August 2013 Book Selection
The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, August 8th at 7
p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library todiscuss our August book: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.
Discussion questions are below.
Here are some links for
additional background and information:
Lucky Jim has been
filmed twice – once in 1957 and
a BBC version in 2003. Watch short excerpts by clicking on the
links.
Coming up, we have the
following book to look forward to reading:
Thanks for reading with
us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of the Fairfax
Library
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
1 What do you think Amis meant by referring to Jim as
“lucky” in the book’s title?
2 At the beginning of Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis compares
assistant history professor Jim Dixon with Dixon’s department head, Professor
Welch. What sets Dixon and Welch apart? How do their attitudes towards the
study of history differ? How does their class background influence their sense
of responsibility, whether academic or social? Are they alike in any ways?
3 What role(s) does humor play in Lucky Jim? As we can
see with Jim’s somewhat dire situation, comedy is often generated at the
expense of the misfortune of others. What does Amis’s use of humor say about
his attitude towards university life? Do you feel that those who are mocked
deserve it? Who, if anyone, comes out unscathed?
4 Some modern critics have labeled Kingsley Amis a
misogynist. From his portraits of Margaret Peel, Christine Callahan, Carol
Goldsmith, Mrs. Welch, and Miss Cutler, would you agree with this assessment?
How is each portrayed? What traits does Amis seem to value in women? How do his
female characters relate to men? Do you think that Amis was simply a “man of
his times”? What do you think of this defense or explanation?
5 Kingsley Amis was one of Britain’s “Angry Young Men,”
a group of postwar authors from working-class backgrounds who aimed to skewer
upper-class pretensions. What evidence of this do you find in Lucky Jim? How is
this portrayed in the book?
6 Speculate on a contemporary version of Lucky Jim: do
race, gender, and class play different roles today? How have immigration and
affirmative action changed society? What might Kingsley Amis have to say about
“political correctness?” Which of today’s issues might Amis take on? What might
be Jim’s “lucky” end today?
7 Is familiarity with the British education and class
systems helpful to understand and enjoy Lucky Jim and his predicaments? How has
the humor aged since the book was first published in 1954?
8 Christopher Hitchins, in his 2002 article about Lucky
Jim in The Atlantic writes, “Lucky Jim illustrates a crucial human difference between the little
guy and the small man. And Dixon, like his creator, was no clown but a man of
feeling after all.” Do you agree with this assessment of Jim Dixon?
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