Difficulties with girls, by Kingsley Amis, Penguin 1989 (first published by Century

Hutchinson in 1988), pp276

The future will learn about the state of English today not from the linguists but from the
novels of Amis. To say nothing of the customs and morality that go along with the language -
Anthony Burgess in the Observer

The blurb on the back of the book also gives Amis readers a jolt of excitement ...Last seen in
Take a girl like you, Patrick Standish and Jenny, nee Bunn, are now married and living in an
up-and-coming maisonette block south of the Thames. Unfortunately, like his neighbours,
Patrick continues to have difficulties with girls.... read on.

I wondered when I read Take a girl like you whether there would be a sequel. Here it is. But
what interests me is that Amis (for whatever reason) has waited to publish the novel 28 years
later. One thing is clear. Patrick seems to have become even sillier and Jenny seems to have
lost almost all confidence. The story is also written as if it happened in the early 1960s,
(noting its publication in 1989), and there is no evidence that Amis acknowledges that
behaviour between men and women has changed remarkably over the past three decades.

But the story is slightly amusing (if you can get over the woodenness of Patrick’s slippery
character). Patrick has left the High School and is working for a scheming publisher Simon
Giles. Patrick is also dabbling with Simon’s wife, Barbara. Life is centred around the job,
their new apartment, and the tenants. Jenny also has her suspicions that Patrick is not
faithful, and she herself is unfulfilled. Patrick senses something is wrong and his guilt,
because he is guilty, plays on his mind, which does not guarantee a good outcome in any
case.

There are a number of parties ‘setting scenes’ - typical 60s. The first party at Simon Giles’
house sets Patrick’s infidelity in motion and Jenny’s suspicions soaring. At the flat a curious
young man, Tim Valentine, settles in one of the vacant flats. He and Patrick (the man of the
world) spend some time questioning Tim’s sexuality, with an educational visit to an
unsavoury establishment. Patrick keeps girlie magazines in his brief case. The other
occupants are two aging fags, and Mr and Mrs Porter-King. Action vacillates between these
characters and Patrick’s workplace in a slow moving lazy story. The climax arises from the
second party at the Porter-Kings, another of Patrick’s conquests, and misunderstandings
between Tim and the fags.

Amis makes really no effort to make the story bubble. It slops along and the end comes
slowly (and inconclusively) to a grinding halt, with the unlikely announcement that Jenny is
pregnant. Patrick cries in happiness (or relief), and she thinks she will keep him - the load of
shit!

Another disappointing book from Kingsley Amis. Will I read another?