{"product_id":"the-green-man-paperback","title":"The Green Man - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eKingsley Amis\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eMichael Dirda\u003c\/b\u003e (Introduction by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe owner of a haunted country inn contends with death, fatherhood, romantic woes, and alcoholism in this humorous and \"rattling good ghost story\" from a Booker Prize-winning author (\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Maurice Allington has reached middle age and is haunted by death. As he says, \"I honestly can't see why everybody who isn't a child, everybody who's theoretically old enough to have understood what death means, doesn't spend all his time thinking about it. It's a pretty arresting thought.\" He also happens to own and run a country inn that is haunted. \u003ci\u003eThe Green Man\u003c\/i\u003e opens as Maurice's father drops dead (had he seen something in the room?) and continues as friends and family convene for the funeral. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Maurice's problems are many and increasing: How to deal with his own declining health? How to reach out to a teenage daughter who watches TV all the time? How to get his best friend's wife in the sack? How to find another drink? (And another.) And then there is always death. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Green Man\u003c\/i\u003e is a ghost story that hits a live nerve, a very black comedy with an uncannily happy ending: in other words, Kingsley Amis at his best.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eKingsley Amis (1922-1995) \u003c\/b\u003ewas a popular and prolific British novelist, poet, and critic, widely regarded as one of the greatest satirical writers of the twentieth century. Born in suburban South London, the only child of a clerk in the office of the mustard-maker Colman's, he went to the City of London School on the Thames before winning an English scholarship to St. John's College, Oxford, where he began a lifelong friendship with fellow student Philip Larkin. Following service in the British Army's Royal Corps of Signals during World War II, he completed his degree and joined the faculty at the University College of Swansea in Wales. \u003ci\u003eLucky Jim\u003c\/i\u003e, his first novel, appeared in 1954 to great acclaim and won a Somerset Maugham Award. Amis spent a year as a visiting fellow in the creative writing department of Princeton University and in 1961 became a fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, but resigned the position two years later, lamenting the incompatibility of writing and teaching (\"I found myself fit for nothing much more exacting than playing the gramophone after three supervisions a day\"). Ultimately he published twenty-four novels, including science fiction and a James Bond sequel; more than a dozen collections of poetry, short stories, and literary criticism; restaurant reviews and three books about drinking; political pamphlets and a memoir; and more. Amis received the Booker Prize for his novel \u003ci\u003eThe Old Devils\u003c\/i\u003e in 1986 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. He had three children, among them the novelist Martin Amis, with his first wife, Hilary Anne Bardwell, from whom he was divorced in 1965. After his second, eighteen-year marriage to the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard ended in 1983, he lived in a London house with his first wife and her third husband. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Dirda\u003c\/b\u003e is a longtime book columnist for \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e and the author, most recently, of \u003ci\u003eClassics for Pleasure\u003c\/i\u003e and the 2012 Edgar Award-winning \u003ci\u003eOn Conan Doyle\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 256\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 7.9 x 4.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 07, 2013\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51771228684576,"sku":"9781590176160","price":20.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6f5705ca34a93b347e694a34d01e797c.webp?v=1780383541","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/the-green-man-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}