"Lucky Jim" by Kingsley Amis: Reading it now, it's hard to believe "Lucky Jim" created such an uproar for its lampooning of English academia when it was first published in 1954. Of course, maybe the fact that university life is so often ridiculed today stands as testament to its impact.

Jim Dixon is a junior lecturer at a proper English hall of learning. He isn't particularly handsome, lacks appreciable charm, has trouble relating to others, drinks a bit too much, and is incredibly irresponsible. But other than that. . . .

While Dixon is hardly at home amongst the intellectual elite, it remains his goal to become a history professor. This noble career aspiration is somewhat hindered by the incompetence of his boss and department head, Professor Welch, whose snobbish buffoonery has Dixon in constant fear of losing his position. In fact, it seems as though the entire Welch clan has conspired against him. A variety or mishaps and misunderstandings have Mrs. Welch out for blood, and Bertrand, Professor Welch's equally pretentious son and a wannabe artist, takes an instant dislike to Dixon, with the two eventually becoming rivals for the same girl. At first, Dixon only endeavors to get involved in the potentially career-threatening love triangle in order to stick it to the pompous Bertrand, but he soon discovers he's actually falling in love. The romantic intrigue is only further complicated by the presence of Margaret, Jim's quasi-girlfriend and an all-around emotional wreck, who's recovering from a failed suicide attempt.

The book relies heavily on the comedy of escalation, with even the most innocent of situations soon spiraling out of control around a hapless Dixon. Despite Mr. Amis displaying a deft touch for clever prose, there really aren't any memorable exchanges of dialogue or quotable one-liners. The bulk of the humor is purely situational, as Dixon furiously struggles to extricate himself from one awkward circumstance after another. The best of these moments comes when Dixon delivers the biggest lecture of his career while completely sauced.

"Lucky Jim" is an entertaining read, but there's really nothing of importance here. Sure, its skewering of university types may have carried weight fifty years ago, but the idea that a professor is nothing more than a stuffed shirt is hardly revolutionary these days. And the book does suffer from a preposterously happy ending. Still, there are some genuinely funny scenes, and lessons can be learned from Mr. Amis' style, particularly in the areas of pacing and characterization.

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