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The Green Man by Kingsley Amis
Maurice Allington, landlord of the Green Man Inn, is the sole witness to the ghostly existence of Dr. Thomas Underhill, a notorious seventeenth-century sexual deviant and practitioner of the black arts. A desire to vindicate his sanity leads Allington to uncover the key to Underhill's satanic secrets.
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
About the author
Kingsley Amis
177 books490 followersBest known novels of British writer Sir Kingsley William Amis include
Lucky Jim
(1954) and
The Old Devils
(1986).
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
This English poet, critic, and teacher composed more than twenty-three collections, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism. He fathered Martin Amis.
William Robert Amis, a clerk of a mustard manufacturer, fathered him. He began his education at the city of London school, and went up to college of Saint John, Oxford, in April 1941 to read English; he met Philip Larkin and formed the most important friendship of his life. After only a year, the Army called him for service in July 1942. After serving as a lieutenant in the royal corps of signals in the Second World War, Amis returned to Oxford in October 1945 to complete his degree. He worked hard and got a first in English in 1947, and then decided to devote much of his time.
Pen names: [authorRobert Markham|553548] and William Bill Tanner
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December 1, 2023
“I have no novelists, finding theirs a puny and piffling art, one that, even at its best, can render truthfully no more than a few minor parts of the total world it pretends to take as its field of reference.” So declares Mr. Maurice Allington while scanning the books of his personal library in the study of his rustic country inn, The Green Man.
And what manner of narrator did Kingsley Amis create to tell his novel’s story?
Maurice is a fifty-three-year-old self-centered boozehound, an accomplished womanizer living with his second wife, thirteen-year-old daughter and eighty-year-old father; Maurice also happens to be charming, articulate, Cambridge educated and in possession of both keen intellect and vivid imagination.
Does this sound a lot like Kingsley Amis himself? The British author would undoubtedly answer “yes” since he stated directly he could relate to Maurice Allington more than any of his other characters. Above all else, Maurice has one compelling, suspenseful story to tell – I can assure you by the end of the first chapter you will want to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. As not to spoil the book’s many surprises, I will go light on plot and focus on a number of themes:
SEDUCTION AND SEX
What is a Kingsley Amis novel without a bit of the old slap and tickle? Actually, Maurice doesn’t go in for anything too kinky but he does suggest to Diana, his gorgeous blonde new lover, that she consider a ménage à trois, that is, going to bed with both himself and his wife. For Maurice, the art of seduction is a very fine art indeed (during one fling with Diana he compares his techniques of arousing a woman to a virtuoso playing a concerto), however he acknowledges he is beyond his stud prime, not to mention the fact he must also deal with a batch of distractions, both natural and supernatural. All told, similar to other dimensions of the novel, Maurice’s sex life is laced with large helpings of vintage Kingsley Amis comedy, mostly of the parody and satire variety.
GHOST STORY
The Green Man is most certainly a ghost story and literary critic Michael Dirda outlines in his helpful Introduction to this New York Review Books (NYRB ) edition precisely how the author masterfully incorporates traditional ingredients of atmosphere and crescendo to create his chilling tale. Since this is the 1960s modern world, Maurice’s encounter with ghosts raises the skeptical eyebrows of his family and friends as well as the local parson who judges the supernatural as so much humbug. But Maurice knows what he has seen with his own eyes and grits his teeth when everyone immediately provides psychological explanations of how his visions are the consequence of his own mental states brought about by stress, fatigue and drinking. Ah, the modern world, where science and psychology are king.
MYTHOLOGY OF THE GREEN MAN
The Green Man has been part of many world cultures going back to time immemorial, most usually connected with the forces of the natural world in its vegetable forms – trees, plants, leaves, vines, fruits – and is one of the prime symbols of regeneration and rebirth occurring in spring. Accordingly, many of the sculptures of the Green Man depict the nurturing, helpful, positive qualities he symbolizes. Much different than what we encounter in this Kingsley Amis, where the Green Man is the horrifying, destructive agent of diabolical forces. I wouldn’t want to push the point too far, but we might well consider how on another level the Green Man could also represent the alcohol consumption Maurice must do battle to overcome.
THE BIG GUY PAYS A VISIT
With the entrée of a trim, well-groomed young man in his late twenties via the inclusion of an eerie parallel space/time reality, we have a shift from ghost story to tale of the fantastic. Sitting at ease in an armchair in Maurice’s study, the young visitor informs his host that he is not a representative of God, rather, he is God. As he breezily explains the reasons for his taking corporeal form and outlines the scope of his powers, we are given a clearer picture this gentleman isn’t so much the all-powerful, all-knowing God of the Bible as the less-powerful, less-knowing Demiurge of Plato’s Timaeus. Our young man explains a few things to Maurice, one of which is how the universe is best seen as a play, a work of art in progress. In many ways, this brings to mind the Hindu concept of lila, the creative play of the divine. Also, between sips of scotch, he goes on to suggest how all forms of life will not survive eternally. All things, no matter how soul-filled or divine, dissolve and come to an end? With these words we see an affinity with the Buddhist concept of emptiness. A number of other subjects are addressed - certainly one of the most intriguing sections of the novel.
PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
Maurice is obsessed by the inevitability of death. Maurice’s prime philosophical question: Do we survive in some way, spiritual or otherwise, beyond the grave? I suspect this was also among the foremost of Kingsley Amis’s conundrums about our earthly existence. What better way for a literary novelist to dig deeper into the puzzle of life and death than introducing elements usually confined to various genres such as ghost stories, fantastic stories and science fiction? In this way, I found The Green Man to be a deeply probing expansion of how a literary novel can address fundamental metaphysical questions. And let’s not forget Kingsley Amis was a big fan of genre writing such as mystery and science fiction.
THE HERO’S JOURNEY
Maurice has serious issues in his dealing with the other people in his life, his wife Joyce and his daughter Amy, just to name two. Turns out, toward the end of the novel, Maurice faces life-and-death challenges and unflinchingly take on the role of a hero. Such is the power of love. In this way, his relationship with Amy opens up and we have hints his own life will be transformed. To discover the details, you will have to read for yourself. Highly, highly recommended.
“I thought to myself how much more welcome a faculty the imagination would be if we could tell when it was at work and when not.”
― Kingsley Amis, The Green Man
August 22, 2023
The range of good writing by Kingsley Amis (father of the living author, Martin) is amazing. He wrote poetry, short stories and novels that have been classified as travel, humor, alternate history, dystopian, science fiction and spy. His Lucky Jim is one of the funniest novels I have read.
The Green Man is horror, his Stephen King.
The main character runs an historic British wayside inn, The Green Man. He lives there with his second wife and pre-teen age daughter from his first marriage. His elderly father also lives with them.
The first level of horror is his behavior. Very early in the story his father dies and in the week following that death, he initiates an affair with his best friend’s wife and then proposes and carries out a 3-way with that woman and his wife.
He sees ghosts. He tears up the floorboards in the inn looking for a magic charm; he digs up a grave with his female friend at night. He travels to All Saints to do research on a mysterious former owner of the inn. He gets in a car accident. He’s a busy, obsessed guy.
As the story progresses, we have stop-time sequences, a pact with the devil, shape changers, ghosts and a monster that may be after his daughter.
And did I say the main character is an alcoholic? In fact, I’ll call this one of the “alcoholic novels,” like Under the Volcano by Malcom Lowry. Here are a couple of lines:
“I felt rather strung up, and was on a bottle of scotch a day, but this had been standard for twenty years.”
“…if I had not recently passed from being a notorious drunk to being a notorious drunk who had begun to see things…”
Other passages I liked:
“They were all talking … but quietened down and stared into their drinks when they saw me, out of respect for the bereaved, or the insane.”
“At All Saints’ everybody seems to tend not to be there so much of the time.”
“The librarian came to meet us with a demeanor that managed to tend to be haughty and deferential at the same time, like that of a West End shopwalker.”
It’s a good story. There is humor in his daily activity, walking through the inn and chatting with staff and customers in his semi-stewed state. In contrast, his relationship with his wife, best male friend and son and daughter-in-law (visiting for the funeral) is tense due to his drinking and the ghost goings-on.
graphics from top:
OnFaith.co
fineartamerica.com
urbanthreads.com
thequirkycelts.co.uk
khafre.us
ebay.co.uk
The Green Man is horror, his Stephen King.
The main character runs an historic British wayside inn, The Green Man. He lives there with his second wife and pre-teen age daughter from his first marriage. His elderly father also lives with them.
The first level of horror is his behavior. Very early in the story his father dies and in the week following that death, he initiates an affair with his best friend’s wife and then proposes and carries out a 3-way with that woman and his wife.
