The Old Devils

Who names their child Kingsley? I mean, honestly, who does? It sounds like the name you’d give a Basset Hound. Anyway, name apart, this was a terrible novel. It was just irretrievably boring.

It centres around the lives of a group of friends and acquaintances in their retirement and is based in Wales. Throughout the whole book, alcohol plays a central role. These people drink it like, no, in preference to, water.

Their lives are really, really sterile. They have dashed hopes that they cosset but never verbalise, they spend all their lives going to parties they don’t enjoy, engaging in trivial or banal conversation, going through routines without ever thinking of why and always the endless flow of fluid.

Mostly, they’re trapped by show more their fear of each other, of not being accepted by the group, as if this social circle is all there is to life. They have secret affairs with each other which none of them have the balls to even acknowledge to themselves half the time. It made me realise that, potentially, this is what comes of many people who live in the same social sphere for decades of their lives.

If Amis had written it as an intentional social commentary on this sad phenomenon, the novel would be a classic. But it has the most heinous take on it of all: it’s cynical. There’s no real compassion or understanding of what gets people into such a state. And no exploration of the potential that each one of us has of a life that is exuberantly reach and meaningful. Perhaps he didn’t know any better, hence the cynicism.

For me, the novel’s inability to take the issue of the moribund life seriously robbed it of its potential power. What’s left is a boring read. Tedious would better describe it. How on earth this won the Booker is beyond me. 1986 must have been a tragically uninspired year. show less

Time to review The Old Devils, eh? Let me get some supplies.

"First into the cargo space went, in quick time, a carton of drinkables: twelve-year-old Scotch, classy spring water to put in it, gin, tonics, a rare bottle of Linie-Aquavit from Oslo, a much commoner bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream…one each of Asti Spumante and Golden Sweet Malaga…four large cold Special Brews in wet newspaper...and a spot of coffee liqueur and other muck…"

That, my dears, is what the star couple of old devils takes with them on a four-day trip with one other couple. There is so much drinking in this novel, that I often felt vicariously dizzy.

The story is set in motion by the return to Wales of Alun Weaver, Welsh poet and TV personality, and his wife show more Rhiannon, after several decades’ absence. Their arrival stirs up a brew of old loves, losses, and resentments, many of them acted out in bars and other drunken revelries.

Most of the characters are of retirement age, and the book begins with a careful description of each main fellow’s morning routine, right down to one’s constant struggle with constipation. But there are tender moments too, such as insights into decades-old relationships, as well as brutally honest observations on literary academia, the role of wives, and the modernization of Wales. I can’t say I got all the Welsh jokes, but I got enough of the humour to be laughing out loud more than once. So grab a scotch and tuck in. show less

“Professional Welshman” Alun Weaver returns to his South Wales hometown after a career in London as a writer and poet and TV pundit. His old friends are in two minds about his re-appearance. And that of his wife, Rhiannon. Yet they welcome the pair pretty much with open arms, and some private bickering. And a lot of drinking. One of the good things about The Old Devils is that, on the one hand, the various characters are conflicted about the Weavers’ return; on the other, things quickly settle into what is clearly a well-established routine. A number of past events resurface and cause a few problems, but they seem to be resolved with a surprising lack of drama – in fact, the most dramatic scene is prompted by the pettiest of show more disagreements. There’s often some nastiness on display – and of all the characters, it’s the wives who are treated worst. One might almost suspect Amis was a misogynist – one wife is cruelly mocked by her friends, another has her character assassinated, and a third heartlessly abandons her husband. The men are old codgers and drunkards, and amusing at times, but The Old Devils‘ one-sidedness does get wearying as the novel progresses. I’ve no idea why The Old Devils is on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. show less

Amis's 1986 Booker winner is clever, entertaining and very sharply observed, obviously written by a master craftsman who knew exactly what he was doing. Really superb in its technique, but I found it disappointingly predictable on a larger scale. The jokes about Welsh provincialism, the fake mysticism of the Dylan Thomas cult, the tackiness of 80s Britain and the indignities of old age are really just an excuse for Amis to unleash his grumpy-old-man side; the booze-and-adultery gets rather tedious; the plot about a settled community being disoriented by the return of its absent celebrities has been done many times before... If anyone else had written this book it would have been nothing more than a Welsh Last of the summer wine pastiche show more - Amis is a good enough writer to take it a few levels higher than that, but he only barely gets away with it. show less

