December 03, 2008
Everyday Drinking: The Distilled Kingsley Amis
From The Guardian:
My primary observation is that drinking makes the daily grind of dealing with people so much easier. You drink a pint of whisky and become the life and soul of the party. You then start insulting people, before sweating heavily and wetting yourself involuntarily. You will usually find that everyone quickly avoids you, thereby relieving you of the need to make conversation. This is why I prefer to do much of my drinking at home. It saves so much time.
There are a great many drinks on the market - spirits, wines and beers - and I've probably drunk them all. Usually in some kind of combination with one another. Mixing cocktails is one of my favourite hobbies. Here's one I invented last week for my great sycophant, Christopher Hitchens.
The Hitch
One bottle of Babycham
One bottle of absinthe
Five shots of Angostura very bitters
Two tablespoons of bile
Two or three glasses of this tincture can give you a lifetime of self-satisfaction.
At some time you will probably be forced to invite people to your home and they may expect a drink. My advice is to offer them the cheapest tipple you can find; my local off-licence does a ghastly Mosel at 70p a bottle. I've never cared for even the best wines, and this should guarantee those poncing off you neither ask for top-ups nor stay long, thereby leaving you more money and time for the pub.
More here.
Posted by Azra Raza at 05:09 AM | Permalink
Comments
What is it about KA that gets in people’s craw? Yeah, he was a bit fogeyish, probably drank too much, etc., but I’m surprised he merits this rather withering parody. Is he that influential? I regard him as a personal literary hero, but I’ve also always considered myself a bit odd in that respect, and tend not to flaunt it, mostly b/c people usually have only a vague idea of who he was or what he was about. Maybe it’s different in the UK.
But anyway, thanks for this, as it reminds me that I wanted to buy this book!
Posted by: Roger Micheldene | Dec 3, 2008 2:37:28 PM
I too enjoy early and middle Amis, though he went rather off in the latter part of his career -- the Booker Prize was surely a bit of a "for services rendered" rather than an award for "The Old Devils," which is good, to be sure, but seems unlikely to last. I even enjoyed his columns and books on drink till I knew what he had done to himself with it, when I comprehensively purged my shelves of them. The Guardian review is hardly "withering" parody; it is in the vein of Tina Fey's version of Sarah Palin in her own words. The only place it notably departs from the record is in suggesting that his satyriasis persisted: by the time Hilly was caring for him again he had for decades ceased to covet anyone's wife. Mr Micheldene may wish to consult the Jeremy Leader biography and edition of Amis's letters, not to speak of Martin's "Experience." "[A] bit fogeyish"? Well really. I had always rather liked to assume that his more outrageous positions were poses he enjoyed affecting, perhaps not least to take the mickey out of Martin (and the temptation would surely have been great). But no, it seems clear that he really did consider Mandela to be a communist and a terrorist and have erotic dreams involving Mrs Thatcher and the Queen. That the gruesome caricatures of many people in his "Memoirs" turn out to be simply untrue seems unsurprising (on first reading when they originally came out they seemed discomfitingly indiscreet and gratuitously wounding). Spare no sympathy for Amis, but by all means read and enjoy his novels: it might keep them in print.
Posted by: Mac | Dec 3, 2008 5:22:54 PM
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