This illuminating biography by a professor of English at the University of Ulster plumbs the interrelationship of life and art—an idea Bradford's subject, the late Kingsley Amis (1922–1995), would never have approved of. Amis once declared his novels (beginning with his most celebrated work, Lucky Jim, in 1954) "firmly unautobiographical," but Bradford demonstrates quite the opposite and does so in a way that gives the reader substantially deeper views of both the prolific author's work and the man himself. Combining close reading of the texts—fiction, poetry and his substantial body of nonfiction—with the already well-documented facts of Amis's life, the book reveals Amis's motivations. In particular, Bradford dissects the overarching theme in Amis's novels: the tension or conflict between what one wants to do and what one ought to do, and how that tension "energizes [one's] style." He takes pains to point out that Amis's literary value is not dependent on his works' autobiographical underpinnings; he reveals the skill and power of Amis the writer at transmuting life into art. But he also crafts an appropriately multifaceted portrait of Amis the man: a serious writer of comic fiction, an intellectual with an appetite for low culture and, of course, a prodigious womanizer ("Amis went to bed with practically anyone he found attractive and willing"). This bio is not perfect. Transitions within chapters are sometimes abrupt (or nonexistent); details get recycled in a few places; he doesn't really undertake the challenge of analyzing Amis's psychology. But the writing is consistently clear and the insights—literary and biographical—are formidable. It's the art that makes Amis worth reading, but Bradford's book illustrates that Amis's novels are "the most entertaining and thought-provoking autobiographies ever produced." 16 pages of b&w photos. (Dec. 17)
