Ere, its me again
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I've just looked up this book again, and i can't believe no-one has written a review since i did over two years ago! What was i talking about 'chapters of what we don't want'? Sorry Mr Amis if you ever get to read this, i liked it. I must have had a hangover or something.
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wake up English writers!
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Amis IS English literature right now. Fact. Nobody is covering as much ground as him,is more skilled with the craft,and still flying the flag of literary passion...could do without the Murdoch section,but still am encouraged to read this author I`ve tried to get into before...the bits about chess etc only pale because they are alongside such brilliant criticism. Rushing out to get all James Joyce,Don Delillo and Bellow`s `Augie March` due to his criticism. Hell,even Philip Larkin comes across as a genius. Sumptuous!
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sublime
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perhaps the funniest, most acutely perceptive book i've ever read. Amis is excellent on style, wide-ranging in scope (early on, we have the unforgettable depiction of the new man, nappy in one hand, pack of tarot cards in the other), and amusingly critical of his youthful self (he lambasted a new collection of Coleridge's work without bothering to thoroughly acquaint himself with its contents). i didn't agree with all of his 'findings'. while Amis makes an excellent case for the undeniable stylistic mastery of Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March', he doesn't acknowledge the rambling nature of the book, the great lists of characters that are wheeled on and off all the time so that the reader struggles to remember anyone but the narrator and his brother, the boring avuncular tone. overall - leaves other literary critics fumbling with their trainers in the starting blocks while he's already run the race, picked up the medal, and is taking his shower in the changing rooms.
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Scholarly, yet readable account of culture and literature
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Dubbed "Smarty Marty" years ago when his writing ability seemed in advance of his years, it would be good to think that the title has lost the mocking tone that it had previously. Martin Amis really is smart and appears to have read just about every book in - and out of - the Leavis canon of "Great Literature". He employs his wide range of analytical tools to review the obsessions of authors such as Bellow, Updike, Nabokov and Murdoch and in the process takes the reader on an extraordinary voyage of discovery. Highly recommended for anyone has the most remote interest in literature or popular culture.
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Stick with it, you'll be rewarded
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There is a man, says Amis, who has succeeded Coleridge as having read every book in the world. No mean feat, considering the poet only had to contend with perhaps a fraction of books now extant. Of course, Amis is exaggerating. However, in this collection of literary criticism cribbed from nearly thirty years of book reviews and essays, Martin Amis certainly gives the impression that he has had a pretty good stab himself.
Although the collection is perhaps over-egged with pieces on his beloved Nabokov and Saul Bellow, there are highly entertaining critiques on works by Joyce and Murdoch, Philip Roth and John Updike.
A must for anyone who likes highly-charged articulate writing, and for Amis fans, this book will only make their hunger for that new novel even keener.
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