Book Review: "Ending Up" by Kingsley Amis

About two years' ago, I thought I would try out a random novel by Kingsley Amis called The Old Devils and I was completely sold. Finally, a Kingsley Amis novel I could actually enjoy! After this, I definitely became more confident with my reading of this author because I'm not going to lie - I have read many more books by his son. I picked up a short book called Ending Up from a used bookstore recently and well, it's time to really get stuck in. I was surprised. I enjoyed it, and it was pretty much over before it even began - so you can imagine how short it was.

Age, loneliness and meddling litter this text as our novel is set in a dilapidated country house called Tuppenny-hapenny Cottage, where a small group of elderly people live together in uneasy coexistence. One way we can therefore interpret the title is the fact that they have quite literally 'ended up' together whether they like it or not. The household consists of five elderly folk: Adela, a snobbish and controlling woman and her brother Bernard, a once-brilliant but now cantankerous invalid. Shorty, a former RAF officer with a bawdy sense of humor and Marigold, a gentle but increasingly senile spinster. Finally, there's Egbert, an ineffectual, mild-mannered man dominated by Adela. It is very much a comedy-of-errors situation. I've been reading quite a few of these funny and satirical works lately especially with my rereads of Evelyn Waugh.

Adela is obviously the matriarch - but she has a lot of social pretensions about her that often puts her at odds with the other characters. She thrives on controlling others, particularly her brother Bernard and her partner Egbert, whom she patronises relentlessly. But beneath her control lies a fear of death, irrelevance, and loss of status. This, I believe, shows that the author is trying to depict the nature of ageing and how it intensifies old habits of vanity, power, and denial rather than erasing them. Adela is just a personification of all of this.

Bernard however, once a scholar or professional of some standing, now suffers from partial paralysis and bitterness toward his dependency. His wit is sharp, but it often comes out as cruelty, sarcasm, and pedantry. He quarrels with Adela, resenting her dominance while needing her care. It's quite a complex relationship but I think anyone who has ever depended on anyone else for care can relate (I hope). I often think of it as being grateful whilst also being jealous of the fact that the other person is able to do things they are not able to do. Bernard is a character in direct juxtaposition to Shorty. Shorty is a retired military man, copes with aging through denial and coarse humour. He drinks, reminisces about the war, and flirts with the women in the house, using bravado to mask loneliness and physical decline.

Another character we see is Marigold. She is a kind-hearted but increasingly senile, represents the novel’s most vivid portrait of decline. Her confusion, forgetfulness, and childlike behaviour contrasts with the others’ bitterness. She is both the victim and a nuisance, pitied one moment, mocked the next. Of course, the author is using Marigold to show the true vulnerability of age and how it manifests as a fragility of personality itself. Marigold’s loss of self is rendered without sentimentality but it becomes a stark reminder of the decline that may encompass some of us one day. It also starts that ball rolling towards how we understand that as these residents decline further and further, they actually need each other more and more, no matter how much they complain. Even though it is a comedy of errors in its ways, it also has some darker, more essential truths about the quality of our lives as we get older.

All in all, I think this book can definitely make you think differently about age, especially where decline and neediness are concerned. I remember once I had to explain why older people moved so slowly to a teenager and I told them that it's because they are usually in pain when they move. It puts a lot of things into perspective. I mean I consider myself (as a millennial) still young but even my bones and joints aren't what they used to be.