He sees ghosts. He tears up the floorboards in the inn looking for a magic charm; he digs up a grave with his female friend at night. He travels to All Saints to do research on a mysterious former owner of the inn. He gets in a car accident. He’s a busy, obsessed guy.
As the story progresses, we have stop-time sequences, a pact with the devil, shape changers, ghosts and a monster that may be after his daughter.
And did I say the main character is an alcoholic? In fact, I’ll call this one of the “alcoholic novels,” like Under the Volcano by Malcom Lowry. Here are a couple of lines:
“I felt rather strung up, and was on a bottle of scotch a day, but this had been standard for twenty years.”
“…if I had not recently passed from being a notorious drunk to being a notorious drunk who had begun to see things…”
Other passages I liked:
“They were all talking … but quietened down and stared into their drinks when they saw me, out of respect for the bereaved, or the insane.”
“At All Saints’ everybody seems to tend not to be there so much of the time.”
“The librarian came to meet us with a demeanor that managed to tend to be haughty and deferential at the same time, like that of a West End shopwalker.”
It’s a good story. There is humor in his daily activity, walking through the inn and chatting with staff and customers in his semi-stewed state. In contrast, his relationship with his wife, best male friend and son and daughter-in-law (visiting for the funeral) is tense due to his drinking and the ghost goings-on.
graphics from top:
OnFaith.co
fineartamerica.com
urbanthreads.com
thequirkycelts.co.uk
khafre.us
ebay.co.uk
May 1, 2024
I read this one back in the humid summer of 1974 - for the young me, it was to be yet another summer of my discontent. And this book didn't help.
But its inspiration, a literary myth, DID help. Enormously. And this ancient story about another green man proved to illustrate the trajectory of my later life, when I had finally learned to bend in compassion.
You see, in medieval myth, a Green Man is the symbol of the Devil. Amis' Green Man is in the fantasies of a drunken and morally besotted manager of an English B & B, and the Green Man eventually seizes the man's soul (or at least that inference is there for us Christians).
His cursed life is driving him into a Mad Inferno.
Now, to understand the highly literate Amis' mind, you must go back to the symbol, Green, in English literature...
The verse mini-epic, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight - you know Gawain as Sir Galahad, purest of the Knights of the Round Table - is the story of Galahad's fight to the death with the Devil.
Galahad manages to behead the devil, but that's no problem, because Satan's an immortal fallen angel to the end, and just walks around (carrying his head) proposing a rematch - same time next year.
Pure evil is nebulous, being founded in nothingness, but its damage is immense.
So as the time for the rematch approaches, Galahad is understandably nervous. And when he accepts a gift from a witch that will make him immune to the Devil's battleaxe - a Green sash - he feels better, but he's now compromised.
And when Satan hits his neck with the axe, it's only a nick...
Just so, the wisest of us men wear the Green Sash - a badge of moral compromise - for all to see, to this day.
For by admitting we're far from perfect -
We've disarmed the devil himself.
Practice makes perfect:
But Grace makes us HUMAN.
But its inspiration, a literary myth, DID help. Enormously. And this ancient story about another green man proved to illustrate the trajectory of my later life, when I had finally learned to bend in compassion.
You see, in medieval myth, a Green Man is the symbol of the Devil. Amis' Green Man is in the fantasies of a drunken and morally besotted manager of an English B & B, and the Green Man eventually seizes the man's soul (or at least that inference is there for us Christians).
His cursed life is driving him into a Mad Inferno.
Now, to understand the highly literate Amis' mind, you must go back to the symbol, Green, in English literature...
The verse mini-epic, Sir Gawain and The Green Knight - you know Gawain as Sir Galahad, purest of the Knights of the Round Table - is the story of Galahad's fight to the death with the Devil.
Galahad manages to behead the devil, but that's no problem, because Satan's an immortal fallen angel to the end, and just walks around (carrying his head) proposing a rematch - same time next year.
Pure evil is nebulous, being founded in nothingness, but its damage is immense.
So as the time for the rematch approaches, Galahad is understandably nervous. And when he accepts a gift from a witch that will make him immune to the Devil's battleaxe - a Green sash - he feels better, but he's now compromised.
And when Satan hits his neck with the axe, it's only a nick...
Just so, the wisest of us men wear the Green Sash - a badge of moral compromise - for all to see, to this day.
For by admitting we're far from perfect -
We've disarmed the devil himself.
Practice makes perfect:
But Grace makes us HUMAN.
May 4, 2017
The end of the sixties of the last century… What may that mean? It means the sexual revolution, an increased interest in occult subjects and mysticism and desire to change the state of mind with all sorts of psychotropic stuffs.
Kingsley Amis was the one who decided to pack all those signs of new epistemological era in a single rather thin novel, staying on the funny side of things.
“Anyway, Underhill, or rather his ghost, turned up quite a few times at a window in what’s now part of the dining-room, peering out and apparently watching something. All the witnesses seem to have been very struck by the expression on his face and his general demeanour, but, according to the story, there was a lot of disagreement about what he actually looked like. One chap said he thought Underhill was behaving as if he were terrified out of his wits. Someone else thought he was showing the detached curiosity of a man of science observing an experiment.”
And if there are ghosts then there is evil. And if there is evil then it must be defeated…
“Amy had retreated a little way, then stopped and turned, and between her and the pounding bulk of the creature stood Victor in a posture of defiance, his back arched and tail swollen. A kick from a wooden foot smashed into him, with a snapping of twigs or bones, and he went skidding, a lifeless bundle, across the road and into the ditch. Then Amy turned again and ran, ran in earnest, in long-legged strides, but even when she reached her best speed, she was not gaining on the green man. By now I was aware of what I still held in my hand, and saw what it was I must do, and pushed myself to my feet and ran in my turn down the road towards the graveyard.”
In reality it is hard enough to stay alive even without the interference of the otherworldly beings though…
Kingsley Amis was the one who decided to pack all those signs of new epistemological era in a single rather thin novel, staying on the funny side of things.
“Anyway, Underhill, or rather his ghost, turned up quite a few times at a window in what’s now part of the dining-room, peering out and apparently watching something. All the witnesses seem to have been very struck by the expression on his face and his general demeanour, but, according to the story, there was a lot of disagreement about what he actually looked like. One chap said he thought Underhill was behaving as if he were terrified out of his wits. Someone else thought he was showing the detached curiosity of a man of science observing an experiment.”
And if there are ghosts then there is evil. And if there is evil then it must be defeated…
“Amy had retreated a little way, then stopped and turned, and between her and the pounding bulk of the creature stood Victor in a posture of defiance, his back arched and tail swollen. A kick from a wooden foot smashed into him, with a snapping of twigs or bones, and he went skidding, a lifeless bundle, across the road and into the ditch. Then Amy turned again and ran, ran in earnest, in long-legged strides, but even when she reached her best speed, she was not gaining on the green man. By now I was aware of what I still held in my hand, and saw what it was I must do, and pushed myself to my feet and ran in my turn down the road towards the graveyard.”
In reality it is hard enough to stay alive even without the interference of the otherworldly beings though…
February 22, 2015
The novel is set in and around an inn between London and Cambridge called "The Green Man", owned by Maurice Allington, a 53-year-old man. The inn and its name date back to the 14th century. The inn is haunted by its 17th-century owner, Thomas Underhill, a Cambridge scholar who dabbled in the occult. Underhill was associated with two unsolved murders, including that of his wife.
Allington has some problems, one of which is a drinking problem that causes hallucinations. Allington tries to arrange an orgy with his current wife and his mistress which backfires when the two women take an enthusiastic interest in each other and shut him out of the orgy.
Maurice begins to see ghosts around the inn.
The Green Man is a very black comedy with an uncannily happy ending.
Allington has some problems, one of which is a drinking problem that causes hallucinations. Allington tries to arrange an orgy with his current wife and his mistress which backfires when the two women take an enthusiastic interest in each other and shut him out of the orgy.
Maurice begins to see ghosts around the inn.
The Green Man is a very black comedy with an uncannily happy ending.
March 9, 2019
There are some great things about this book. The main character is strangely likeable for a disconnected alcoholic womanizing inn owner. He goes through the motions of his life as things fall apart around him, and he realizes that the ghost of an evil old wizard is trying to use him to come back to life. Nobody quite believes him, but he goes about trying to stop the ghost in between doing his daily chores, trying to set up a three way with some hot friend of his, and dealing with all the little hassles of life and some personal tragedies.
I'm sure it doesn't sound like it, but the book is frequently very funny in a very dry way. Some of the characters are hysterical (there's a young postmodern Anglican parson in particular who always got me laughing).
