Could these be male wish-fulfillment fantasies?: Lucky Jim

"Lucky Jim": indeed he, Jim Dickson, is lucky. Can't help but think that in postwar England (book published 1954) there were lots of women and few young men (Surf City!), because how else can you explain why characters like Dickson, totally feckless, foolish, bored with life, caustic, alcoholic (probably), in ill health (eventually), boorish, shall I go on?, get the girl? Get the good-looking girl, or any girl they seem to want? Wait. Maybe there's another explanation! Could it be that these books are male wish-fulfillment fantasies, by writers scribbling away, full of bitterness, envious of others (other men, other writers), and seeking fulfillment through his fantasy life, through his characters? Hey, just a thought. Whatever the reason, however hard and improbably it may be to accept Dickson's conquests (though I have to say that the twerpy artist that the beautiful Christine jilts for him as an even more insufferable character), Amis's novel does have this going for it: It's really funny. The description of the unbearable madrigal party given by the donnish Welch and frau is hysterical, and then Dickson goes off to the pub, gets loaded, comes back, fumbles through a failed seduction, passes out, and wakes up having burned the sheets and blankets with his smoldering cigarettes. The hangover scene is great, and it's really funny how he tries to cover up the evidence by slicing the sheets and remaking the bed. Great comic farce, which somehow reminds me of Withnal & I and the "holiday by mistake."