Take two: The Green Man, Kingsley Amis (1969)

I am not sure where I bought this book but it must’ve been second-hand (probably at the 2MBS FM Book and CD Bazaar) because there’s a “$4” sticker inside the front left there by some retail clerk. It’s a good price for an entertaining read. The cover illustration is a touch misleading, though there’s ghosts in the story, which is about a pub with the name that appears in the title.

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this novel, which appeared to me – though it falls into the later opus of the novelist’s work, which I read about not long before in a biography – as it compares well to the work of his son, Martin. In fact, I venture to say that Kingsley is the better writer. Full review on Patreon. 

As a background in this photo I chose a small painting by Renata Pari-Lewis, ‘Untitled III’. It’s an interior but it also has strong abstract tendencies, unlike Amis, who spurned high modernism though he borrowed ideas from it. A truly contrary personality, but in many ways an attractive one. Perhaps I’m showing my age.