The Biographer’s Moustache (Kingsley Amis).

Гордон Скотт-Томпсон, малоизвестный писатель, получает заказ написать биографию ветерана литературы Джимми Фейна. Эта задача оказывается непростой и чревата неожиданными трудностями. Фейн, не скрывающий своих аристократических замашек, имеет много раздражителей, в том числе молодых людей с усами и модным произношением. Скотт-Томпсон, однако, очень привязан к своим собственным усам и не особенно щепетилен в речи. Ситуацию осложняет и то, что жена Фейна Джоанна пока не определилась в отношении к усам, но имеет твердое мнение о молодых мужчинах.

Kingsley Amis's delightful and technically masterful satire concerns an underpaid hack talentless writer (Scott-Thompson) who is appointed by a sophisticated, snobbish author (Fane) to compose a detailed book—or life—sketch.The directions from Fane tend to get more obnoxious and implausible as the piece progresses, placing Scott-Thomas in depth formidable tests: e.g., accounting for an alternate spelling of an amiably mispronounced word, manufacturing an authenticity-driven parody of retro humor, and performing forensic archeology in the history of moustachiosed studio scene actors. All of which are addled by the need for fair rigor, inner torments of adequate wit, and labors of theatrical circumstance. Along the way, Scott-Thompsons pleasantly immature protective attachment to his bushy facial fur defined as "top surfer," defies the sensible demands of his critical situation. These mitigations of muzzled versified thrust should inspire the reader; the equation of art methodology and suspension of disbelief is not such a bad thing after all. Woodbridge James, or possibly Roy Blandy, did say something like, "The more cigar smoke the better," right while he was trying to inhale air.With characteristic jabs about bourgeois artistic self-regard and the certain apparent need for irony,Along the way, readers are momentarily lured away by findings hidden in plain view, as the passage moves back and forth between satire of snobby aspects of literary critique written by vain professional dilettantes and its subliminal pressures on actual artistic processes too often overlooked in practice. Honey-sweet and ironically far-sighted, Amis attacks the structures of human achievement and creativity in a manner consistent with previous work and captures the urgent subtleties of slaving as a creative activity and being outwardly thwarted in performing freely in one's native habitat. The results are entertaining, thought-provoking, uplifting."The author has published 16 novels and 20 short stories and essays, the latter including practical philosophy Apology for a Sceptic, television criticism London's Top Booker, travel writing Five Days and Nights, and the multiple volumes How to Read Literature Like a Professio... This 424-page long book (Woodbridge: Greenwood), is Amis follows-up and more sharply focused sequel to the 1985 The Enright Technique".What readers will find amidst bracing, arcane interludes of detail and shouty saturation is, much as in earlier works which began with the disappearance of Robert Macfarlane, thoroughly recognizable marks of Amis, whether it be satisfyingly unsentimentalized matter-of-factism in reporting and scattering of moods, cold-blooded scrutiny of the qualities of innocence and distinction, razor cut ironic exuberance fueled by failure, and intrepid unflinchingness in approaching the most shockingest scenarios and characters. Amis emphasizes how treatise on composition itself nurtures conceits, suspension of discreet judgments and guilt, entertain conventions of art-making, yet is all essentially meaningless. Here you'll find evidence of a revelatory leap into the dark depictions of shamelessness and vacuity evoking religious sensibilities, gothic ambiguity or satirical recuperation of commercial forms, repression and performance, delusion and contradiction, calm amusement and freezing impersonality, as these abstractions constitute the actions of every skilled aspirational self-styled, big-timein advance. In the end, Kingsley Amisorial as always charting new ground plumbs antipathetic wastes and strives ingeniously, if without the hallmark fiery lyrical remainders in some of his earlier bestsellers, to infect the reader with mimicry of distressed poignancy entertainingly demonstrates his aptitude for accurately diagnosing the hazards and limitations of modern aesthetic aggrandizement, laden with material for debate and conversation at a sensual-aesthetic level that entertains readers old and new.