to be.
Asher Sullivan
I thought Maugham was hilarious in cakes and ale. And I' being fecetious when i say "shittier version"- I like Kingsley Amis a lot. They were both just Giants of the literary scene in England that satirized English culture. Read Girl, 20 and Cakes and Ale and tell me they arent similar novels.
Juan Thomas
I found pic related in the bookstore when it was issued (in this form) sometime in the last decade. It was funny and I impulse-bought it. Then I went looking for Lucky Jim but the library didn't have it, so I read Take A Girl Like You instead, which was breddy gud. agree with the OPs greentext.
A film adaptation of his came on TV one day and I indulged it. Only Two Can Play was the film version of That Uncertain Feeling. Starred a young Peter Sellers, who was less campy and more subtle, which worked for me.
Hudson Bell
Probably Sam Pink.
I've been looking forever and never found a writer with this level of mundanity, humor and nihilsm all mixed. Cool af.
>Joyce Yeah, but at least Joyce is an essential novelist. IJ not so much but it's really famous so people read it to be able to discuss it... You can't really fix the problem
Kayden Reed
Amis was rad as fuck
>Anti-Death League Good but i didnt feel it was as powerful as intended
>Girl, 20 Was excellent, possibly better than Lucky Jim.
Old Devils is also good if not a little longet than necessary. When Weaver dies after being asked to pay for supposedly free booze was funny.
Haven't read Maugham or Waugh but Amis is and was top tier English writing. His work just feels "Englishy".
I haven't explored much of the Angry Young Men bar Silitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (which was dreadful) and Barstow's A Kind of Loving (much better), but both are so obviously working class that the prose feels shitty. Amis' prose was better and, though I'm a working class Englishman myself, I feel more at home in an Amis middle-class sot story than a crummy working class one.
Any recommendations?
Joshua Reyes
>Novelists Veeky Forums would like if they weren't so caught up in acquiring prestige by reading faddy, prolix things like IJ, or scholar's writers like Joyce, etc.
Probably Jim Thompson.
William Rodriguez
This is a great idea for a thread. Amazingly, I don't think I've ever seen Henry James discussed before on this board, despite the fact that he's one of the most influential, idiosyncratic authors the world has ever seen.
Colton Davis
everyday drinking
Isaac Brooks
money is pretty good
Austin Hall
>shittier version of Maugham
They're not very similar. Maugham had one of the clumsiest styles I've ever read.
David Powell
I think Turgenev is underdisussed here for those reasons.
