Ending Up

by Kingsley Amis

Other authorsCraig Brown (Introduction)
Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

823.9

Collection

Publication

NYRB Classics (2015), Edition: Reprint, 136 pages

Description

"Ending Up is a grotesque and memorable dance of death, full of bickering, bitching, backstabbing, drinking (of course), and idiocy of all sorts. It is a book about dying people and about a dying England, clinging to its memories of greatness as it succumbs to terminal decay. Everyone wants a comfortable place to die, and Kingsley Amis's characters have found it in Happeny Tuppeny Cottage, out in the country, where assorted septuagenarians have come together to see one another out the door of life. There's grotesque Adela, whose sole passion is her cheapness; her cursing and scoffing brother Brigadier Bernard Bastable, always strategizing a new retreat to the bathroom before sallying forth to play some especially nasty practical joke; Shorty, the servant, who years ago had a fling with the brigadier in the barracks and now organizes his daily rounds from woodpile to wardrobe around a trail of hidden bottles; George Zeyer, the distinguished professor of history, bedridden and helpless to articulate his still- coherent thoughts; and Marigold, who slowly but surely is forgetting it all. And now it is Christmas. Children and grandchildren are coming to visit their ailing elders. They don't know what lies in store before the story ends. None of us do"--… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member davidroche
Classic Kingsley Amis with ultimate grumpy old man
LibraryThing member thorold
Many novelists take to writing about elderly characters when they become old themselves, but Amis was barely in his fifties when he produced this wonderfully grim little black comedy about an ill-assorted group of elderly people who find themselves sharing a house. Of course, he's completely in his
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element dealing with the stupendously trivial irritations of daily life (who gets to read the Telegraph first, and so on), and only Amis could get away with the grand guignol closing scene. Very funny, in a depressing sort of way, and completely English.
I'm not quite sure how this rather minor effort ended up on the 1974 Booker shortlist: it must have been a lean year for the judges, or a very indecisive panel. The prize that year was shared by Nadine Gordimer and Stanley Middleton (an odd couple, if ever there was one...). Beryl Bainbridge's Bottle factory outing was on the shortlist as well.
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LibraryThing member Fliss88
Did not finish, took too long to get going.
LibraryThing member mkfs
A group of penniless old codgers pass their sunset years in a small cottage at the edge of town. As to be expected of the ol' Kingsley A, nary a sympathetic character in sight, and an ignonimous fate awaits all. Entertaining enough.

Awards

Booker Prize (Longlist — 1974)

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1974

Physical description

136 p.; 7.97 inches

ISBN

1590177592 / 9781590177594
Page: 1.287 seconds