One Fat Englishman (1963) by Kingsley Amis

One Fat Englishman is a portrait of man in thrall to the seven deadly sins, and particularly, gluttony and lust. The protagonist Roger Micheldene is not a pleasant person. In fact, if he was an actual person, you would likely make efforts to quickly take your leave from his presence. However, Kingsley Amis can make the reader sympathize a little bit with the slights and annoyances that Roger feels despite his prevalent vices. In this short novel, one goes on a brief journey as a stranger in a strange landscape, even though Roger is just as strange, and his associates and antagonists (sometimes alike) may be more familiar, especially if one’s American.

Roger is an overweight publisher on business in the United States. He’s hosted by the fictional Budweiser College (Very American!) in Pennsylvania. With his gluttonous tastes and fevered lust, he’s filled with unrest. It doesn’t help that he’s surrounded by Americans, who he believes are uncivilized in comparison with himself, John Bull personified. At a welcoming party, he encounters a previous fling, semi-American Helen Bang, who is married to a visiting Swedish professor of linguistics, Ernst. Trying to avoid the suspicions of Ernst and the constant presence of their Americanized son, he pursues Helen to restart the affair while being open to other romantic options, while antagonizing the natives.

The average reader would likely find Roger distasteful, if not morally repugnant. Especially in today’s climate, his casual remarks against ethnic groups and his treatment of women would send a number into a tizzy. However, there’s a way that Amis portrays him that gives a hope for redemption, if not immediately, but perhaps if time would mellow him. Roger is a lapsed Catholic, and though he doesn’t practice, he still has a somewhat strained relationship with God. Thus, he knows that his attitudes and behavior are morally wrong, but I believe that he feels that he’s been astray so long that his ability to behave properly is out of his hands. Though Roger claims to be the mature one in contrast with the surrounding uncultured Americans, his interactions prove that he’s often acting childlike in his interactions. His peevishness is provoked when he doesn’t get what he wants, whether it’s food, women, or other desires. Thus, as the story progresses, one becomes less angry at Roger, and sorrier for his emotional condition. Despite his bravado and snobbish attitude, one realizes that he doesn’t like himself. This is observed by the priest Father Colgate, who takes an interest in his wellbeing. He tells Roger, “You are in acute spiritual pain – the infallible sign of a soul at variance with God.” For the rest of the novel, Roger verbally tries to deny this, but his actions reveal otherwise.

Through the comedic interactions between Roger and others, Amis allows one to feel sympathy for Roger and his pettiness though either he’s in the wrong usually or the slights often are too minor to cause such agitation. Amis delights in providing a bevy of stereotypes to antagonize Roger. There’s the eager Anglophile Strode Atkins, the passive-aggressive Jewish intellectual Irving Macher, Ernst and Helene’s precocious son, Arthur, the therapeutic Father Colgate, the lower-class English anti-British “turncoat” Nigel Pargeter, among others. Furthermore, Roger must travel through a cultural landscape that he doesn’t usually understand or what he understands, he finds inferior. Furthermore, he has a haunting realization that post World War II, British world dominance has waned, while “vulgar” Americanism has waxed. Near the novel’s end, one of the most humorous scenes is when Roger is going from jazz club to jazz club in NYC on the hunt for Helene. Here’s a man out of place and time.

Thus, the novel is ultimately a story of culture clash. Amis’s take is interesting in that he’s even-handed in satirizing American and British cultural attitudes. Yes, many of the American characters act silly, are overly optimistic, and seem to value high culture less than commercialism. However, Roger, reveling in being a snob and prejudiced, is miserable, while they’re okay with themselves. During a scene where he needs Helene’s help, Roger admits to her, “I’m a bit upset. I didn’t mean it. I know I was being awful. I couldn’t help it.” Despite wanting to manifest his superiority by displaying the British stiff upper lip, he’s just as enslaved by his emotions as the more outwardly expressive Americans. Furthermore, his actions show that he’s more sensitive to what they think about him than they are to his caustic behavior. He wouldn’t admit it, but Roger is probably shaken when Irving tells him, “It isn’t your nationality we don’t like, it’s you.” Amis liked being English, but he also appreciated various aspects of American culture unlike some of his fellow English writers, as shown by his writings on science fiction, jazz, and film. However, at times, he felt that chauvinistic “Roger Micheldene” attitude welling up. One Fat Englishman is a reminder to himself and others not to take themselves too seriously.