Disappointing Devils

I finished reading "The Old Devils" by Kingsley Amis late last night. It took me ten days, which is not too bad, especially when you consider how much I disliked reading this book. Which is kind of sad, because I was really looking forward to it, having been told that Amis is a "fun" writer. Perhaps I am just not the target audience, but I found it a torturous read, often forcing myself to sit still for even an hour of reading. The more I've reflected on it the better I've thought of it, but that doesn't alter the fact that I didn't enjoy it while I was reading it.

The story is of a group of old friends, mostly recently retired, trying to fill their days and ease their worries through excessive drinking and occasionally lusting after each others spouses. It's set in Wales in the mid 1980's and the identity crisis of the country is reflected in the lives of the characters, which added much needed depth and interest. Without it, the general carousing and whining of the characters would have bored me to tears. The narrative was often quite amusing, although I'm willing to admit I probably missed a few of the jokes. There are language, cultural and ageist references that just went over my head - not really a fault with a book, just evidence of me not being the target audience.

I was particularly interested in Charlie as a character - he probably could have sustained an entire novel himself. However, he was also a major part of why I didn't enjoy the novel. Charlie seems to be a master of the double negative, and every time the story switched to his point of view I was irritated by that. Yes, it's part of building the character profile for the reader, helping to develop the character voice, blah blah blah. It's really irritating to read a paragraph full of double negatives, especially when you're already struggling to decipher the cultural references. Having to work really hard to figure out what's meant takes me completely out of the story, which is probably why I struggled so much to get emotionally involved with this story. It's really unfortunate, too, because as I said the story itself was interesting. I can see how people would love this book, and I'll probably try some other novels by Amis, but this novel didn't work for me.

So, moving on to the next novel. I'll be reading Penelope Lively's "Moon Tiger". Just a quick reminder, there's still lots of time to be entered in my draw to win a book. All you have to do to enter is comment on the blog and let me know what your favourite book is, and why you love it. I'm kind of dying of curiosity here!

Happy reading!