33 review for The Amis Collection: Selected Non-fiction

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Dave – Mar 30, 2010

   Since I read Paul Fussell's book, "The Anti-Egoist: Kingley Amis, Man of Letters," it seemed like a good idea to actually read some of Amis's nonfiction. Now I've read more than I ever want to again. On the one hand he is definitely a good, clear writer, and he has a way of disliking something that makes you want to agree with him, or at least feel unnatural for not doing so. There's one essay at the beginning in which he dismisses most of American literature (James/Melville/Twain--Nabokov, even Since I read Paul Fussell's book, "The Anti-Egoist: Kingley Amis, Man of Letters," it seemed like a good idea to actually read some of Amis's nonfiction. Now I've read more than I ever want to again. On the one hand he is definitely a good, clear writer, and he has a way of disliking something that makes you want to agree with him, or at least feel unnatural for not doing so. There's one essay at the beginning in which he dismisses most of American literature (James/Melville/Twain--Nabokov, even) that's kind of breathtaking in its amusing disdain. He has a healthy dislike of pretension and (especially) of "experts" deciding what makes a piece of art good. On the other hand, after three-hundred pages of dislike, you start to wonder if he's capable of liking anything, really. At least anything currently around him. Fussell plays up his "populism," and equates his dislike of all forms of modernism and anything difficult as evidence of that. But you soon realize that Amis doesn't much care for what everyday people like either--maybe he doesn't notice it, but he's frequently insulting them for their uneducated taste for tripe. So you get a slim description of certain things he likes--Larkin, Tennyson, old mysteries, Robert Heinlein, Anthony Powell, alcohol. And a large swath of things that show evidence of how things have dropped off since he was young: jazz, sci-fi, different cities, etc. etc. etc. Even ignoring his "social commentary" (read: knee-jerk dismissal of anything left-leaning) it becomes heavy going, the humor labored and less funny than he thinks. When he got to complaining that eyeglasses were made wrong nowadays, and he can't get any that don't slide down his nose, I realized that he was just a crank. A talented, occasionally entertaining, often annoyingly wrong-headed crank.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Todd – Jan 10, 2016

   Very good collection of non-fiction. The restaurant reviews are hilarious, the other pieces are all both fascinating and beautifully written (whether you're in agreement with him or not). Very good collection of non-fiction. The restaurant reviews are hilarious, the other pieces are all both fascinating and beautifully written (whether you're in agreement with him or not).

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Nightocelot –

4. 

   4 out of 5

   Edward Waverley –

5. 

   5 out of 5

   Jane –

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Rob –

7. 

   5 out of 5

   Peter Tarrant –

8. 

   4 out of 5

   D. Robert Bailey –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Kathe –

10. 

    5 out of 5

    Glossy –

11. 

    5 out of 5

    August –

12. 

    4 out of 5

    Stephen –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    Ihsan –

14. 

    4 out of 5

    Neil Richardson –

15. 

    4 out of 5

    Jesse K –

16. 

    5 out of 5

    Se84 –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Peter Tarrant –

18. 

    5 out of 5

    Tom –

19. 

    4 out of 5

    Daniel –

20. 

    4 out of 5

    Mark Sullivan –

21. 

    5 out of 5

    Michiel –

22. 

    5 out of 5

    BookDB –

23. 

    4 out of 5

    Dstephenc –

24. 

    4 out of 5

    Kristina –

25. 

    4 out of 5

    Adam Kelly –

26. 

    5 out of 5

    Alicia –

27. 

    5 out of 5

    Govind Rajan –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Stephen –

29. 

    5 out of 5

    Mahreen Khan –

30. 

    5 out of 5

    Giosué –

31. 

    5 out of 5

    Paul Wilner –

32. 

    4 out of 5

    Nathan –

33. 

    5 out of 5

    Maruti Sridhar –