I thought the last 40 or so pages were the best part of the book.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a read to everyone, but if dry-humored literature about a middle-aged British innkeeper in a life spiral who tries to exorcise an evil ghost sounds like your thing, go for it. The character study alone is masterful. The sex in the book feels very 60s but has some good variation in tone. And the supernatural elements, especially at the end, offer a great dimension on top of everything else.
I'm sure it doesn't sound like it, but the book is frequently very funny in a very dry way. Some of the characters are hysterical (there's a young postmodern Anglican parson in particular who always got me laughing).
I thought the last 40 or so pages were the best part of the book.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend this as a read to everyone, but if dry-humored literature about a middle-aged British innkeeper in a life spiral who tries to exorcise an evil ghost sounds like your thing, go for it. The character study alone is masterful. The sex in the book feels very 60s but has some good variation in tone. And the supernatural elements, especially at the end, offer a great dimension on top of everything else.
Read
December 21, 2017There are two apparitions in this ghost story of a novel; one explained and one not. And there is the obligatory Amis political incorrectness; some intended and some not.
I read this elder Amis because:
a) I like to see who he's skewering;
b) I want reassurance that, by comparison, I do not drink too much; and
c) his dialogue never disappoints, like this snippet between our protagonist and the local rector:
'You don't imagine it's a coincidence, do you, that this was the great age of masochism, chiefly in England but by no means confined to here?'
'No,' I said. 'An age of masochism couldn't be a coincidence.'
Turns out God drinks Scotch, with a little water.
I read this elder Amis because:
a) I like to see who he's skewering;
b) I want reassurance that, by comparison, I do not drink too much; and
c) his dialogue never disappoints, like this snippet between our protagonist and the local rector:
'You don't imagine it's a coincidence, do you, that this was the great age of masochism, chiefly in England but by no means confined to here?'
'No,' I said. 'An age of masochism couldn't be a coincidence.'
Turns out God drinks Scotch, with a little water.
January 22, 2015
I think this book is a perfect ghost story, with everything that is supposed to be there, there, per tradition.
Maurice Allington owns The Green Man, an Inn which has been in existence for 190 years on the same site near Fareham, 40 miles from London. The Inn was fully restored in 1961, but the best part of staying at the Inn is it has a genuine history of ghosts. He bought it because of the stories he was told about the ghosts appearing to guests. He himself is not a believer - yet.
I will let Maurice tell the tale:
“I went into the routine, first piously turning down a drink. “”The main one was somebody called Dr. Thomas Underhill who lived here in the later seventeenth century. He was in holy orders, but he wasn’t the parson of the parish; he was a scholar who for some reason gave up his Cambridge fellowship and bought this place. He’s buried in that little churchyard just up the road, but he nearly didn’t get buried at all. He was so wicked that when he died the sexton wouldn't dig a grave for him, and the local rector refused to officiate at his funeral. They had to get a sexton from Royston, and a clergyman all the way from Peterhouse in Cambridge. Some of the people round about said that Underhill had killed his wife, whom he used to quarrel with a lot, apparently, and he was also supposed to have brought about the death of a farmer he’d had trouble with over some land deal.””
“”Well, the odd thing is that both these people were murdered all right, half torn to pieces, in fact, in the most brutal way, but in both cases the bodies were found in the open, at almost the same spot on the road to the village, although the murders were six years apart, and on both occasions it was established beyond doubt that Underhill was indoors here at the time. The obvious guess is that he hired chaps to do the job for him, but they were never caught, nobody even saw them, and the force used on the victims, they say, was disproportionate for an ordinary commercial killing.””
“”Anyway, Underhill, or rather his ghost, turned up quite a few times at a window in what’s now part of the dining-room, peering out and apparently watching something. All the witnesses seem to have been very struck by the expression on his face and his general demeanor, but according to the story, there was a lot of disagreement about what he actually looked like. One chap said he thought Underhilll was behaving as if he were terrified out of his wits. Someone else thought the was showing the detached curiosity of a man of science observing an experiment….””
While his guests are happy with the ghost stories, the Inn, the tankards of ale, wine and hard liquor available on the menu, along with the food, which recently has been recommended by a columnist for a newspaper, Maurice is not. Maurice is an alcoholic, and his life feels so painful he has no wish to stop drinking even as he despises himself for it. Despite the efforts and love of his family and friends, Maurice has built walls of disassociation around himself. He is haunted with memories about his first wife’s death and a severe hypochondria, along with an obsession with sex. But the worst of his nightmares is his fear of death. All of which serves to avoid dealing with the man called Maurice. He is frozen, unable to go forward, weighted down by the past. He is not a stupid man, in fact he is well educated. He enlisted the help of two different therapists, and the local doctor frequently comes to visit him. But nothing seems to chase away the ghosts of his past which haunt Maurice’s days and nights. Nothing prevents his self-hatred and disgust with who he is. All he is capable of is dulling the pain with drink, and going through the expected daily motions required of him.
Then, one day, Maurice sees a strange woman at the top of the stairs which go to the private part of the Inn where he lives with his father, daughter and his second wife. She is dressed in the manner of women from a previous century. He looks away for a second, and she is gone.
Oh, oh.
As you may suspect, the ghosts are real. That is all I want to say.
The link below goes to a Wikipedia description about the Green Man legends, but it is a very brief outline. Nonetheless, I think it is safe to say the Green Man does not help the people who dare to think he can be called up from wherever he lurks to do their bidding without demanding a horrific payment. He is someone Heaven would not want or love.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man
Maurice Allington owns The Green Man, an Inn which has been in existence for 190 years on the same site near Fareham, 40 miles from London. The Inn was fully restored in 1961, but the best part of staying at the Inn is it has a genuine history of ghosts. He bought it because of the stories he was told about the ghosts appearing to guests. He himself is not a believer - yet.
I will let Maurice tell the tale:
“I went into the routine, first piously turning down a drink. “”The main one was somebody called Dr. Thomas Underhill who lived here in the later seventeenth century. He was in holy orders, but he wasn’t the parson of the parish; he was a scholar who for some reason gave up his Cambridge fellowship and bought this place. He’s buried in that little churchyard just up the road, but he nearly didn’t get buried at all. He was so wicked that when he died the sexton wouldn't dig a grave for him, and the local rector refused to officiate at his funeral. They had to get a sexton from Royston, and a clergyman all the way from Peterhouse in Cambridge. Some of the people round about said that Underhill had killed his wife, whom he used to quarrel with a lot, apparently, and he was also supposed to have brought about the death of a farmer he’d had trouble with over some land deal.””
“”Well, the odd thing is that both these people were murdered all right, half torn to pieces, in fact, in the most brutal way, but in both cases the bodies were found in the open, at almost the same spot on the road to the village, although the murders were six years apart, and on both occasions it was established beyond doubt that Underhill was indoors here at the time. The obvious guess is that he hired chaps to do the job for him, but they were never caught, nobody even saw them, and the force used on the victims, they say, was disproportionate for an ordinary commercial killing.””
“”Anyway, Underhill, or rather his ghost, turned up quite a few times at a window in what’s now part of the dining-room, peering out and apparently watching something. All the witnesses seem to have been very struck by the expression on his face and his general demeanor, but according to the story, there was a lot of disagreement about what he actually looked like. One chap said he thought Underhilll was behaving as if he were terrified out of his wits. Someone else thought the was showing the detached curiosity of a man of science observing an experiment….””
While his guests are happy with the ghost stories, the Inn, the tankards of ale, wine and hard liquor available on the menu, along with the food, which recently has been recommended by a columnist for a newspaper, Maurice is not. Maurice is an alcoholic, and his life feels so painful he has no wish to stop drinking even as he despises himself for it. Despite the efforts and love of his family and friends, Maurice has built walls of disassociation around himself. He is haunted with memories about his first wife’s death and a severe hypochondria, along with an obsession with sex. But the worst of his nightmares is his fear of death. All of which serves to avoid dealing with the man called Maurice. He is frozen, unable to go forward, weighted down by the past. He is not a stupid man, in fact he is well educated. He enlisted the help of two different therapists, and the local doctor frequently comes to visit him. But nothing seems to chase away the ghosts of his past which haunt Maurice’s days and nights. Nothing prevents his self-hatred and disgust with who he is. All he is capable of is dulling the pain with drink, and going through the expected daily motions required of him.
Then, one day, Maurice sees a strange woman at the top of the stairs which go to the private part of the Inn where he lives with his father, daughter and his second wife. She is dressed in the manner of women from a previous century. He looks away for a second, and she is gone.
Oh, oh.
As you may suspect, the ghosts are real. That is all I want to say.
