Postwar Britain's academia infiltrated by NCOs on government grants, working class North meets faux upper class Oxbridge. Some very funny (apt) descriptions and somewhat two dimensional characters familiar to most; although not improving with age, not suffering too much either. A little too dependent on farcical elements, ending too neatly tied with a bow to be funny, but very pleasant, a pleasant read. ( )

Liked, it was funny, but it seemed a little “slow” to me. My first Kingsley Amis, I’ll be glad to try another. ( )

I have just reread in the very nice Folio edition. As always it had me laughing out loud. This is definitely one of the most fun reads of all time ( )

Absolutely fantastic, brilliant, and hilarious! I was completely sucked into the story from the beginning and hated to put it down for any reason. ( )

A first-year provincial-university professor of Medieval History, who has a dislike of all things medieval, historical, or even remotely cultural, attempts to navigate the treacherous waters of romantic and professional success, with mixed results.

This is a novel for misanthropes, or more appropriately, for people who find deep-seated misanthropy to be funny. If you don't find amusing the prospect of entering a party, instantly sizing up and finding reasons to hate every male present merely for being in the room, and drinking yourself to oblivion while gnashing your teeth at the fun everyone else is obviously having, then Lucky Jim probably isn't for you.

I greatly enjoyed it. The sarcastic and embittered snap judgements of everyone from a romantic rival to the postman, the face-pulling, the occasional moments of clarity where even one's most avowed enemy is realized to have respectable qualities, and the fortitude to stick it to them regardless, simply because.

The actual plot? Guy hates his job and, in danger of losing it, tries every desperate stratagem to keep it. Guy tries to break off his a relationship with a neurotic, manipulative emotional vampire, and makes it up to her every time he succeeds. Guy meets the girl of his dreams, feels deep in his core that he doesn't deserve her (a refrain oft-repeated by the rest of the cast of characters), but gives it a go regardless just to make things difficult for her boyfriend. I think that's pretty much it. A semester in the life of a boozing, self-loathing misanthrope. ( )