Bit late this month what with the New Year and all but this month's book is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis - as nominated by Chapman Baxter!
I'll open this again on the 1st of February for comment and discussion.
Full Version: Reading Group: Lucky Jim
My copy finally arrived yesterday so my comments will be a little while in coming but the thread is now open for those who wish to discuss! 
Right, I've just finished the book and will kick this off. I'll divide my thoughts over several posts.
First of all, Lucky Jim is hilarious. The jokes range from slapstick
through comedic time-bombs
and long, sustained passages of pure comic genius, such as Dixon's disastrous lecture on 'Merrie England'.
First of all, Lucky Jim is hilarious. The jokes range from slapstick
QUOTE
Welch, his hair flapping, was straining like a packed-down rugby forward to push the revolving door in the wrong direction... After a time Welch, somehow divining his error, began pulling instead at the now-jammed door, changing his semblance to that of anchor in a losing tug-o'-war team. With a sudden bursting click the door yielded and Welch overbalanced backwards, hitting his head on the panel behind him.
(p174. All page references to the 1992 Penguin Classic edition)through comedic time-bombs
QUOTE
What would she be wearing this evening? He could just about bring himself to praise anything but the green Paisley frock in combination with the low-heeled, quasi-velvet shoes.
(p11)QUOTE
She leaned sideways on her bar-stool in laughter, her hands clasped round one knee, the quasi-velvey shoe falling away from her heel... She shook her head, still laughing quietly, and pulled her cardigan up over the shoulders of the green Paisley frock.
(p19)and long, sustained passages of pure comic genius, such as Dixon's disastrous lecture on 'Merrie England'.
Has there ever been a funnier, truer description of a hangover than this?
QUOTE
Dixon was alive again. Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way; not for him the slow, gracious wandering from the halls of sleep, but a summary, forcible ejection. He law sprawled, too wicked to move, spewed up like a broken spider-crab on the tarry shingle of the morning. The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again. A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by the secret police. He felt bad.
(p61)
Second, the book is full of hard-headed good sense. A lot of people in today's educational establishment could learn from Beesley's discussion of university teaching (p169-170). Dixon's reaction to Christine's airy profession not to know what love means is wonderful.
Amis's contempt for pretention and affected behaviour is palpable. We know that Bernard is a bad sort right from the start, with this sort of dialogue:
QUOTE
He gave a quiet yell. Oh, don't say that; no, don't say that. It a word you must often have come across in conversation and literature. Are you going to tell me it sends you flying to the dictionary each time? Of course you're not.
(pp143-144)Amis's contempt for pretention and affected behaviour is palpable. We know that Bernard is a bad sort right from the start, with this sort of dialogue:
QUOTE
'I doubt it,' he said at last. 'Upon consideration I feel it incumbent on me to doubt it. I have miscellaneous concerns in London that need my guiding hand... But it is very pleasant to come down here and know that the torch of culture is still in a state of combusiton in the provinces.'
(p40)
Lucky Jim is a comedy of escape. Jim Dixon is a history lecturer at a provincial university, but only because he can't think of anything else to do except teach at a school, which he thinks would be even worse. He's surrounded by dreadful people: his vindictive housemate Johns; the evasive, capricious old Professor Welch; and Margaret, an unattractive and not very pleasant woman who has somehow ensnared him.
Escape arrives in the form of Christine - the beautiful girlfriend of Professor Welch's son Bertrand, who thinks of himself as a great artist - and her uncle, the rich benefactor Mr Gore-Urquart. However, Dixon's efforts to improve his situation and strike back at those who afflict him only draw him deeper into the mire he is stuck in. After a public lecture that he agreed to give to improve his standing at the university, he is left without a job, without Christine, and shackled to Margaret.
However, this being a comedy, Dixon is not left here. He finds that Margaret does not have as much of a claim on him as he thinks she has, and that his integrity has impressed Gore-Urquart sufficiently that Gore-Urquart offers him the job that Bertand hoped to get. Christine is also unentangled from Bertrand, and she and Dixon are left, at the end, considering a future in London free from the Welches and other local encumbrances.
Escape arrives in the form of Christine - the beautiful girlfriend of Professor Welch's son Bertrand, who thinks of himself as a great artist - and her uncle, the rich benefactor Mr Gore-Urquart. However, Dixon's efforts to improve his situation and strike back at those who afflict him only draw him deeper into the mire he is stuck in. After a public lecture that he agreed to give to improve his standing at the university, he is left without a job, without Christine, and shackled to Margaret.
However, this being a comedy, Dixon is not left here. He finds that Margaret does not have as much of a claim on him as he thinks she has, and that his integrity has impressed Gore-Urquart sufficiently that Gore-Urquart offers him the job that Bertand hoped to get. Christine is also unentangled from Bertrand, and she and Dixon are left, at the end, considering a future in London free from the Welches and other local encumbrances.
I liked this book, in case you can't tell. I found it wise, very funny, and a fascinating portrait of down-at-heel England recovering from the Second World War. The ending left a big smile on my face. 
I'm just over 30 pages in and so far it's very good (as you may have guessed by now I'm not much of a speed reader 
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