This novel is a story of old friends, married couples in southwestern Wales, and how their lives change when Alun and Rhiannon Weaver return to the country after Alun's long career in London. Alun has for some time been an ambitious media personality whose career resulted in the "popularization" of Wales. He is vaguely blamed for the onslaught of developers and bad architecture in the country, though this seems to me baseless. He's also known for championing the Welsh poet, Brydan, whom I suspect is loosely based on Dylan Thomas. Alun's as pure a "shit," Amis's word, as you're likely to come across in English letters. A vile bastard masquerading as a chum. At once upon his return he commences to systematically cuckold most of his show more friends, whom he then routinely meets the next day at the Bible and Crown for round after round of powerful cirrhotic drinks. Everyone, or almost everyone, in The Old Devils drinks themselves into near insensibility on a daily basis. For what else is there to do in culturally bereft Wales? Peter Thomas was a local college professor in the old days. Back then he seduced and knocked up his student, Rhiannon, still something of a beauty today, whom he promptly left for one Angharad, under the delusion of greener pastures. He's an old fool but at least, unlike Alun, he knows he's an old fool. Peter is now married to the imperious Muriel. He's fat, pushing 70, with a failing heart, and he regrets his hasty youthful choices. In other words, he's still in love with Rhiannon. Then there's Charlie, the book's purest alcoholic, who's been suffering lately from panic attacks, and his wife Sophie, the first old flame to succumb to slick Alun's inexplicable charms. There's also Malcolm Cellan-Davies, more of a Welsh scholar than Alun will ever be, and his wife Gwen, who also falls under Alun's spell. Structurally The Old Devils is a traditional novel; there is nothing new or even innovative about it. There are no sophomoric metafictional tricks, for which I was grateful. The novel beguiles us chiefly through its mastery of technique. It is so sure footed. It makes a virtue of the run on sentence. It was surprising to find amid the rich comedic scenes these stretches of striking descriptive beauty. Amis got the Booker Prize for this novel and one can see why. Here is everything he knows from the writing of, what, twenty novels? Here it is all in one book. The last third I found moving; a surprise since emotion was never something Kingsley Amis's work was known for. He was essentially a comic novelist, like his son. That was another striking thing, the similarity of phrasing between father and son. One can almost imagine them arguing about the merits of a proper sentence during their famous weekly meetings (see MA's Experience). Highly amusing, often LOL funny. Exuberantly recommended. show less

I have to admit that I only read this because it is one of my last four Booker winners, not because I have any interest in reading Kingsley Amis.

I suspect that both his writing and his sense of humour are acquired tastes that I will never acquire, and I really struggled to maintain any interest in its cast of ageing Welsh drunks or Amis's array of Welsh cliches. I don't think this one has aged well.

“Everybody had been in their twenties then; well, round about thirty. Now, from round about seventy, all those years of maturity or the prime of life or whatever you called it looked like an interval between two bouts of vomiting.

The Old Devils centre around a group of six retired old friends from Wales and their wives. Five of the couples have pretty well lived all their life in Wales. Being retired most of their days are pretty empty apart from bouts of heavy drinking. The men mainly in a pub called the Bible but also other various pubs whilst the women chiefly prefer to do their drinking in the kitchens of their respective group. There is plenty of back-biting, cattiness and moaning in each group but there is also a sense of show more tolerance.

All have become very staid and settled in their daily existence until two old school friends return to Wales after spending years living in London. An ageing poet, minor TV personality, posturing professional Welshman and habitual womaniser, Alun, who had been a paramour of two of the other women in his youth and his charming wife who had previously been loved by two of the other men and of whom all the women seem envious of . These new arrivals stir up long buried memories and jealousies.

Now I must admit that it took me a little while to warm to this novel, to really grasp the dry wit within but once I did I found it a charming book that speaks volumes of the daily boredom of everyday life for people who seem relatively well off financially but have no real idea as to how to fill their days and consequently have become trapped in a spiral of habit and boredom. Some of the characters no longer possess all their own teeth, whilst others have become obese or have become health obsessed concerned about approaching death what's more all their memories have become blurred by the intervening decades. None seem to be particularly happy with their lot in life yet each seem to have found some way to forgive each others' past transgressions.

Yet this is all stirred up by the returning arrivals and there is a feeble attempt to try and recapture their younger selves. Led by Alun the men set off on a road trip visiting pubs they visited years before finding much to their distaste some have been turned into hideous,trendy bars but even worse are the bars that have not changed at all. Alun also tries to rekindle long petered out love affairs with his previous lovers using the various husbands as alibis as he does.

There are constant gentle digs at the expense of both Wales and the Welsh with the novel awash with both booze and satire of a high quality. I did find it a little difficult to keep track of the more minor characters which has led to a slight downgrading but in the end I found this a very enjoyable read that I would heartily recommend. show less