Book Review: THE ALTERATION by Kingsley Amis

The Alteration by Kingsley Amis
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"What I shall miss by being altered is so important that it would be quite wrong to alter me."

We begin with song inside a glorious Catholic cathedral in England. A prepubescent boy soprano has a gift that others seek to artificially preserve by surgically altering him for the greater glory of God. But the boy wishes otherwise.

This is the central drama, but there are others. And the REAL drama is the setting: it is the 1970's, and England is Catholic. Martin Luther didn't start a Reformation, but became Pope. Henry VIII never became King as his older brother, Arthur, stayed true to the faith. Science is anathema, electricity and other technological advancements distrusted by decent men.

"I feel nothing but wonder and gratitude when I look on so many centuries of patience, hope, content, trust, constancy, restraint and certitude, so much art, letters, music, learning, all founded upon one great lie."

This is a very altered world from the one we live in. It seems pleasant enough on the surface, with books like "St. Lemuel’s Travels," "The Wind in the Cloisters," Father Bond stories, and "Lord of the Chalices." There's incredible state funding for Mozart masses as well, easy enough to do when the Church leader is the supreme head of State as well.

But woe to any who dare to speak against papal authority. The knife that threatens the boy soprano isn't the only one being wielded by those loyal to keeping peace and order by all means, Christian and un-Christian alike.

"They conduct a tyranny and call it the Kingdom of God on Earth."

This was my first Kingsley Amis, and although the book was very short, it felt a lot longer because Amis makes incredible demands on the reader. He presupposes intelligence, a good grasp of history that can withstand his counterfactuals, and a grasp of the English language and literature that can catch all the many references. It's not exactly a relaxing read, and more for those seeking the expansion of literary horizons.

Reading the book was a meditation on how disinformation and alternative facts work in 2023. I recently encountered someone whose upbringing and education made her vulnerable to state-sponsored propaganda, and it was like talking to someone from Mars. I suppose I am the Martian, from her point of view. And it's a chilling reminder on the desperate status of truth in modern society, how it is a social construct, seeing that we can't even agree on FACTS anymore.

And honestly, I don't know which is scarier: this fictional alternative universe of Amis where religion reigns supreme over reason, or the real world where citizens exist in private universes, each with their own version of virtual reality.

This is, I suppose, the challenge of my generation: how to bring people together, to work for the common good, despite all these enormous differences.

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