The ruthlessly ambitious Joe Lampton rises swiftly from the petty bureaucracy of local government into the world of amateur dramatics, glamorous women and inherited wealth. Working class Joe seeks to escape his impoverished background in post war northern England through social mobility. His journey is complicated by his choice between the wealthy boss’s daughter Susan Brown and a passionate affair with an ‘older’, unhappily married woman Alice Asgill. Joe’s ruthless pursuit of wealth and status leads to personal compromises and decisions that result in tragedy and remorse as he confronts the choices he made.
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Safe to say that no one in the book group liked the character of Joe Lampton. The language was dated and there was something to offend everyone. Some of us in the book group had read this novel many years ago, and it was mentioned that the passages containing offensive words would have sadly ‘washed over us’ at that time.
That aside, we had a good discussion about the novel and the intensions of its author John Braine. It was mentioned at the beginning of the discussion that Braine’s favorite author was Guy de Moupassant and that he had taken inspiration from Moupassant’s famous novel ‘Bel Ami’. The synopsis of which sounded remarkably similar to this Braine’s [angry young man’s] first novel.
Apart from the obvious dislike of the main protagonist, comments were made and discussed about the authenticity of the descriptions by the author about the post war period the novel was set in (written in 1957 but set in 1947 and recalled by Joe 10 years after the events in the novel had taken place). The disillusionment with post war society was evident throughout the novel although we concluded that none of this gave Joe Lampton any right or excuse to behave so appallingly and without receiving any comeuppance for his actions.
We scored this novel an average of 6/10
