I first met Kingsley Amis’ works in the 1980s, when I found the science-fiction anthologies he edited along with Robert Conquest in the 60s on my trip to the second-hand bookshop. These anthologies comprised five volumes and the editing duo had selected mostly classical stories. When I look at these five volumes, I realise that there is not a single story in them that I would not want to read.
The next sign of Amis’ work on my radar was when I found a copy of New Maps of Hell, a very good book analysing all the phases that science fiction went through until the 60s and an important work of literature criticism.
The last book I read from Amis was The Alteration, an Alternative History novel where the Reformation never happened (and as such Protestantism did not arise). The book questions the European civilisation of today, through the ten-year-old boy Hubert who is destined to be castrated to protect his perfect, heavenly voice from the transformation of adolescence.
My interest in Amis was about his science-fiction content, but Amis produced around twenty-five novels, a series of critiques and some poetry.
Getting admitted to Oxford in 1941, Amis became a member of the Communist Party - like many in Oxford did - and stayed as a leftist until 1956. Amis stopped school when he was drafted in 1942 and went to the front. When the war ended, he went back to school and graduated. When he graduated, he had already decided that he would continue his life as a writer. He was introduced to poet Philip Larkin and he stayed as his greatest friend all through his life.
Amis met and married Hillary Bardwell in 1948 and he started teaching at Swansea University in 1949. In 1954, after the birth of his third child Sally, he published his first (and most-liked) novel, Lucky Jim. The most important feature of Amis’ works is that they have a special black comedy, although he was accused of antisemitic elements in some of his works. Lucky Jim has clearly been inspired by Amis’ own life and brings criticism to the false and snobbish behaviour in universities but also the overall British society.
I did not have anything to do with this exceptionally prolific author after I read his science fiction-related works and anthologies until I got a request to translate his novel The Old Devils, which got the Booker Prize in 1986. The novel surpassed a lot of good books that year, including Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and was considered a big surprise from an author who was thought not to produce good stuff.
At first sight, the story of men and women who are over 60 and pass their days by drinking a lot and remembering old days was not too attractive to me. However, after reading it front-to-end a few times I noticed that Amis kept changing the focal point of his narrative and applied sharp humor to his characters without any restraint. Drab relationships between women and men and the idiosyncratic struggles within the literary world are like shadows Amis cast on his characters relentlessly.
The Old Devils starts with Alun Weaver, who lives in England and is famous for articles and books about Brydan - one of the most famous poets of Wales (and a fictional one at that) - returning to Wales with his wife Rhiannon. The story is set in the beginning of the period when Margaret Thatcher transformed the economy of Great Britain irrevocably, covering the stories of four couples bound to each other, through the focal changes I explained above. The book then progresses slowly, revealing secrets with the return of Alun, mixing humorous treasures of marriage with the struggle of Welsh literature to gain an independent identity, then reaches a stunning speed and ends the story with a metamorphosis from black humour to eternal love.
The common theme of all the characters is drinking. The characters drink continuously and then create new opportunities to drink. Since Amis himself is a notorious drinker, the novel could be considered partly autobiographical, at least in this aspect. Events are basically between the four married couples but when we add the subsidiary characters we get a text that looks simple but reflects the tragedy in mediocrity, filtered through the humour of an author with a sharp tongue
The book starts with Malcolm and Gwen, one of the four couples. We see for a while Malcolm’s worry about being able to empty his bowels, the things he does to do this and the authority Gwen has established on him. Even in this first chapter, we are aware of how common tasks in daily life become a great problem for these characters, how men and women go into power struggles (some have claimed Amis to be a misogynist since he portrays dominant women) and how well Amis describes them. Another emerging theme is infidelity and old flames. Since Rhiannon is a woman admired by a lot of men in the group - and a few have been in relation with her in the past - and Alun is an incurable womaniser, things quickly get out of control. But Amis does not create a vaudeville while narrating these events, although passions, old flames and debauchery prepare the stage for tragic events and life-changing decisions.
We notice that there are more autobiographical elements when reading about Charlie being mortally afraid of the dark, a condition that Amis shares. The fourth chapter describing Peter’s procedure to get out of bed has the most humorous scenes for the reader.
Amis uses a complex language in the book, interspersed with Welsh expressions. I must say I had to study and learn Welsh at a basic level before attempting to translate the book. He uses the third person narrative, thus putting some distance between the author and the characters, but frequently refers to the characters’ thoughts and reflects the emotional storms they go through.
The story of these old devils who spend their time drinking, without much of a goal for life and as such trying to keep the balance that has been established within the family - and usually against the well-being of one of the partners - seems to portray a quite negative situation, but the youths in the novel - Rosemary and William - having the choice to find love once again comes out as a hopeful conclusion to the story.
The subtitle of the commemoration article in the Guardian on October 23rd, 1995 is “From the angry young man to the old devil…” and reflects Amis’ personal literary transformation very well. Starting from a radical left perspective in his early books, like many graduates of Oxford, he moved to the right when he was older, adapting to the values of a changing world.