Stanley and the Women FROM THE PUBLISHER
The hero of Kingsley Amis's comedy is Stanley Duke. Attractive, prosperous and happily remarried, Stanley leads a life that is positively enviable--that is, until it becomes apparent that his teenage son, Steve, is going mad.
It isn't that Steve suddenly tears up a copy of Bellow's HERZOG, or cranks his stereo to ear-shattering levels...that's normal. It's his pursuit by cosmic forces that concerns his father. Stanley's confrontation with his son's madness give Amis the opportunity to pull off a comic masterpiece.
"Tough, funny, tender and provoking. One of his fiercest and best." (Punch)
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Stanley is advertising manager of a London newspaper. The women are his ex-wife Nowell (```a not very good actress who isn't very beautiful'''), new wife Susan (```You certainly do marry some extraordinary people, Stanley'''), his dreadful mother-in-law, and psychiatrist Trish Collings, who's maltreating his son for schizophrenia. Rumor has it that Amis's new novel was rejected by several American publishers whose (female) editors took offense at its aggressively sexist tone. ```Would you assent to the proposition that all women are mad?''' a (male) psychiatrist asks Stanley. ```Yes. No, not all. There are exceptions, naturally.''' But in this tightly constructed, biting comedy no one comes off very well. Highly recommended for most fiction collections. Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Fromberg Schaeffer
'Stanley and the Women'' is an ingeniously contrived book. It is divided into four sections: ''Onset,'' ''Progress,'' ''Relapse'' and ''Prognosis''...Onset concludes with Steve's commitment to a mental hospital, progress ends with Steve drugged and inaccessible, relapse ends with Steve recommitted to the hospital after ostensibly stabbing his mother, and prognosis is the final and most depressing section; it is clear that Steve will not recover.
A book must be judged by what it sets out to do. ''Stanley and the Women'' sets out to be a comic and serious exploration of the trouble between men and women. In the end it is neither comic nor truly serious. This is, however, a book with a vision, and it is an extremely sad one. Theoreticians of comedy claim sadness is at the heart of all humor. It is the very heart and soul of this seriously flawed and disappointing book. -- New York Times Book Review
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