Modern Vocations

The heroine of Kingsley Amis’ new novel is an elementary schoolteacher named Jenny Bunn. She is pretty, no fool, lower middle class, and nice—i.e., at twenty she is still a virgin. She arrives in a new town for her first job, and she promptly meets Patrick Standish, who teaches Latin in the local public school. Patrick is something of an intellectual. He likes jazz and does not go to church and has bohemian friends. He also likes girls, and at thirty he is still a bachelor. He and Jenny are attracted to each other on the spot, and most of the novel that follows has to do with one issue: will Jenny, or will Jenny not, sleep with Patrick without benefit of wedlock?

Take a Girl Like You, by Kingsley Amis. Harcourt, $3.95 The Bachelors, by Muriel Spark. Lippincott, $3.95

PM

About the Author

Peter Melik

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The heroine of Kingsley Amis’ new novel is an elementary schoolteacher named Jenny Bunn. She is pretty, no fool, lower middle class, and nice—i.e., at twenty she is still a virgin. She arrives in a new town for her first job, and she promptly meets Patrick Standish, who teaches Latin in the local public school. Patrick is something of an intellectual. He likes jazz and does not go to church and has bohemian friends. He also likes girls, and at thirty he is still a bachelor. He and Jenny are attracted to each other on the spot, and most of the novel that follows has to do with one issue: will Jenny, or will Jenny not, sleep with Patrick without benefit of wedlock?

Take a Girl Like You, by Kingsley Amis. Harcourt, $3.95 The Bachelors, by Muriel Spark. Lippincott, $3.95