AFTER THE PUBLICATION OF HIS first novel, Lucky Jim (1954), Kingsley Amis found himself pigeonholed as one of the Angry Young Men, postwar British writers from the lower classes who seemed bent on toppling the shaky but still oppressive Establishment culture. The label never fit Amis comfortably; he was, at most, an Irritable Young Man, more likely to hoot than to rant. His use of humor as a means of subversion proved remarkably effective and durable. Works during the 1950s by other so-called Angries--novels by John Wain (Hurry on Down) and John Braine (Room at the Top), the plays of John...
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