The link below goes to a Wikipedia description about the Green Man legends, but it is a very brief outline. Nonetheless, I think it is safe to say the Green Man does not help the people who dare to think he can be called up from wherever he lurks to do their bidding without demanding a horrific payment. He is someone Heaven would not want or love.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man
January 18, 2015
Maurice Allington is a fifty something, twice married, inn keeper/hotelier. For Maurice, life is a high speed, roller-coaster ride of juggling his various commitments - in this case 'commitment' equates to womanizing, drinking heavily, running his period inn The Green Man, and embellishing his establishment with tales of the resident ghost. On top of this he needs to find time to appease the boredom of his teenage daughter... oh, yes, and did I mention more whisky and women.
In case I haven't made it clear, Maurice is a scoundrel of the highest order. He relishes being a cad, almost as much as he relishes bemoaning his lot. Oh, and I should have mentioned his hypochondria. Boy, it's tough being Maurice.
Now, I appreciate that none of what I have written makes Maurice sound a likely (or likable) protagonist, but he is. Maurice's antics are about to open the door for a very dark presence, and as the tone of the book takes an unsettling turn, we are treated to a more contemporary ghost story. This is a book about the supernatural, but in a very 'old fashioned' sense. It is also (and I realize this seems a contradiction) an extremely funny book. There is as much sexual innuendo, slapstick and satire, as there are chills.
An absolute joy of a book.
In case I haven't made it clear, Maurice is a scoundrel of the highest order. He relishes being a cad, almost as much as he relishes bemoaning his lot. Oh, and I should have mentioned his hypochondria. Boy, it's tough being Maurice.
Now, I appreciate that none of what I have written makes Maurice sound a likely (or likable) protagonist, but he is. Maurice's antics are about to open the door for a very dark presence, and as the tone of the book takes an unsettling turn, we are treated to a more contemporary ghost story. This is a book about the supernatural, but in a very 'old fashioned' sense. It is also (and I realize this seems a contradiction) an extremely funny book. There is as much sexual innuendo, slapstick and satire, as there are chills.
An absolute joy of a book.
September 26, 2020
“Nothing short of physical handicap has ever made anybody turn over a new leaf.”
Gothic horror best read with a shot of bourbon or a glass of wine.
Meet Maurice Allington, a surprisingly likable, sex-obsessed, dipsomaniac innkeeper who knowingly dwells on the cusp of carnal debauchery and unknowingly on the precipice of Satan’s abyss. Picture Dean Martin in Hell House; One minute you’re laughing hysterically, the next you’re sleeping with a light on. I’d put this on par with Poe and Lovecraft for sheer frightful brilliance. Five stars.
Gothic horror best read with a shot of bourbon or a glass of wine.
Meet Maurice Allington, a surprisingly likable, sex-obsessed, dipsomaniac innkeeper who knowingly dwells on the cusp of carnal debauchery and unknowingly on the precipice of Satan’s abyss. Picture Dean Martin in Hell House; One minute you’re laughing hysterically, the next you’re sleeping with a light on. I’d put this on par with Poe and Lovecraft for sheer frightful brilliance. Five stars.
July 30, 2010
For whatever reason, Kingsley Amis and I seem to genuinely click. At least I think so based upon the level of enjoyment I got from this unusual little book. There is a genuine quality to his literary voice, which when combined with his certain sense of humour, very much reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut (who I love). I am a sucker for ghost stories, but this is a ghost story with many differences. The feel is entirely unique, as is the imagery. I can't wait to get my hands on more from this fantastic author.
July 26, 2023
Literarily speaking, the 60s were weird and this isn't a ghost story even if it does have a ghost. This book is described as "a ghost story for adults", guess I have more growing up to do if I am to understand what's so special about Amis's writing style, as of now I am still rather unimpressed.
April 15, 2022
loved it!
October 27, 2020
(It's 3,5 stars, actually).
'The last stages of the conversation were lengthened by my guest's habit of pausing frequently in search of some even more roundabout way of expressing himself than the one which had occurred first to him.'
Kingsley Amis is, of course, very funny.
At the same time, this is a true ghost story, so what's there for me not to like?
Well, two things actually, both of them spoilers.
Otherwise, it's an enjoyable story, but at the same time, it's far from superficial. Obviously, ghosts and death go hand in hand, but here death is treated largely from the existentialist point of view, as is, of course, life. So it makes one think about one's obsessions, fears, and actions, - but not in a way that would be incompatible with a drink :)
***
This New York Review Books Classics is a nice edition with a concise introduction. The author of the introduction claims he does not give away important plot points, so one can read it before the story, but I'm not sure about this :) On the other hand, it deals as much with the material of the book as with the famous ghost story principles as formulated by my beloved author M. R. James, and with the persona of Amis - again, these are probably not the things to keep in mind when reading the book; I'd say it's an interesting article to read after finishing the novel.
'The last stages of the conversation were lengthened by my guest's habit of pausing frequently in search of some even more roundabout way of expressing himself than the one which had occurred first to him.'
Kingsley Amis is, of course, very funny.
At the same time, this is a true ghost story, so what's there for me not to like?
Well, two things actually, both of them spoilers.
Otherwise, it's an enjoyable story, but at the same time, it's far from superficial. Obviously, ghosts and death go hand in hand, but here death is treated largely from the existentialist point of view, as is, of course, life. So it makes one think about one's obsessions, fears, and actions, - but not in a way that would be incompatible with a drink :)
***
This New York Review Books Classics is a nice edition with a concise introduction. The author of the introduction claims he does not give away important plot points, so one can read it before the story, but I'm not sure about this :) On the other hand, it deals as much with the material of the book as with the famous ghost story principles as formulated by my beloved author M. R. James, and with the persona of Amis - again, these are probably not the things to keep in mind when reading the book; I'd say it's an interesting article to read after finishing the novel.
December 18, 2017
Maurice Allington is not the kind of guy you want to get mixed up with—he may be the well-known proprietor of the inn The Green Man, but he drinks far too much, ignores his wife and daughter, and spends his free time propositioning his friend’s wife. When he starts seeing things around the inn, we have to wonder if his drinking has finally addled his wits, for Maurice certainly doesn’t believe in the ghosts that he advertises to lure guests.
I remember a TV show based on this book, which I skipped based on how much the ads for it disturbed my peace of mind. Maybe I should have watched, because the book didn’t bother me a bit! I found Maurice to be completely unreliable as a narrator of his own experience—too alcohol impaired to be trusted—and since no one else shares in his visions/delusions, I was able to control my imaginative faculties and remain calm. As Maurice reflects a one point, “I thought to myself how much more welcome a faculty the imagination would be if we could tell when it was at work and when not.” But mine doesn’t work that way—it is often overactive when I would like it to mind its own business.
A good ghost story for people who normally don’t care for them.
I remember a TV show based on this book, which I skipped based on how much the ads for it disturbed my peace of mind. Maybe I should have watched, because the book didn’t bother me a bit! I found Maurice to be completely unreliable as a narrator of his own experience—too alcohol impaired to be trusted—and since no one else shares in his visions/delusions, I was able to control my imaginative faculties and remain calm. As Maurice reflects a one point, “I thought to myself how much more welcome a faculty the imagination would be if we could tell when it was at work and when not.” But mine doesn’t work that way—it is often overactive when I would like it to mind its own business.
A good ghost story for people who normally don’t care for them.
May 28, 2018
What a macabre novel, a horror story unlike I've ever read.
I first heard about this novel from PD James' semi-autobiography/memoir, 'Time To Be In Earnest,' which I recently read. She mentions 'The Green Man' as an excellent horror story, so I looked it up, found ONE copy only in my entire library system and borrowed it. Here goes...
It's the story of Maurice Allington, a known 'womanizer,' yet married with daughter, son, wife (second wife) and owner of an inn and restaurant in rural England. Maurice leads a fairly ordinary life, yet is interested in sex and having a threesome with his wife and the wife of a friend. His usual day sees him buying food for his restaurant, dealing with his employees and customers, and dallying about with said wife's friend. Maurice sees himself as sort of a carefree Hugh Hefner type. He's happy; he's not happy. He drinks too much; he has a lot of aches and pains, and then he sees a ghost...
And then another ghost.
This is where things start to ramp up considerably, with the drinking, and the threesome, and dealing with a teenage daughter (this is 1964) who's hard to reach. It culminates in full weirdness with barely a horror-haunted house trope about. Quite a different story altogether.
I'd never read anything by Kingsley Amis and I now know that this book was out of the ordinary for him. He was known as a cynical, yet amusing writer, with a unique take on the world and people around him. This is supposedly his only book of this kind. (He also wrote a sci-fi, though his usual genre was sarcasm and humor.) Anyhow, I might try another of his novels...
