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A review by elenia
The Anti-Death League by Kingsley Amis
4.0
What can I say? The Anti-Death League is of that genre of book that I really enjoy: post-war confusion, espionage, a more than well-furnished cast of character and a healthy dose of humour tinted by world-weariness.
That being said, it's also of that genre of book that is difficult to review and to classify. The action scenes were as typically absurd as all action scenes in this genre, but they also felt purposely rushed, as though Amis wanted to further heighten his reader's confusion. Despite the feeling of intent, the pace sometimes threw me off a bit.
In addition to that, towards the end I felt that the narrative voice shifted, letting through phrases more suited to spoken language.
I felt the religious critique was, at times, a little too heavy handed, but given the subject of the book I can understand why it was such an overbearing theme.
All this aside, it was an amazing and compelling read. I had to force myself to put it down for a week so I could focus on getting work done and actually living. The characters are interesting and well crafted, with Max Hunter and Ayscue being my favourites. The sheer absurdity of everything was a joy, and there wee often times when I found myself laughing out loud (and more often, times when I found myself thinking 'I wish I wrote that!')
A review of this book talked about 'Lightness of touch' and I definitely agree. Apart from the occasional outbursts about religion (thankfully, all of them coming from the characters, with the narration being completely neutral, leaving the reader space to swallow each point made,) the book is legerity in itself. Nothing is taken seriously, not love, not life and not death. Amis manages to take the most complicated of emotions and feelings and distill them into single actions or lines of dialogue that hit right where it counts. All in all, I found it an enjoyable read, and have already recommended it to a few of my friends.
That being said, it's also of that genre of book that is difficult to review and to classify. The action scenes were as typically absurd as all action scenes in this genre, but they also felt purposely rushed, as though Amis wanted to further heighten his reader's confusion. Despite the feeling of intent, the pace sometimes threw me off a bit.
In addition to that, towards the end I felt that the narrative voice shifted, letting through phrases more suited to spoken language.
I felt the religious critique was, at times, a little too heavy handed, but given the subject of the book I can understand why it was such an overbearing theme.
All this aside, it was an amazing and compelling read. I had to force myself to put it down for a week so I could focus on getting work done and actually living. The characters are interesting and well crafted, with Max Hunter and Ayscue being my favourites. The sheer absurdity of everything was a joy, and there wee often times when I found myself laughing out loud (and more often, times when I found myself thinking 'I wish I wrote that!')
A review of this book talked about 'Lightness of touch' and I definitely agree. Apart from the occasional outbursts about religion (thankfully, all of them coming from the characters, with the narration being completely neutral, leaving the reader space to swallow each point made,) the book is legerity in itself. Nothing is taken seriously, not love, not life and not death. Amis manages to take the most complicated of emotions and feelings and distill them into single actions or lines of dialogue that hit right where it counts. All in all, I found it an enjoyable read, and have already recommended it to a few of my friends.