DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

You Can't Do Both

Kingsley Amis author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Vintage Publishing

Published:1st Jul '04

Should be back in stock very soon

You Can't Do Both cover

'Has you moved to tears. Amis amazes at every turn - A masterpiece from a master' Mail on Sunday

Robin Davies knows how to look after number one. As Robin stumbles through his rites of passage to adulthood, involving rebellion, self-discovery, sex, war, seduction and the threat of commitment, we come to realise just how far he will go to have his cake and eat it.Robin Davies knows how to look after number one. Raised in a bland suburb of South London in the 1930s, Robin longs for the freedom to do what he wants. When he escapes to study in Oxford, he meets Nancy Bennett, a young woman even less worldly than himself. As Robin stumbles through his rites of passage to adulthood, involving rebellion, self-discovery, sex, war, seduction and the threat of commitment, we come to realise just how far he will go to have his cake and eat it.

Acutely and poignantly observed-there is still fire in the old devil's belly * Daily Telegraph *
As finely judged, as exactly observed, as vividly conceived as anything he has written * The Times *
Funny, touching, well-constructed, sharply evocative of time and place and written with characteristic Amisian aplomb. It is a first class addition to his oeuvre * Spectator *
Will have you whooping with delight -- John Osborne * Literary Review *

ISBN: 9780099461029

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 22mm

Weight: 245g

352 pages