I Like It Here: Analysis of Major Characters
"I Like It Here: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the dynamics and motivations of several central figures within the narrative. Garnet Bowen, a freelance writer and the protagonist, is portrayed as a large man struggling to support his family through his irregular income from journalism and occasional lectures. His xenophobic tendencies are challenged when he receives a lucrative offer to write a travel article, prompting him to consider foreign travel, a concept his wife, Barbara, embraces enthusiastically. Barbara is depicted as supportive and optimistic, believing in her husband's potential as a novelist and encouraging their exploration of places like Portugal.
Bennie Hyman, a young and successful publisher, acts as a catalyst for Garnet's journey, urging him to investigate the reclusive novelist Wulfstan Strether, who has submitted a mysterious manuscript. Strether, an enigmatic character marked by his hawk-like appearance and complex personality, presents both challenges and moral dilemmas for Garnet. The interactions among these characters reveal themes of ambition, cultural confrontation, and the nuances of personal relationships, inviting readers to reflect on the balance between personal aspirations and the realities of human connection.
I Like It Here: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Kingsley Amis
First published: 1958
Genre: Novel
Locale: London and Portugal
Plot: Social satire
Time: The mid-1950's
Garnet Bowen, a freelance writer. He is a large man with a well-made frame and an inefficient air. He supports his family with some difficulty on his income from bits of journalism, radio talks, and occasional lectures. He is also a xenophobic Englishman. When an American firm offers him (under the name Garret Owen) a substantial fee to write a travel article, however, he reluctantly decides that he will go abroad. Still another inducement to travel is the opportunity to work for a publishing firm for which he has read an occasional manuscript and with which he hopes to land a permanent position.
Barbara Bowen, Garnet's wife and the mother of his three young children. She is a small, pretty, dark woman who thoroughly approves of her husband's irregular self-employment. She believes that he must be free to do his own work, for he will one day be a fine novelist or dramatist. Unlike her husband, she loves the idea of foreign travel, and her mother is willing to put up much of the money and lend them a car. She wishes especially to visit Portugal.
Bennie Hyman, a principal member of the publishing firm for which Garnet wishes to work. He is a successful young bachelor with an athletic appearance. He has received a manuscript, the first in many years, from a reclusive old novelist living in Portugal. The novelist dealt with only one editor, who has died and left behind no evidence of the relationship. Years before, there were rumors of the novelist's death. The young publisher wants Garnet to take a house in Portugal, meet the recluse, and judge whether he is genuine or an impostor.
Wulfstan Strether, a novelist and recluse who is also known as Buckmaster. He is a tall, white-haired, hawk-faced man of sixty. He is the author of a 120,000-word manuscript titled One Word More. He is pleased to entertain Garnet, but he is not an easy man to read and is not easily manipulated. His very decent behavior produces feelings of guilt in Garnet, who is also being plagued, as he feared he would be, by an assortment of natives and fellow tourists.