How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
That had been, as near as he could remember, on the morning before the evening when Margaret had tried to kill herself with sleeping-pills. (1.50)
Although alcohol is Jim's drug of choice, sleeping pills are Margaret's escape drug. She's been having trouble sleeping and taking the pills to help, but she eventually uses them in her alleged suicide attempt.
Quote #2
But renewal always came: a new sweater would somehow scale down the large feet, generosity revivify the brittle hair, a couple of pints cite positive charm in talk of the London stage or French food. (4.13)
Jim might not find Margaret all that attractive when he's sober. But when he has a few pints in him, she looks better to him. The idea that being drunk makes people seem more attractive is an old cliché.
Quote #3
"Look, Margaret, can't we go out for a drink? I need one, and we shan't get one here. It's only just eight; we could be back…" (4.45)
When Jim decides that he can't handle any more of the Welches' artsy house party, he asks Margaret to run away with him to the nearby pub. He knows that doing this will hurt his relationship with Professor Welch, but it's like he has no choice.
Quote #4
"Yes, you're right, I admit. But I'd give anything for three quick pints. I've had nothing since the one I had down the road yesterday evening, before I showed up here." (4.47)
Three quick pints? Most (healthy) people might think that three pints is an entire night's worth of drinking. Jim, though, talks about it as if he'd take less than three minutes to slam three pints and come back to the party. The guy must have a pretty high alcohol tolerance if he feels like he can do that and still act normal at a party.
Quote #5
[T]he local pubs, unlike the city pubs and the hotel he went to with Margaret, stayed open till ten-thirty in the summer, and the summer had now officially begun. His gratitude had been inexpressible in words; only further calls at the bar could repay the happy debt. (5.1)
The sad thing about this passage is that it probably marks the happiest moment that Jim has in this entire novel. And that includes getting together with Christine. Sure, he's happy to kiss Christine; but the book never talks about a "gratitude [that] had been inexpressible in words." And why does he feel all this gratitude? Because the bar is going to serve drinks for an extra half hour.
Quote #6
As a result he'd spent more than he could afford and drunk more than he ought, and yet he felt nothing but satisfaction and peace. Rebounding painfully from the gatepost, he began creeping round the cobbled environs of the house. (5.1)
They say that drunk people don't have a great sense of time, and this passage definitely proves that. Notice how Jim goes from drinking in the bar to knocking into the Welches' gatepost in just two sentences. It's like his night is one giant blur (which it is) because he's totally hammered. Now this might sound really unpleasant, but being the alcoholic he is, Jim feels "nothing but satisfaction and peace."
Quote #7
Some of the liquor coursed refreshingly down his chin and under his shirt-collar. The bottle had been about three-quarters full when he started and was about three-quarters empty when he stopped. He thumped and clinked it back into position, wiped his mouth on the sideboard runner, and, feeling really splendid, gained his bedroom without opposition. (5.15)
Here's Jim as a sloppy drunk breaking into the Welch's liquor cabinet, presented with humor but not much sympathy.
Quote #8
A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by secret police. He felt bad. (6.1)
In painfully descriptive (and accurate) terms, Kingsley Amis shows us just how brutal it feels to wake up from a night of heavy drinking. BTW, the British newspaper The Guardian called this the best hangover scene in all of fiction.
Quote #9
Gore Urquhart nodded and produced a slim but substantial flask from his ill-fitting clothes. "Have a swig." (21.89)
Just before his lecture, Gore-Urquhart offers him some more alcohol. Gore-Urquhart probably already knows that Jim is drunk. He might actually be trying to make Jim drunker so that his public lecture will be entertaining. After all, the man already knows at this point that he's going to hire Jim for a pretty sweet job. H might figure there's no harm in helping Jim's academic career go out with a bang.