But this was genuinely different - D I F F E R E N T.
Four stars.
I first heard about this novel from PD James' semi-autobiography/memoir, 'Time To Be In Earnest,' which I recently read. She mentions 'The Green Man' as an excellent horror story, so I looked it up, found ONE copy only in my entire library system and borrowed it. Here goes...
It's the story of Maurice Allington, a known 'womanizer,' yet married with daughter, son, wife (second wife) and owner of an inn and restaurant in rural England. Maurice leads a fairly ordinary life, yet is interested in sex and having a threesome with his wife and the wife of a friend. His usual day sees him buying food for his restaurant, dealing with his employees and customers, and dallying about with said wife's friend. Maurice sees himself as sort of a carefree Hugh Hefner type. He's happy; he's not happy. He drinks too much; he has a lot of aches and pains, and then he sees a ghost...
And then another ghost.
This is where things start to ramp up considerably, with the drinking, and the threesome, and dealing with a teenage daughter (this is 1964) who's hard to reach. It culminates in full weirdness with barely a horror-haunted house trope about. Quite a different story altogether.
I'd never read anything by Kingsley Amis and I now know that this book was out of the ordinary for him. He was known as a cynical, yet amusing writer, with a unique take on the world and people around him. This is supposedly his only book of this kind. (He also wrote a sci-fi, though his usual genre was sarcasm and humor.) Anyhow, I might try another of his novels...
But this was genuinely different - D I F F E R E N T.
Four stars.
April 27, 2016
Published by a classics edition and read very much like a classic. And no matter how much I try, classic horror just doesn't do it for me. Mind you, this is more of a contemporary classic, meaning unlike prudish M.R. James or long winded Algernon Blackwood, this actually has sex (quite a lot of it) and dialogue and some action, but it's still just so...unengaging, slow and stodgy. Maurice, the main protagonist, isn't an overwhelmingly likeable fellow. He neglects his teenage daughter and his second wife, he actively defies at least two commandments (the ones about coveting and adultery)...he's actually so busy trying to get laid and assuage his phobic restless nature, that the ghost business in his inn initially mainly just gets in a way. Until it becomes real and Maurice starts to do something about it. Kingsley Amis isn't known for his horror works, he's mainly a comedic author who has dabbled in other genres. So this is a dabble and it comes across as one, it's sort of like a very british comedy with sex and ghosts. Ok, I just made it sound charming and it actually isn't without charm, it just that there isn't enough of it to really draw the reader in. Or at least this reader. Because it isn't all that funny or all that sexy or all that scary. It had some lovely writing, some exemplary british wit, some very nice very clever passages...but it just wasn't entertaining enough and it was trying to be too many things without really landing on a tone. Having that been said, I do believe this is very much an acquired taste sort of thing and it's sure to have and find many fans. I just expected more.
May 19, 2011
Two men seperated by the thin but impermeable barrier known as time:
- Hello, who are you?
- I'm Kingley Amis, who are you?
- I'm Peter. I'm a writer.
- Really? Me too.
- Wow, what a coincidence.
- Yes, isn't life funny like that sometime? Fate must have brought us together for some reason.
- Perhaps. Sometimes events in the past and present align to make events and stories overlap. This means that sometimes people in the present witness echoes from the past, kind of like ghosts. Sometimes the echo can go both ways and people from the past receive ripples of activity from the future.
- So what do you like to write about?
- Well, it's kind of horror but set so close to reality that it is believable in a way.
- Really... me too.
- I use my fantastic knowledge of history to link the past and present.
- How strange. I wrote a book like that you know. It was called The Green Man. A semi-alcoholic, over-educated, underachieving womaniser owns a pub haunted by the spirit of a 17th century scholar called Dr Underhill who summons dark folk-lore spirits and uses them to his own paedophilic ends.
- Really? A doctor in an old house who summons dark spirits and can control mythical creatures? I am sensing one of those overlaps.
- Hello, who are you?
- I'm Kingley Amis, who are you?
- I'm Peter. I'm a writer.
- Really? Me too.
- Wow, what a coincidence.
- Yes, isn't life funny like that sometime? Fate must have brought us together for some reason.
- Perhaps. Sometimes events in the past and present align to make events and stories overlap. This means that sometimes people in the present witness echoes from the past, kind of like ghosts. Sometimes the echo can go both ways and people from the past receive ripples of activity from the future.
- So what do you like to write about?
- Well, it's kind of horror but set so close to reality that it is believable in a way.
- Really... me too.
- I use my fantastic knowledge of history to link the past and present.
- How strange. I wrote a book like that you know. It was called The Green Man. A semi-alcoholic, over-educated, underachieving womaniser owns a pub haunted by the spirit of a 17th century scholar called Dr Underhill who summons dark folk-lore spirits and uses them to his own paedophilic ends.
- Really? A doctor in an old house who summons dark spirits and can control mythical creatures? I am sensing one of those overlaps.
December 28, 2014
This was an amusing middle-aged man's lament on growing older, wrapped inside of a ghost story. (Or is it the other way around?) It was an interesting academic and philosophical exploration of mortality and life after death until a little more than halfway through the book. At that point, the ghost story picks up steam- and, though still philosophical- becomes more of a "physical" conflict with supernatural occult and pagan forces. Once I was beyond the halfway mark, I couldn't put it down. Amis can definitely turn a phrase, writes great characters and was funny enough that I unexpectedly laughed out loud at least once. In this genre, Amis is much more subtle than Stephen King or Peter Straub, but equally as enjoyable. He doesn't knock you over the head with the supernatural elements like the aforementioned authors. This ghost story feels "real". Highly recommended if you're in the mood for a spooky late night read that won't keep you awake in terror.
August 18, 2011
Kingsley Amis' sole horror novel, "The Green Man," had long been on my list of "must read" books, for the simple reason that it has been highly recommended by three sources that I trust. British critic David Pringle chose it for inclusion in his overview volume "Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels," as did Michael Moorcock in "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books" AND Brian Aldiss in "Horror: 100 Best Books." As it turns out, all of this praise is not misplaced, and Amis' 1969 novel of modern-day satire and the supernatural is as entertaining as can be. The tale concerns a middle-aged man named Maurice Allington, who owns an inn called The Green Man in rural Hertfordshire, not far from Cambridge. Allington, when we meet him, is being kept busy running his inn, struggling through a floundering second marriage, dealing with his sullen 13-year-old daughter, drinking incredible amounts of scotch every day, and attempting to talk his new mistress into a three-way with him and his wife. As if he doesn't have enough on his plate, the ghost of diabolical necromancer Dr. Thomas Underhill --who used to live in the inn some 300 years before--has been contacting him of late, and the legendary Green Man himself (a sort of lumbering tree monster) has begun to make appearances, too. Those closest to poor Maurice suspect that his stories of ghosts and tiny birds that fly through his hand are a result of the DT's (it really is remarkable how much liquor Maurice drinks in a day), but the reader somehow never doubts that what Maurice sees is objective reality....
Mixing social satire, amusing incidents and some good eerie scenes, "The Green Man" does keep the reader enthralled. Amis, no stranger to the bottle himself, from what I've read, seems to really identify with Allington, and uses him as his mouthpiece to expound eruditely on topics such as food (a hateful, bothersome nuisance), death (he wonders how one cannot be totally obsessed with the idea), sex (he thinks that women's "emotional secretiveness" is due to the fact that they do not ejaculate) and religion (Maurice's views of the afterlife are radically turned about by what he goes through in this tale). In one startling section of the book, Maurice meets a nice young man in a dark suit who stops Time and who, it is inferred, is none other than God himself, and another fascinating conversation ensues. "The Green Man" is not an especially frightening book, although some parts (the reading of Underhill's diary; the midnight disinterment of Underhill's grave; Maurice's "nighttime" vision in broad daylight) are indeed genuinely creepy. This is an extremely literate, extremely British ghost story that functions as both satire and thriller. In another section of the book, Maurice tells us that he thinks all novelists engage in a "puny and piffling art," and that fiction is pitifully inadequate to the task it sets itself. But perhaps narrator Maurice should read back the book he has just delivered to us; it is neither puny nor piffling, and succeeds on many levels indeed.
