Lucky Jim by Kingsley AmisThe debut novel of Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, is a satirical campus novel that illustrates the everyday life of England during the 1950s. In 1955, the book won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction. The chucklesome book portrays the life of a man named Jim Dixon. Dixon is the bespectacled protagonist depicted in the role of a medieval history professor. Considered foolish and dumb by everyone around him, Jim is rambunctious in his own unique way.
Since he is on his probation period in a local university, he is unsure whether he’ll be able to continue with the job or not. And so, in his attempt to secure a permanent position in the university, he strives to maintain a good relationship with his senior nudnik professor Welch. In addition, he is required to submit a scholarly article for a magazine. But later in the story, he comes to know that the person he submitted his article to, had published it on his own name. Dixon reacts to the reality in an ear-splitting manner.
The story also revolves a lot around the weekend gatherings that Dixon attends in Welch’s house, often arranged with musical performances of violin and madrigals, which prove to crop up gargantuan boredom in Dixon’s head.
Apart from Dixon and prof. Welch, another character presented in the novel is Margaret Peel. Dixon has an on-and-off relationship with Margaret. Margaret is shown to be a manipulative woman who battens on Jim’s pity and guilt-stricken demeanour. Margaret did a suicide attempt telling everyone that her fiancé had betrayed her. At first, Dixon seemed to get drawn into her emotional blackmail, but when he met her fiancé Catchpole, he came to know that he was not her fiancé at all. She was just making up the story to keep both Catchpole and Dixon unhinged.
On the other side, while attending Welch’s dinner get-togethers, Dixon comes across another woman named Christine. He instantly feels attracted towards her as she appears to be unpretentious. But Christine is the girlfriend of professor Welch’s haughty son Bertrand. Bertrand, a painter and a cranky man, is using Christine to secure a job with his Scottish uncle Julius Gore Urquhart.
During one of these parties however, Dixon sneaks away with Christine giving a flippant punch to Bertrand’s ego who warns him that he wouldn’t continue his job in the university. He also mistakenly burns holes in Welch’s bedsheets from his burning cigarettes, which infuriates Mrs. Welch when she comes to realize what happened. Dixon seems to be on the track where he is obvious to lose his job.
Everything changes in Dixon’s life one day when he is invited to give a lecture. Owing to nervousness, he drinks a little too much before the lecture. During the lecture, the inebriated man faints. After his conduct, Professor Welch secretly tells him that he wouldn’t be able to continue his employment in the university. But in an auspicious twist, Christine’s uncle offers him a job at his office in London.
Meanwhile, Christine breaks up with Bertrand knowing that he was having an affair with the wife of one of the Dixon’s colleagues. The novel wraps up with a happy ending as Dixon is seen romping with victory over both his career and his romantic life.
From the writing perspective, the novel is written in a straightforward tone with a third-person narrative and lots of descriptive similes. There are hilarious moments sewn throughout the story along with skewering remarks and satirical snippets. But as Amis quotes in the novel “If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.” And so, this novel will annoy you a little bit, make you laugh a lot, but most of all, it will be entertaining and immersive to read!
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