Ending Up (Penguin Modern Classics) - Softcover

Amis, Kingsley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141194235 ISBN 13: 9780141194233

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2011

Synopsis

At Tuppenny-hapenny Cottage in the English countryside, five elderly people live together in rancorous disharmony. Adela Bastable bosses the house, as her brother Bernard passes his days thinking up malicious schemes against the baby-talking Marigold and secret drinker Shorty, while kindly George lies bedridden upstairs. The mismatched quintet keep their spirits alive by bickering and waiting for grandchildren to visit at Christmas. But the festive season does not herald goodwill to all at Tuppenny-hapenny Cottage. Disaster and chaos, it seems, are just around the corner ...

Told with Amis's piercing wit and humanity, Ending Up (1974) is a wickedly funny black comedy of the indignities of old age.

About this title

Review:

"I finished Kingsley Amis's "Ending Up" with an undiminished sense of Amis's power, and a conviction, confirmed in work after work, that he is one of the few living novelists totally incapable of boring me. "Ending Up" is a sardonic little masterpiece which, with incredible economy and stylistic restraint, shows what old age is really like, and also--far, far better than any other writer I know--what contemporary England is like." --Anthony Burgess
"[A] ...a savage study of old age." --"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
"The writer who began to write in the spirit of humanist common sense in a postwar time took on rage and spleen, sometimes invested against the human condition itself, as in the very good "''Ending Up"'' (1974), one of his deepest novels, and sometimes in a latter-day social ire arrayed against the entire modernity of the modern world." --"The New York Times"
"Mr. Amis has never done better...a very funny but also a very serious book." --"The Observer"
"Extraordinarily good, compulsively readable and beautifully constructed...wildly and cruelly funny." --"The Listener"
"With seeming effortlessness, our most spectacular all-rounder hits another boundary. Amis stretches himself to the full limit of his formidable powers." --"The Sunday Times"

"His most assured success after "Lucky Jim."" --William H. Pritchard, "The New York Times"
"Only comedy of this quality can embrace such a bleak midwinter with such relish, and make the reader relish it too. The brevity, structural tightness and keen pace of "Ending Up" make it one of Amis's most engaging novels." --Helen Dunmore
""Ending Up" is a sardonic little masterpiece which, with incredible economy and stylistic restraint, shows what old age is really like, and also--far, far better than any other writer I know--what contemporary England is like." --Anthony Burgess
"[A] ...a savage study of old age." --"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
"The writer who began to write in the spirit of humanist common sense in a postwar time took on rage and spleen, sometimes invested against the human condition itself, as in the very good "''Ending Up"'' (1974), one of his deepest novels, and sometimes in a latter-day social ire arrayed against the entire modernity of the modern world." --"The New York Times"
"Mr. Amis has never done better...a very funny but also a very serious book." --"The Observer"
"Extraordinarily good, compulsively readable and beautifully constructed...wildly and cruelly funny." --"The Listener"
"With seeming effortlessness, our most spectacular all-rounder hits another boundary. Amis stretches himself to the full limit of his formidable powers." --"The Sunday Times"

His most assured success after "Lucky Jim." William H. Pritchard, "The New York Times"
Only comedy of this quality can embrace such a bleak midwinter with such relish, and make the reader relish it too. The brevity, structural tightness and keen pace of "Ending Up" make it one of Amis s most engaging novels. Helen Dunmore
""Ending Up" is a sardonic little masterpiece which, with incredible economy and stylistic restraint, shows what old age is really like, and also far, far better than any other writer I know what contemporary England is like. Anthony Burgess
[A] a savage study of old age. "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"
The writer who began to write in the spirit of humanist common sense in a postwar time took on rage and spleen, sometimes invested against the human condition itself, as in the very good " Ending Up" (1974), one of his deepest novels, and sometimes in a latter-day social ire arrayed against the entire modernity of the modern world. "The New York Times"
Mr. Amis has never done better...a very funny but also a very serious book. "The Observer"
Extraordinarily good, compulsively readable and beautifully constructed...wildly and cruelly funny. "The Listener"
With seeming effortlessness, our most spectacular all-rounder hits another boundary. Amis stretches himself to the full limit of his formidable powers. "The Sunday Times""

About the Author:

Kingsley Amis's (1922-95) works take a humorous yet highly critical look at British society, especially in the period following the end of World War II. Born in London, Amis explored his disillusionment in novels such as That Uncertain Feeling (1955). His other works include The Green Man (1970), Stanley and the Women (1984), and The Old Devils (1986), which won the Booker Prize. Amis also wrote poetry, criticism, and short stories.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0141194235
• ISBN 13: 9780141194233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128