STANLEY AND THE WOMEN.**

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.An unread copy.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated ,colour pictorial artwork by Alistair Taylor,illustrated dw/dj panels,with black+red letters to front and spine; with negligible shelf-wear to edges and corners and no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges generally clean but obviously toned/aged; contents bright,tight and near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners.Unblemished,plain red paper-covered boards with bright,crisp,blocked silver gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+ dw/dj,1st edn,8-255pp includes half-title+title pages,and contents list.An example in an exceptional grade. Stanley Duke is more or less comfortably settled into early middle-age,with a well- paid job and an apparently happy second marriage, when Steve,his son by his first wife,begins to display the first signs of acute schizophrenia.There is nothing at all funny about madness in the family,but the stages of Steve's illness,set out in all their desperate banality,now and again touching upon horror,have an effect on those around him that ranges from the devastating to the hilarious.As Steve's condition deteriorates and father and son fall into the hands of the women,including the female psychiatrist in charge of the boy's case,the situation exposes in its true awfulness and strangeness the character of the women in Stanley's life.Could it be that there are other,subtler, more insidious forms of madness than Steve's? Amis's new novel (then 1984),latest in the rich comic vein that runs from 'Lucky Jim' to 'Jake's Thing',negotiates brilliantly the difficult course that runs between tragedy and helpless laughter. It is not a book that is likely to win many prizes for fairness or fashionable social attitudes,but readers will delight in its triumphant handling of the unconscionable,the unbearable and the unspeakable. See also my book ID's rja531, rja1222, rja2068, rja2069 and rja2072, rja2073, and also rja2101 for other Kingsley Amis titles. Want more Kingsley AMIS titles? For similar and other available fiction and non- fiction titles - please search my MODERN FIRSTS and MODERN FIRSTS2 catalogues. Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE.
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