The Old Devils

The Old Devils

3.3 of 5 stars 3.30  ·  rating details  ·  985 ratings  ·  74 reviews
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 stirred when professional Welshman, Alun Weaver (CBE) and his wife, Rhiannon, join them.
Paperback, Vintage Classics, 384 pages
Published January 15th 2004 by Random House (first published 1986)
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William
This novel is a story of old friends, married couples in southwestern Wales, and how their lives change when Alun and Rhiannon Weaver return to the country after Alun's long career in London. Alun has for sometime been an ambitious media personality whose career resulted in the "popularization" of Wales. He is vaguely blamed for the onslaught of developers and bad architecture in the country, though this seems to me baseless. He's also known for championing the Welsh poet, Brydan, whom I suspect...more
Alan
Dec 15, 2012 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone intrigued by the underlying savagery of British comedy
Recommended to Alan by: Previous work
Kingsley Amis was rather an old devil himself when he wrote this novel, and every bitter, precise word shows how accustomed he'd already become to the aches and indignities of senescence:
Standing quite motionless he gazed before him with a faraway look that a passer-by, especially a Welsh passer-by, might have taken for one of moral if not spiritual insight, such that he might instantly renounce whatever course of action he had laid down for himself. After a moment, something like a harsh bark b
...more
Janis
Having never read Kingsley or Martin Amis, I had been curious. Late last year PB mentioned that she had read a Kingsley, and so when I saw the mint condition hardback of The Old Devils at the Brattle, and noticed it had been a Booker Prize winner in 1986, I did not resist.

Kingsley is a fine and fluid writer. The book is almost entirely made up of dialogue, clever and complicated dialogue. The story takes place in Wales, is a commentary on the landscape of Wales, how the Welsh view themselves, vi...more
Florence Penrice
What’s not to enjoy in a book that contains the sentence ‘She was said to have been found once telling the man who was laying the carpets about eohippus’ (referring to an unstoppably talkative character)? If that doesn’t make you smile, don’t bother with this book. If it does, find a copy and enjoy.

Kingsley Amis’ writing (at this, later, stage) combined humour and an acute sensibility to the joys and disappointments of life. He is unequalled in his ability to deliniate bores (the unstoppable Dor...more
F.R.
I met a lady recently who told me her intention to read every Booker Prize winner. My response was that it’s an admirable ambition, but I’m not sure they’re actually of a uniformly standard. At that point I hadn’t read this book, by a writer I generally like, but if I had then I could have used it as an example. “So-so” is the description I’d go for.