Mixing social satire, amusing incidents and some good eerie scenes, "The Green Man" does keep the reader enthralled. Amis, no stranger to the bottle himself, from what I've read, seems to really identify with Allington, and uses him as his mouthpiece to expound eruditely on topics such as food (a hateful, bothersome nuisance), death (he wonders how one cannot be totally obsessed with the idea), sex (he thinks that women's "emotional secretiveness" is due to the fact that they do not ejaculate) and religion (Maurice's views of the afterlife are radically turned about by what he goes through in this tale). In one startling section of the book, Maurice meets a nice young man in a dark suit who stops Time and who, it is inferred, is none other than God himself, and another fascinating conversation ensues. "The Green Man" is not an especially frightening book, although some parts (the reading of Underhill's diary; the midnight disinterment of Underhill's grave; Maurice's "nighttime" vision in broad daylight) are indeed genuinely creepy. This is an extremely literate, extremely British ghost story that functions as both satire and thriller. In another section of the book, Maurice tells us that he thinks all novelists engage in a "puny and piffling art," and that fiction is pitifully inadequate to the task it sets itself. But perhaps narrator Maurice should read back the book he has just delivered to us; it is neither puny nor piffling, and succeeds on many levels indeed.
November 9, 2014
This book is mental. It's a ghost story but not in the slightest bit scary. It's also a kind of weird folklorish and boozy story with extramarital affairs. It reminded me of wicker man in a way...
It's not really my kind of book, but there was something so odd about it that I was intrigued... lots of nice writing and a lot of whisky.
we are reading this for reading group- so shall report bacck.
Reading group gave it a 2.5 out of five on average.....
It's not really my kind of book, but there was something so odd about it that I was intrigued... lots of nice writing and a lot of whisky.
we are reading this for reading group- so shall report bacck.
Reading group gave it a 2.5 out of five on average.....
March 22, 2021
One of the scariest books I've ever read. This, and The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson made me lay awake, afraid to go to sleep. I recently tried to re-read The Green Man thinking "oh, it can't be that scary." I stopped reading two chapters in. "Nuh-uh. Not going through that again!"
September 5, 2020
1. Fill a glass*
2. Drink, sit back and watch the fireworks
3. Deal with the consequences.
*given this was the end of the 60s, could be substituted with filling a pipe.
Or, it might just be a ghost story of course.
2. Drink, sit back and watch the fireworks
3. Deal with the consequences.
*given this was the end of the 60s, could be substituted with filling a pipe.
Or, it might just be a ghost story of course.
September 3, 2021
Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars
A ghost story in the tradition of classic British satirists such as Saki, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Elizabeth Gaskell. A horror story for post-war British society, a very English counterpart to Stephen King. Shaken and stirred with Amis' signature style of wicked sophistication and, unexpectedly, a pinch of Graham-Greene-like inquiry into morality and mortality. The resulting cocktail, as you can imagine already, should be an irresistible one.
Well, almost. "The Green Man" has all its ingredients in place, is well-written, reasonably witty and surprisingly tender and profound in places. But it does not quite challenge the norm of ghost stories the same way as the above-mentioned writers did so skilfully with their respective stories and novels and it is not quite sure, uncharacteristic of a writer like Amis who was known for tackling different genres in his own style without a hiccup, of what to do with its English ghost story and folklore roots. It tries to straddle both kitchen-sink satire, as already evident in the British New Wave films and rock and roll music of the same decade, and the audacious surrealism of a ghost story that features the supernatural but while it achieves the former quite astutely, the latter leaves a lot to be desired.
Still, as a good story should be, "The Green Man" begins with promise. We are introduced to the narrator and protagonist of the story, Maurice Allington, a fifty-something owner of the eponymous coaching inn who is fastidious in entertaining his guests, utterly reckless about his vices - especially his drinking and womanizing - and quite callously ignorant of his family of sorts - a second wife, a teenage daughter addicted to television and pop and an aging, nearly wizened father who is also aware of his son's many flaws and foibles.
The novel is neatly set over a course of five days, the chapters indicating each episode of the ghost story with Amis' cut-and-dried prose and cutting wit and we are tugged into Allington's mounting paranoia and predicament as he starts seeing, or starts thinking that he is seeing, the reincarnation of the resident ghost of the inn. Dr. Thomas Underhill was a devious savant back from the Jacobean Era who was alleged to have murdered his wife and a farmer in the compound of the inn but in the end of the 1960s, a decade marked already with post-modern thinking, he is nothing less in the beginning than just a story, a rumour, a legend without any evidence or proof. Until, that is, Allington himself not only stumbles upon the spectre haunting the dining room but also witnesses strange, absurd and even devastating phenomena, all that point to the ghost' prodigal return in the present era.
Right from before, we are aware of one of the winning strengths of the novel - the presence of an unreliable narrator. Allington is ostensibly one of Amis' most enduring characters, a flawed, aging and possibly even weather-beaten man who prides himself quite assertively for his penchant for his pleasures of the flesh and his erudite tastes. Beneath this wry exterior, however, he tries desperately to hide a glaring failure of a man, still haunted by his first wife's death and the failure of his first marriage and also plagued and wracked by ailments of the mind and body. Allington's despair and pathos, brimming beneath his urgent desire for drink and lust, are voiced eloquently in Amis' prose which blends its sharp functionality with a honesty that feels both disarming and amusing. If the novel does sustain our interest till the last page, it is primarily because of Allington's conundrums that feel not only believable but also resonant. At one point, driven to speculate on the very nature of the possibility of ghosts and reincarnation after death, he is even forced to confront his own mortality and question if God, whom he never believes in till the sobering end, would at least promise him an afterlife.
This leads to the finest segment in the novel - a startling scene in which a young man, erudite, self-assured, shows up to have a bit of a talk over a glass of Scotch. It is superbly written, this little conversation, in which the by-now beleaguered Allington tries and fails to seek the answers to his own inner doubts and questions and is, unexpectedly, given a hint - a hint that would lead him to "believe" against all odds and be convinced of the inevitability of the same.
One wishes, though, that the rest of this novel would have the same pitch-perfect effectiveness, a clarity of thought, idea and action that conveys just what has to be conveyed without any confusion or ambiguity. The rest of the novel, while still written with enough pointed humour and a subtly satirical vein, falters beyond repair especially as it approaches the end. Just when I was expecting Amis to tie up all the loose threads and build an audaciously shocking climax where the eerie scares that are delivered so far from time time come together for a truly terrifying experience, all we get are a couple of scenes of orgies that, while hinted throughout the build-up, feel strangely anti-climactic. Dr. Underhill himself is only initially an intriguing character of whom we are only given sinister glimpses and of whom we hear the most satanic and horrifying things that make our flesh crawl alone but Amis gives him not even half a dozen lines worth saying or even a proper page to do something of his own in the end. And what's the good, then, of a ghost story where the ghost himself is robbed of all his danger and personality?
It feels a little unfair, however, to talk so harshly of this novel because "The Green Man", for me at least, was a mildly entertaining read that is still much better written and put together than most present-days novels and stories that one reads these days. Amis writes with a crisp yet elegant style for most part and also thickens his prose with descriptions, both tantalizing and terrifying, in equal measure and there is enough of his saucy sex and drinking served both with style and hilarity to enjoy for a more indulgent reader who merely wants a good time. But sometimes, even these hallmark ingredients of his style interrupt with the flow of the narrative and, towards the end, end up overshadowing the element of horror and suspense that the story builds up so skilfully alongside its sharply satirical humour. I still maintain that "Lucky Jim" was Amis' finest hour as a novelist and while "The Anti-Death League", while also imperfect, compensated with its ungainly ambition and its glimmerings of tender romance and perfectly timed humour, this novel, which started off superbly and went on quite smoothly before disappointing me in its final act, is far from that mark.
A ghost story in the tradition of classic British satirists such as Saki, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Elizabeth Gaskell. A horror story for post-war British society, a very English counterpart to Stephen King. Shaken and stirred with Amis' signature style of wicked sophistication and, unexpectedly, a pinch of Graham-Greene-like inquiry into morality and mortality. The resulting cocktail, as you can imagine already, should be an irresistible one.
Well, almost. "The Green Man" has all its ingredients in place, is well-written, reasonably witty and surprisingly tender and profound in places. But it does not quite challenge the norm of ghost stories the same way as the above-mentioned writers did so skilfully with their respective stories and novels and it is not quite sure, uncharacteristic of a writer like Amis who was known for tackling different genres in his own style without a hiccup, of what to do with its English ghost story and folklore roots. It tries to straddle both kitchen-sink satire, as already evident in the British New Wave films and rock and roll music of the same decade, and the audacious surrealism of a ghost story that features the supernatural but while it achieves the former quite astutely, the latter leaves a lot to be desired.
Still, as a good story should be, "The Green Man" begins with promise. We are introduced to the narrator and protagonist of the story, Maurice Allington, a fifty-something owner of the eponymous coaching inn who is fastidious in entertaining his guests, utterly reckless about his vices - especially his drinking and womanizing - and quite callously ignorant of his family of sorts - a second wife, a teenage daughter addicted to television and pop and an aging, nearly wizened father who is also aware of his son's many flaws and foibles.
