book data
79 ratings, 3.39 average rating, 5 reviews
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published
February 29th 2004
by VINTAGE (RAND)
binding
Paperback, 384 pages
literary awards
Booker Prize Winner 1986
isbn
0099461056
(isbn13: 9780099461050)
description
Malcolm, Peter and Charlie and their Soave-sodden wives have one ambition left in life: to drink Wales dry. But their routine is both shaken and stirr...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 174)
Read in September, 2008
I liked this book. It was funny. But. 1) I had problems keeping track of the characters, at least for the first hundred pages or so, who was married to whom, which one was overweight, which one a shrew, which one(s) were alcoholics. 2) I am a little uncomfortable reading about destructive alcoholism. It wasn’t too bad here, but I winced every single time one of them got behind the wheel. 3) I am not Welsh and I feel that if I were, living twenty years ago, I would have gotten a lot more out...more
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Read in August, 2007
Good. Smart, exceptional dry wit and sarcasm. For a comedy, a bit tragic, but even some of the tragedy is a bit funny. My hesitation with giving it a higher rating is that I didn't get all of the Welsh references, so I fear I missed even more funniness.
I really appreciate when an author parallels or mirrors the beginning and the end of a novel, or ends things the way they began. It gives the novel a sense of completion, even if there isn't a proper ending to the book. Amis deployed tha...more
I really appreciate when an author parallels or mirrors the beginning and the end of a novel, or ends things the way they began. It gives the novel a sense of completion, even if there isn't a proper ending to the book. Amis deployed tha...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2004
Simply delightful [also realistic:] glimpse into lives of group of retired friends in Wales and England. Their trials and tribulations, underlying anxieties and jealousies.
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Disliked the characters. I think I was supposed to. It worked too well.
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