In the Mood

by Keith Waterhouse

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1985

About the author

Keith Spencer Waterhouse CBE, was a novelist, newspaper columnist, and the writer of many television series.

Reviews

[Derek Finnigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of its time, set some six years after the end of World War II. England is rebuilding, and the tenor of the book is one of austerity mixed with the optimism of youth. It involves a trio of young men from the fictional northern England town of Grippenshaw who forego more promising career possibilities in order to better meet girls. If there is an uncomfortable misogyny present in the book, then it is realised through a modern sensibility. The tenor of the book may accurately reflect the mores and opinions of the time. The book aims at being evocative of youth, a strange country that can never be revisited, where scents are sharper, colours more vivid. In a sense, it is a book of innocence. Two of the characters are clueless, one of them demonstrating unpleasant character attributes of jealousy and possessiveness that do not bode well for the future. I've read this book a number of times, and find the outdated gender relationships more uncomfortable with each reading. As time passes the book becomes more of a social document of a vanished time, a character portrayal of lower middle class young men at a particular time in the twentieth century. I still consider it to be important. I just don't enjoy it as much as I used to.

[Janet Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a long time ago that I read it...must give it another whirl soon. It's Keith Waterhouse so of course it's excellent. If I remember rightly it's about three young men in the 1950s who struggle to follow the prime directive ie procreate. S'funny.