The novel is neatly set over a course of five days, the chapters indicating each episode of the ghost story with Amis' cut-and-dried prose and cutting wit and we are tugged into Allington's mounting paranoia and predicament as he starts seeing, or starts thinking that he is seeing, the reincarnation of the resident ghost of the inn. Dr. Thomas Underhill was a devious savant back from the Jacobean Era who was alleged to have murdered his wife and a farmer in the compound of the inn but in the end of the 1960s, a decade marked already with post-modern thinking, he is nothing less in the beginning than just a story, a rumour, a legend without any evidence or proof. Until, that is, Allington himself not only stumbles upon the spectre haunting the dining room but also witnesses strange, absurd and even devastating phenomena, all that point to the ghost' prodigal return in the present era.
Right from before, we are aware of one of the winning strengths of the novel - the presence of an unreliable narrator. Allington is ostensibly one of Amis' most enduring characters, a flawed, aging and possibly even weather-beaten man who prides himself quite assertively for his penchant for his pleasures of the flesh and his erudite tastes. Beneath this wry exterior, however, he tries desperately to hide a glaring failure of a man, still haunted by his first wife's death and the failure of his first marriage and also plagued and wracked by ailments of the mind and body. Allington's despair and pathos, brimming beneath his urgent desire for drink and lust, are voiced eloquently in Amis' prose which blends its sharp functionality with a honesty that feels both disarming and amusing. If the novel does sustain our interest till the last page, it is primarily because of Allington's conundrums that feel not only believable but also resonant. At one point, driven to speculate on the very nature of the possibility of ghosts and reincarnation after death, he is even forced to confront his own mortality and question if God, whom he never believes in till the sobering end, would at least promise him an afterlife.
This leads to the finest segment in the novel - a startling scene in which a young man, erudite, self-assured, shows up to have a bit of a talk over a glass of Scotch. It is superbly written, this little conversation, in which the by-now beleaguered Allington tries and fails to seek the answers to his own inner doubts and questions and is, unexpectedly, given a hint - a hint that would lead him to "believe" against all odds and be convinced of the inevitability of the same.
One wishes, though, that the rest of this novel would have the same pitch-perfect effectiveness, a clarity of thought, idea and action that conveys just what has to be conveyed without any confusion or ambiguity. The rest of the novel, while still written with enough pointed humour and a subtly satirical vein, falters beyond repair especially as it approaches the end. Just when I was expecting Amis to tie up all the loose threads and build an audaciously shocking climax where the eerie scares that are delivered so far from time time come together for a truly terrifying experience, all we get are a couple of scenes of orgies that, while hinted throughout the build-up, feel strangely anti-climactic. Dr. Underhill himself is only initially an intriguing character of whom we are only given sinister glimpses and of whom we hear the most satanic and horrifying things that make our flesh crawl alone but Amis gives him not even half a dozen lines worth saying or even a proper page to do something of his own in the end. And what's the good, then, of a ghost story where the ghost himself is robbed of all his danger and personality?
It feels a little unfair, however, to talk so harshly of this novel because "The Green Man", for me at least, was a mildly entertaining read that is still much better written and put together than most present-days novels and stories that one reads these days. Amis writes with a crisp yet elegant style for most part and also thickens his prose with descriptions, both tantalizing and terrifying, in equal measure and there is enough of his saucy sex and drinking served both with style and hilarity to enjoy for a more indulgent reader who merely wants a good time. But sometimes, even these hallmark ingredients of his style interrupt with the flow of the narrative and, towards the end, end up overshadowing the element of horror and suspense that the story builds up so skilfully alongside its sharply satirical humour. I still maintain that "Lucky Jim" was Amis' finest hour as a novelist and while "The Anti-Death League", while also imperfect, compensated with its ungainly ambition and its glimmerings of tender romance and perfectly timed humour, this novel, which started off superbly and went on quite smoothly before disappointing me in its final act, is far from that mark.
January 21, 2015
It is a great pity that Michael Dirda’s illuminating introduction to The Green Man is not included in the Vintage Amis digital edition. Here Dirda points out that Amis’s ghost story preceded the coming horror boom, with Rosemary’s Baby appearing in 1967, The Exorcist and The Other in 1971, Carrie in 1974 and Ghost Story in 1979.
It is highly unlikely that The Green Man preceded this horror renaissance, because it is a resounding failure as a horror novel. Its legacy lies more perhaps in stirring memories of Fawlty Towers (1975), only with much more sex and shenanigans.
Amis’s misstep here is especially surprising because he is no stranger to genre: New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction was published in 1960, and he also edited the 1981 anthology The Golden Age of Science Fiction.
I got the feeling in The Green Man that Amis was so enamoured with the character of Maurice Allington he forgot he was writing a ghost story.
The ‘threesome’ between Maurice, his wife Juliet and his best friend’s wife Diana may be the most infamous scene in the book, but bear in mind the other goings-on, such as desecrating Underhill’s grave and the chinwag with a ghostly character clearly meant to represent God.
Maurice may be a misogynistic, homophobic, unfaithful cad, but Amis nevertheless positions him (pun intended) just on the right side of immorality that the reader is meant to empathise with him. Clearly, Amis identifies quite a bit with Maurice himself.
The gender politics here are laughingly anachronistic, including such ideas as women becoming lesbians due to bad husbands. The line between satire and polemic is especially blurred when Maurice waxes lyrical about the prowess of man and the (numerous) failings of the fairer sex (including their lack of a penis).
This is a pretty conventional ghost story, replete with a mysterious tome in which Maurice learns all sorts of dark secrets about the history of The Green Man Inn. The genre bits feel sandwiched in-between the numerous sex scenes and ruminative speculations on fate, destiny and the search for the perfect orgasm (which seems to be Maurice’s interpretation of enlightenment).
Part of the problem here is that Amis’s flimsy pretext of a ghost story is totally overwhelmed by the character of Maurice, who could have easily carried the book all by himself. Alas, the final confrontation with the unruly revenants is a total anti-climax, and is in stark contrast to the sombre reflection on mortality that Amis chooses to end the book with.
It is highly unlikely that The Green Man preceded this horror renaissance, because it is a resounding failure as a horror novel. Its legacy lies more perhaps in stirring memories of Fawlty Towers (1975), only with much more sex and shenanigans.
Amis’s misstep here is especially surprising because he is no stranger to genre: New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction was published in 1960, and he also edited the 1981 anthology The Golden Age of Science Fiction.
I got the feeling in The Green Man that Amis was so enamoured with the character of Maurice Allington he forgot he was writing a ghost story.
The ‘threesome’ between Maurice, his wife Juliet and his best friend’s wife Diana may be the most infamous scene in the book, but bear in mind the other goings-on, such as desecrating Underhill’s grave and the chinwag with a ghostly character clearly meant to represent God.
Maurice may be a misogynistic, homophobic, unfaithful cad, but Amis nevertheless positions him (pun intended) just on the right side of immorality that the reader is meant to empathise with him. Clearly, Amis identifies quite a bit with Maurice himself.
The gender politics here are laughingly anachronistic, including such ideas as women becoming lesbians due to bad husbands. The line between satire and polemic is especially blurred when Maurice waxes lyrical about the prowess of man and the (numerous) failings of the fairer sex (including their lack of a penis).
This is a pretty conventional ghost story, replete with a mysterious tome in which Maurice learns all sorts of dark secrets about the history of The Green Man Inn. The genre bits feel sandwiched in-between the numerous sex scenes and ruminative speculations on fate, destiny and the search for the perfect orgasm (which seems to be Maurice’s interpretation of enlightenment).
Part of the problem here is that Amis’s flimsy pretext of a ghost story is totally overwhelmed by the character of Maurice, who could have easily carried the book all by himself. Alas, the final confrontation with the unruly revenants is a total anti-climax, and is in stark contrast to the sombre reflection on mortality that Amis chooses to end the book with.
December 4, 2013
I'm a big fan of that style of particular British writing where the authors are hellbent on proper grammar and word usage. It's like a completely different language than the one I muddle about in. Martin Amis wrote in his memoir about heading up to his old man's house every Sunday and have the old bastard reading Martin's newspaper articles and telling how how he used the inferior, vulgar and utterly punishable newspaper meaning of a word, which has slowly taken over to become the word's only meaning (for further elaboration on this, try Martin's Experience: A Memoir or Kingsley's The King's English: A Guide to Modern Usage, where he sits with a dictionary and a drink and tells you in all sorts of ways how your writing wouldn't get you far as a 50's man of letters).
