Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Amis, Kingsley (Vol. 129) - James Wolcott (review date 30 October 1995)

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James Wolcott (review date 30 October 1995)

SOURCE: “Kingsley's Ransom,” in The New Yorker, Vol. LXXI, No. 34, October 30, 1995, pp. 52-7.

[In the following review of The Biographer's Moustache, Wolcott argues that Amis has been too harshly criticized and provides an overview of his career.]

Late this summer, a literary crime was committed in London: if the victim had been a woman, it might have been called “granny bashing.” The elderly gentleman being ganged up on was Kingsley Amis, who, at seventy-three, had brought out his twenty-fourth novel, The Biographer's Moustache, to little acclaim. The majority opinion was that this book revealed sad evidence of diminished capacity. The Observer: “The Biographer's Moustache is reflex writing, full of Pavlovian pedantry.” The Sunday Times: “A stale, flat, savourless affair.” The Daily Mail: “Banal, boring and extremely silly.”...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. David Lida (review date May 1989)
   2. James Gindin (essay date 1990)
   3. Dale Salwak (essay date 1986)
   4. Garry Abrams (review date 12 June 1994)
   5. Harry Ritchie (review date July 1994)
   6. Philip Hensher (review date 16 October 1994)
   7. James Wolcott (review date 30 October 1995)
   8. Donald Bruce (essay date November 1996)
   9. George Watson (essay date Winter 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright