Review: Jill
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsThe time was 1940, the second year of war for England. The place was Oxford University, a secure and timeless zone in spite of the war. It was still a rather cruel change for a poor boy to make. John Kemp wanted to be his roommate, Christopher Warner. Nothing in John Kemp's blue collar background had prepared him for the brutish insensitivity that he mistook for assurance. After overhearing what Warner really thought of him, Kemp went into a sort of social shell shock. During this period, he invented a younger sister, Jill. He made up a complete life story, wrote a diary for her and sent letters to himself from her. The larger aims of the story -- to record a special time and place -- never quite come through, but in the scenes of social disaster, Mr. Larkin handles his characters and their dialogue with painful precision and dissects attitudes especially real for this age group.
Review: Jill
User Review - Michael Moseley - GoodreadsPhilip Larkin was a poet of some note. John Kemp is a working class kid who having been coached by his English teacher, get a scholarship to Oxford during the war years. The story is a description of ... Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - James - GoodreadsWhile he's much better known as a poet, it seems that Philip Larkin wrote a couple of novels as well. Jill tells the story of a young man, John Kemp, away from home for the first time, going up to ... Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - Laura - GoodreadsFrom BBC Radio 4 - Classical Serial: A young student arrives at Oxford and is drawn helplessly into his own imaginative world. Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - Bettie - GoodreadsClassical Serial http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qfz6 Duration: 58 minutes First broadcast: Sunday 31 March 2013 (view spoiler)[ BBC Blurbs: Dramatised for the first time on BBC Radio 4 by Robin ... Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - GoodreadsIf you're familiar with Larkin's wearily fatalistic, self-assured, wry poetry, the first thing that will strike you about this book is how young Larkin seems; it was almost uncomfortable to read the ...
Review: Jill
User Review - Emma - GoodreadsThis was my first Larkin , and , despite wariness of beginning with a novel when he is more known and , possibly, more valued for his poetry , I was extremely glad I did. This is a short but charming ... Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - Gillian - GoodreadsTrying to get through this one...I'll rate it if I ever finish. Right now it's a 2... Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - Clare Tanner - GoodreadsA fascinating glimpse of Oxford in the early 1940's and the difficulties of being a poor scholar among the 'entitled' gilded youth. Also a reminder that binge drinking isn't a new phenomenon! Read full review
Review: Jill
User Review - Trawets - GoodreadsJill, was Philip Larkin's first novel, it tells the story of John Kemp and his first term at Oxford in 1942. John is a scholarship student from Huddersfield, he shares a room with Christopher Warner ... Read full review