I like it, only because I think I'd definitely be that ponderous oaf telling somebody at a party how much their words suck. Also, reading Amis is a good way to tell if you've been hitting the sauce too much. If you find yourself keeping pace with any of his fictional characters (over the age of 15), you'd better dry yourself out, and fast.
I read the Green Man while heavily boozing in Berlin, and let me tell you, going drink for drink with the protagonist was a wake up call. Amis gives you an up and down horror/suspense story, set in a pub, obviously, as plotlines in Amis' stories tend not to happen more then ten paces from a drink. As it is an Amis plotline, the main storyline is bulked out by the heavy drinking of the protagonist, and his fumbling engineering of a three-way with his wife and her best friend. So something for everyone.
Makes you kinda sad he never wrote episodes of Scooby Doo. Freddy would be a no-nonsense philander, Daphne would run off with Velma to start a B&B in Wales, and after Shaggy gets drunk and kills Scooby with the Mystery Machine, he runs off with the middle-aged art director who was haunting the newly renovated bar/bistro down by the racetrack.
I like it, only because I think I'd definitely be that ponderous oaf telling somebody at a party how much their words suck. Also, reading Amis is a good way to tell if you've been hitting the sauce too much. If you find yourself keeping pace with any of his fictional characters (over the age of 15), you'd better dry yourself out, and fast.
I read the Green Man while heavily boozing in Berlin, and let me tell you, going drink for drink with the protagonist was a wake up call. Amis gives you an up and down horror/suspense story, set in a pub, obviously, as plotlines in Amis' stories tend not to happen more then ten paces from a drink. As it is an Amis plotline, the main storyline is bulked out by the heavy drinking of the protagonist, and his fumbling engineering of a three-way with his wife and her best friend. So something for everyone.
Makes you kinda sad he never wrote episodes of Scooby Doo. Freddy would be a no-nonsense philander, Daphne would run off with Velma to start a B&B in Wales, and after Shaggy gets drunk and kills Scooby with the Mystery Machine, he runs off with the middle-aged art director who was haunting the newly renovated bar/bistro down by the racetrack.
May 29, 2009
At times a ghost story, at others a sex farce, and at yet others an occult mystery. Overall enjoyable, as long as you can resolve the fact that the protagonist is an arrogant alcoholic jerk. I also laughed out loud a few times, especially when the main character derided novelists; you know the character isn't a front for the author when that happens!
March 19, 2015
Imagine sitting by the fire listening to M.R. James as played by a soused Oliver Reed telling you this creepy-as-all-hell ghost story that he keeps mixing up with the Wicker Man and that three way that didn't quite work out. It's just too weird not to like. And spoilers--if this guy was such an awful misogynist, why does his wife get the last word and the girl?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2023
"I thought to myself how much more welcome a faculty of imagination would be if we could tell when it was at work and when not."
Maurice Allington, is the middle-aged proprietor of a 14th-century English inn called 'The Green Man' who lives on site with his second wife, a daughter from his first marriage and his elderly father. Maurice is a habitual heavy-drinker, hypochondriac and philanderer who is also being haunted by strange visions that no one else is able to see. When Maurice’s elderly father suddenly dies, the ghostly visions increase and Maurice starts investigating the possibilities that a wielder of dark magic is haunting his establishment.
No one in Maurice’s circle believes there is a ghost and they all attribute his sightings to his drinking, the shock of his father dying, and so forth. When he uncovers an account from 1720 in which a housemaid details her encounter with the 'Underhill' ghost, Maurice becomes ever more determined to prove them all wrong.
The novel also has some fun sexcapades, including Maurice’s ridiculous attempt to get his wife Joyce into a threesome with his best friend’s wife, Diana. Amis’s characters always seem to have plenty of attention from women but they always find a way to mess things up. Amis never really bothers to give his women any depth generally painting them merely as sex objects.
At the same time, an unreliable narrator is something Amis excels at. Maurice isn't a particularly likeable character but he is quite comical in a sozzled Basil Faulty sort of way; you are never certain whether or not he actually sees any apparitions or whether they are simply manifestations of a drink-sodden mind. This a modern Gothic short novel where by today's standards the ghost is quite placid and easily dispensed with but its both comical and exhilarating in parts making it an satisfyingly quick read overall.
Maurice Allington, is the middle-aged proprietor of a 14th-century English inn called 'The Green Man' who lives on site with his second wife, a daughter from his first marriage and his elderly father. Maurice is a habitual heavy-drinker, hypochondriac and philanderer who is also being haunted by strange visions that no one else is able to see. When Maurice’s elderly father suddenly dies, the ghostly visions increase and Maurice starts investigating the possibilities that a wielder of dark magic is haunting his establishment.
No one in Maurice’s circle believes there is a ghost and they all attribute his sightings to his drinking, the shock of his father dying, and so forth. When he uncovers an account from 1720 in which a housemaid details her encounter with the 'Underhill' ghost, Maurice becomes ever more determined to prove them all wrong.
The novel also has some fun sexcapades, including Maurice’s ridiculous attempt to get his wife Joyce into a threesome with his best friend’s wife, Diana. Amis’s characters always seem to have plenty of attention from women but they always find a way to mess things up. Amis never really bothers to give his women any depth generally painting them merely as sex objects.
At the same time, an unreliable narrator is something Amis excels at. Maurice isn't a particularly likeable character but he is quite comical in a sozzled Basil Faulty sort of way; you are never certain whether or not he actually sees any apparitions or whether they are simply manifestations of a drink-sodden mind. This a modern Gothic short novel where by today's standards the ghost is quite placid and easily dispensed with but its both comical and exhilarating in parts making it an satisfyingly quick read overall.
May 26, 2013
I know the feeling. Kingsley seems to be trying to resolve some (health) threat that has triggered fears of his impending death (26 years later) here. He has done this before, but within a ghost story, that is a different path altogether for Amis, and he pulls it off moderately well I must admit. A Stephen King best-seller it is not, and thank God Almighty for that.
Now dying is one thing, it must come to us all (and why we are not paralysed by this prospect is a mystery to Amis's character here) but the persistence of evil into the afterlife is another! All this washed down with a modest triple scotch and water.
There are many examples of the typical Amis-like crackling dry delivery, often at the most unexpected of times thereby guaranteeing a shock, in the mouth of the sex-obsessed, death-obsessed and misanthropic narrator, hotel manager Maurice Allington: a drunker but much more competent Basil Fawlty role. Amis often makes me burst out loud laughing with that wonderfully cynical line, carefully thought-out and poetically knife-pointed to a unimpeachable truth, in this book as much as any of the others I have read.
(My favorite quotation of all time is this, from Lucky Jim; "If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.")
Allington has to deal with a frisky mistress, a taken-for-granted (but still loved) newish wife, a dying to dead father, a drinking problem, hypochondria (that pain in the lower back is kidney cancer, perhaps, now that the brain cancer has cleared up), an mostly uncommunicative 13yo daughter, lost manuscripts, midnight grave robbing, an atheist parson, a shy cat, and all sorts of disconcerting spectral visitors in the woods nearby and in the hotel at night, at least one of whom has a rather nasty history...
He's trying what he thinks is his best in all aspects of life, but his unacknowledged selfishness doesn't help, and that fact he can't tell anyone about his search for the secret behind these ghosts as they'll only think it's the DT's. But his TV watching daughter seems not to disbelieve him...
Loved it.
Now dying is one thing, it must come to us all (and why we are not paralysed by this prospect is a mystery to Amis's character here) but the persistence of evil into the afterlife is another! All this washed down with a modest triple scotch and water.
There are many examples of the typical Amis-like crackling dry delivery, often at the most unexpected of times thereby guaranteeing a shock, in the mouth of the sex-obsessed, death-obsessed and misanthropic narrator, hotel manager Maurice Allington: a drunker but much more competent Basil Fawlty role. Amis often makes me burst out loud laughing with that wonderfully cynical line, carefully thought-out and poetically knife-pointed to a unimpeachable truth, in this book as much as any of the others I have read.
(My favorite quotation of all time is this, from Lucky Jim; "If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.")
Allington has to deal with a frisky mistress, a taken-for-granted (but still loved) newish wife, a dying to dead father, a drinking problem, hypochondria (that pain in the lower back is kidney cancer, perhaps, now that the brain cancer has cleared up), an mostly uncommunicative 13yo daughter, lost manuscripts, midnight grave robbing, an atheist parson, a shy cat, and all sorts of disconcerting spectral visitors in the woods nearby and in the hotel at night, at least one of whom has a rather nasty history...
He's trying what he thinks is his best in all aspects of life, but his unacknowledged selfishness doesn't help, and that fact he can't tell anyone about his search for the secret behind these ghosts as they'll only think it's the DT's. But his TV watching daughter seems not to disbelieve him...
Loved it.
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