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That Uncertain Feeling
That Uncertain Feeling
Aug 18, 2025 6:14 PM

Author:Kingsley Amis,John Sackville

That Uncertain Feeling

Brought to you by Penguin.

Competition is stiff for the position of sub-librarian in Aberdarcy Library. For John Lewis, the situation is complicated by the attentions of daunting and desirable village socialite, Elizabeth Gruffyd-Williams, who is married to a member of the local Council. Pursuing an affair with her whilst keeping his job prospects alive is John's predicament, as he finds himself running down Welsh country lanes at midnight in a wig and dress, resisting the advances of local drunks and suffering the long speeches of a 'nut-faced' clergyman.

At times tenderly satirical and at times riotously slap-stick, Amis sends up an array of rural stereotypes in this story about a man who doesn't know what he wants.

© Kingsley Amis 2013 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Reviews

A marvellous ghost story, shimmering with panic

—— Irish Times

A splendid chiller [and] extremely funny book... Indeed, the success of this novel depends very much on the balance that Amis maintains between laughter and fear

—— New York Times

Contains all the best and familiar Amis qualities - including superb sexual comedy.

—— Sunday Times

Richard Flanagan is one of the greatest writers at work in the world today - I admire him and his writing immensely. The Living Sea of Waking Dreams is a haunting, urgent and important book about our broken and confusing age

—— James Rebanks

Striking... brilliantly done... Flanagan is wise enough to place his wider concerns, and the accompanying magic realism within the sturdy framework of a conventional family narrative

—— The Times

Magnificent... Flanagan hasn't just written about the space between living and dying; in writing about the things that are disappearing from the world he's captured something fundamental about the moment we're living in

—— Guardian Australia

Pure and simple... A book in which workaday realism is increasingly marbled with magical effects... What impresses most, however, is that Flanagan's novel doesn't end in condemnation. It keeps searching for the proper form for love

—— Geordie Williamson , The Australian

Flanagan has delivered a book that both distills the literary qualities for which he has been celebrated for more than a quarter of a century and recasts our ideas about the kind of writer he is and what he can do. This novel is a revelation and triumph, from a writer demonstrating, yet again, the depths of his talent, while revelling in a new, unfamiliar register. It is at once timely and timeless, full of despair but leavened by hope, angry and funny and sad and a bit magical... What an astonishing book this is

—— Michael Williams , Sydney Morning Herald

An extraordinary tour de force, utterly compelling... It's a heartfelt, urgent plea to restore our connection to the world before it's too late

—— Morag MacInnes , Tablet, *Novel of the Week*

Utterly dazzling

—— Jonathan Wright , SFX

Fascinating

—— Scotland on Sunday, *Books to Look Out For 2020*

[Flanagan's] prose has a pyrotechnic brilliance

—— Max Davidson , Mail on Sunday

There's much beauty and hope to be found in The Living Sea of Waking Dreams

—— Claire Webb , Radio Times
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