Difficulties with Girls is a broad social satire that mocks the lives of the London middle-class. They are shown to be petty social climbers and sexually confused. The appeal of the novel is primarily in its humorous rendering of human foibles. This humor relies primarily on readers recognizing character types that are familiar to them in real life. For instance, readers may not in their own lives have ever worked in the publishing industry, but they may recognize Patrick's capricious boss as a kind of boss they have worked for. Or they may have read annoyingly stupid books; they may enjoy Amis's portrait of how such books get published. Or they may have attended cocktail parties like those shown in the novel, and they may recognize the silly interactions of people at such parties. In general, the comedy succeeds or fails on how recognizable the character types and...