‘The Old Devils’ follows some Welsh couples of a certain age as they drink, copulate and ruminate on the nature of being Welsh. There are some good...more
Calvertjones
As a major fan of "Lucky Jim," I was very eager to read another novel by Kingsley Amis. I am sad to report, however, that this is a very far cry away from the unrelenting brilliance and wit of that famous parody of academia, though it apparently won a Booker Prize. First, the plot is dull; you certainly don't have the mounting stakes from "Lucky Jim," when you were constantly wondering when the main character, the bitter, hilariously inebriated professor, would be found out. It concerns some old...more
Nicholas During
I found it hard to make a judgement on this book. On one hand it's so misanthropic that it can be very difficult to read. On the other, what's wrong with a book were all the characters are horrible? One might say there are plenty of books out there were awful people as the protagonists, but not many of them are as bad as these old devils. And not many of them have Amis's wit in ripping them to shreds in front of your eyes. Which is basically what happens here, were everyone turns out to be eithe...more
Patrick McCoy
The Old Devils (1986) by Kingsley Amis was a Booker Prize winner for that year. I had previously only read the brilliant Lucky Jim, but always wanted to read more since I was big fan of his son Martin Amis' writing. Martin wrote appealing about his father's novels in his autobiography Experience, and The Old Devils was one of the novels he singled out as being a good read. I feel as though I am missing out on some of the fun since I am not British and I can't see what all the fuss about being We...more
John
The Russian Girl was highly impressive and induced me to read more by Amis. This one won an award, so it seemed to be a good choice. Of course the problem may lie with me instead of the book. There were too many main characters, and it was difficult to keep them separate in my mind while reading. With so many main characters, the development was a bit lacking. This might have been better as two or three novels, each concentrating on one couple. Another problem was the English slang and expressio...more
Palmyrah
Readers of John Updike's Couples will find the setup of this novel glancingly familiar: the circle of ingrown, septic-turning friendships among well-off married couples in a small town by the sea, the arrival of the 'new couple' that puts the cat among the pigeons. But where Updike's novel (much the superior of the two) is all about sex and love, Amis's themes are booze and adultery. His couples, unlike Updike's, are all well on the wrong side of middle age; his setting, unlike Updike's pictures...more
Courtney H.
This is the most boring Booker I've read so far. It may, in fact, be one of the most boring books I've ever read. I can't even bother to put it on my list of most hated because at least with, say, Atonement, McEwan had the decency to write a thoroughly despicable, self-absorbed horrorshow of a human being to act as narrator for that otherwise dull book. Amis didn't even give us that. I couldn't even get too upset with him for writing two-dimensional female characters because his male characters...more
Elizabeth L.
Nov 28, 2012 Elizabeth L. is currently reading it
I bought this to reward myself for a deadline, but dug into it over Thanksgiving with the deadline still VERY much un-met. It felt deliciously meanspirited and Amisesque at first (especially when read with a giant mug of tea in a very drafty house) but has recently soured - more like gone off - a bit like a g&t made with the "slimline tonic" one of the protagonists favors as a diet aid. Even with Amis's misogyny as a given, the women are absolute cardboard - and the men unlovable. I haven't...more
Ka
Jan 28, 2013 Ka rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: classics
Kingsley Amis writes of a loose group of elderly Welsh couples who socialize frequently and have known each other throughout their lives. Their days are lubricated with astonishing amounts of drinking, so much it hardly seems possible, but Amis was himself known to hold prodigious quantities. The chapters rotate among several of the old devils, with a darky satiric accounting of their relations, marital, extra-marital, familial, and frenemy. They frequently gather at the Bible, which turns out t...more
Ania
I liked this.I liked this?I'm returning to Amis after reading Lucky Jim a long time ago at school and obviously being bypassed by its nuances. This time Amis senior seemed paunchy and greasy and thickened. I guess the book was written at that time in his life. I have no concept of 'welshness' either. But i could sense infusions of his personal life throughout-the drinking, the cheating. Well, that's a comfort to me anyway. Will be taking another break from him now, perhaps some poetry. The dynas...more
Ann
This is one of those unfortunate circumstances where I feel like I “got” whatever there was to get out of this book – the sarcasm bit, the dry wit chafed, and I was duly poigned by what poignancy there was - but was left mostly unmoved. Since I'm probably not the optimal reader for a novel about aging and the aged in rural Wales, I trust that more seasoned observers of Britons and Walians will go ahead and ignore my unappreciativeness.
Bette
I tend to be sympathetic to characters who are aging, fat, and unlovely, since I'm sure this is my destiny as well, but this bunch is so tedious that I couldn't muster any interest. I kept waiting for the humor to begin, but it never did. They're all just moldering away in Wales, pickling their livers and feeling sorry for themselves. I feel like David Lodge has written these characters, and written them far better. I'm astounded this won the Booker.
will
As in "Lucky Jim," I was worried that I would not like this book until I got to the last few chapters. Amis is, seemingly, a master of the slow, almost unbearable set-up, but he rewards the reader just as well. As the novel is primarily about retired people, I suspect it would ruminate better with people approaching that age, but it still has a lot for readers of any age and station. The book, overall, is an exercise in considering perspective: what is one's perspective? is there such a thing as...more
Katy
My mother-in-law recommended this book, and it was absolutely fantastic. It ranks right up there with the Bone People as one of my favorite books. It is about a group of old people that really carry on. It was really very funny and quite light of a book. I read it while in the hospital recovering from having Emily (she was in special care, it was a really grim time, and the book was an absolute life-saver).
Alex Sarll
For the first hundred pages or so, this (my first Kingsley Amis novel) was all perfectly competent and moderately amusing, but I couldn't exactly see the point of it - par for the course with Booker winners. Then suddenly (and yet I couldn't pinpoint exactly where) I realised how wise and sad and true it was about time, and people, and the stupid bloody things we do to each other and can sometimes make right.
Jilly
I love Kingsley Amis - even when a huge portion of enjoying the book is dependent on a minimum understanding of Wales and Welsh culture which I entirely lack, I STILL love Kingsley Amis.

Clever, poignant, and incredibly easy to read. Quite a feat, given a cast of characters all past-60 and a setting I definitively didn't quite "get."
Amos Kovacs
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Stephanie
This book seemed to mostly consist of a gaggle of retirees getting drunk all the time, with a few of them pursuing adulterous trysts here and there. Oh and remarking repeatedly how Welsh it all is. If that sounds spellbinding to you, you must read this book. Otherwise, I'd give it a miss.
Patrick
I don't have a full enough understanding of the Welsh-British relationship to appreciate most of the subtleties here--I was watching passages fly right over my head. But the best scenes here have to be some of the funniest bits of humor ever written.
Serjeant Wildgoose
1986 must have been a lean year if this won the Booker!

It takes some doing to bore me in the first half-dozen pages, but this book did it. It is poorly written and revolves around a cast of utterly feckless and uninteresting soaks.
Rehavet
This book must be sold with a "drink responsibly" or better, "quantity of alcoholic beverages consumed in this book are fictitious and has nothing to do with the reality" warning on it is cover. A disappointment for me after the sheer brilliance of "Lucky Jim".
Lawrence
The hangover, marathon drinking descriptions are so horrifying they made me never want to drink again...in so many ways depressing, but then I found myself being strangely envious of the characters with all that time to spend....it even starting being funny at some point...I've found myself thinking about this book long after I finished....
Lizzie Blueyondercouk
I read the book through, found it a little hard going at times, perhaps i am not quite old enough to relate to it, but my father loved this book, i may read it again in 10 years.
Simon
Sad and very funny, it's the perfect book to read on the underground if you want to appear a lunatic. Buy it used--for some reason, the thing can be had for next to nothing.
Megan
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 of t...more
Ben
I wish I knew more about Welsh identity politics in the early '80s. I'd love to know how much of Amis' satire about the (imposed?) revival of Welsh culture is good-natured lampooning and how much is driven by the political views he expressed later in life.
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Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered the English novelist Martin Amis.

Kingsley Amis was born in Clapham, Wandsworth, Couty of London (now South London), England, the son of William Robert Am...more
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