Under the comic, often abrasive service of Kingsley Amis's novels there has always been detectable something more thoughtful and sympathetic, a feeling for sadness, pain and fear and for what is pitiable in human nature alongside what is laughable. The Old Devils shows the awful and absurd consequences when a group of men and women begin to move out of the comfortable shelter of middle age into a new sense of isolation and loss, of regret for lost opportunity and for destructive selfishness too.
The return of flourishing Alun …
Under the comic, often abrasive service of Kingsley Amis's novels there has always been detectable something more thoughtful and sympathetic, a feeling for sadness, pain and fear and for what is pitiable in human nature alongside what is laughable. The Old Devils shows the awful and absurd consequences when a group of men and women begin to move out of the comfortable shelter of middle age into a new sense of isolation and loss, of regret for lost opportunity and for destructive selfishness too.
The return of flourishing Alun and Rhiannon Weaver to their native South Wales brings 'a shake-up all around' — For soft, sentimental Malcolm, disappointed Gwen, thirsty Charlie at the end of his tether, Peter trapped in guilt and Muriel, his genial, venomous English wife, even Sophie, once 'the surest thing between Bridgend and Carmathan town.' In varied ways — Horrifically in one case — the past catches up with them all. This is carried off with the assurance of a master novelist and without any diminution in the wit, high spirits and assaults on dignity which are the author's trademark — in fact The Old Devils is the most outrageously funny Amis novel for many years as well as the most overtly serious.
