Alfie

This novel sits somewhere between the classics of the "Angry Young Men" genre, such as "Room at the Top," "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning," and "Look Back in Anger," and the insouciant spirit of the later '60s. Stylistically it has a lot in common with "AYM" works (see also, "Billy Liar" and "Lucky Jim" and "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner") but thematically it really is from another, later generation. "Alfie" brings with it the sense of the sexual revolution (multiple mentions of the pill, women who use men for sex and not just vice-versa, teenage runaways, a more flamboyant interpretation of male fashion), fast cars, and consumer culture, far from the utilitarian North of post-austerity Britain evoked in the "AYM" show more classics. However, like them, the book consists of an unlikable protagonist whose misogynistic actions and self-delusion are tempered by a surprisingly deep, almost existentialist worldview.

It is difficult to read the book without picturing the young Michael Caine as he appeared in the original film, all Cockney bravado and slick clothes, whereas those earlier antiheroes were hard-wrought Northern working-class men (played by the likes of Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney with unadulterated Northern accents). It's hard not to hate Alfie, but it's also hard not to sympathize with him just a little bit. Warning that there is a lot of very sexist and homophobic language throughout the book, but this is true to the time period and to the character. Frustrating but ultimately rewarding if you can get past Alfie's actions and think about the themes Naughton is conveying about human nature. show less

If you thought he came across as a jerk in the movie, he comes off even worse in the book. Not only a womanizer, he was also a thief, and altough insisting that he does not usually hit women, does it at least twice in the book.
Pretty disgusting book, actually.

Unrepentant ladies' man Alfie Elkins gradually begins to understand the consequences of his lifestyle in 1960s London.