It remains, however, for a newcomer to provide the novel

of the week. Mr. Kingsley Amis, in his first novel, Lucky Jim, has produced that rarest of rare good things: a very funny book.

Jim Dixon is nearing the end of his first year as a teacher in the History Department of a dreary northern university. His attempts to make the academic grade are complicated by his loathing of his subject, his Professor, and the monotony of his life. Tied to one woman—a brilliantly sketched neurotic—he falls in love for the first time with another. Everything goes wrong for Jim until—for this is a comedy—the last two chapters, when everything goes gloriously right, and yet, such is the structure of the novel, good fortune comes inevitably, is not contrived, arises organically from the fumblings and bumblings of the earlier chapters. Dixon is L,ompletely believ- able, his predicaments and gaucheries are a part of him, and Mr. Amis watches him with wide-eyed objectivity, spotting here a flurry of Unreasoning panic, here a surfacing of fantasy-life, here an agonised submission to a loathed but known pattern, here a drunken splurge of release. Jim's, unfortunate one-pint-too-many during a weekend in the recorder-racked home of his professor• is cleanly and confi- dently blocked in : He reached up and turned off the light by the hanging switch above his head. The room began to rise upwards from the right- hand bottom corner of the bed, and yet seemed to keep in the same position. He threw back the covers and sat on the edge of the bed, his legs hanging. The room composed itself to rest. After a few moments he swung his legs back and lay down. The room lifted. He put his feet to the floor. The room stayed still. He put his legs on the bed but didn't lie down. The room moved. He sat on the edge of the bed. Nothing. He put one leg up on the bed. Something. In fact a great deal. He was evidently in a highly

• critical condition. Swearing hoarsely, he heaped up the pillows, half-lay, half-sat against them, and dangled his legs half-over the edge of the bed. In this position he was able to lower himself gingerly into sleep.

This is first-rate observation, broad without being vulgar, detailed without being a waste of time. Mr. Amis's dialogue is of a piece with this, quick and sure, the hesitations and nuances of modern speech deftly demonstrated.

There are one or two weaknesses in the book. A tendency towards caricature in the minor characters sometimes throws the perspective out fo,r a page or two, and Jim's ultimate benefactor arrives on the scene too early and too obviously in that i ole. But these are unimportant, What matters is that Mr. Kingsley Amis has written a very funny, very human first novel. He will write many more.

JOHN METCALF

•

1.1-1E "SPECTATOR " CROSSWORD No. 767 IA Book token for one guinea will be awarded to the gender of the first correct solution opened after noon on Tuesday week, February 911s, addressed Crossword,

Gower Street. London, W.C.I. Envelopes must' be received not later than first post that day and must bear the NUMBER of the puzzle. Solutions must be on the form below, and none can be accepted from the U.S.A. The solution and the name of the winner will be published in the following issue.)

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Across

1. A party in a motor in Africa. (7.) 5. Monsieur, oh, 1 urn capable. (7.)

9. Closed at times of crisis. (5.)

13. Broken rest u Ida a wrecked motor. (7.) Requirements of 'doughboys 7 (5.) Do they get sent to the barber or the laundry. (4, 6.) It makes linen hard. (9.)