One Fat Englishman (2004)

By Kingsley Amis
The fat Pom of the title is possibly the most convincingly odious and repugnant character ever written. It is not even possible to enjoy disliking him, as with so many other nasty literary characters. He’s fat, he sweats a lot, he lusts after married women a lot, he has an anger management issue, he likes to play at emotional blackmail, he has a British superiority complex, he doesn’t seem to even really like women, except for a bit of recreational activity - he’s just generally foul.

This book is all about his attempts to get it on with Helene, the wife of an associate of his. Roger Micheldene (the said fat Pom) is a publisher, and in America on business. While he tries to pressure Helene into having sex with him (eww), he tries it on with a couple of other women he meets for good measure, while having arguments with a young American author called Macher, despising everyone around him (especially Helene’s son, Arthur) and generally behaving like a total asshole.

While the quality of the writing was undoubtedly good, I found it hard to keep reading. I wondered who it was meant to appeal to – other fat Englishmen? It seemed to me that the author also despised Mr Micheldene quite thoroughly, and wondered what made him want to write about such a person. Was he writing about himself in some way, thus purging himself? (Kingsley was a Pom, and I think a bit on the fat side; OK tenuous link I admit). Perhaps he was trying to cure the world of the notion that all fat Englishmen are jolly old fellows. If so, he succeeded. This book is clever, but I found it impossible to enjoy.

Rating: 3 out of 10