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I first
read Martin Amis in a book club, choosing, as its sole leader, to read
The Rachel Papers at the behest of my boyfriend. He was very fond of Martin
Amis and, having now disposed of both the book and the boyfriend, I can
clearly see why: Martin Amis's writing is just as shallow and pretty as
he was.
This is not to say that Amis
is a bad writer. Quite the contrary. He is a very good writer. He can
turn a phrase like nobody's business. He can make a story interesting,
even when it's really not. And you do want to finish his books. But what
you're left with at the end is a sense that nothing really happened. It's
all style, no substance.
What's more is that Amis is
quite a self-important individual; or, he seems so, given his style of
writing. It's as though he believes he has great and important things
to say, and he's just going to keep writing until he seems to have made
his point. But as this "report"
indicates, your only ending thought can be, "Oh, poor, enlightened Martin
Amis. How hard it must be to be him."
Amis is British, and there
is a certain stature in making one's intelligence more than simply evident,
but self-evident. It's a kind of proudly bourgeois mentality where it
is good to be part not necessarily of the upper class but the Tweed Class,
in which intelligence, or at least, a very articulate way of speaking,
is the most valuable currency. What this means is that for your dear editor,
a Martin Amis book would be my choice if the subject matter were terribly
interesting, or there was nothing else to read, or if it were for charity.
Don't let this discourage you, particularly if you are trying your own
hand at writing. What he can do with language is something few writers
can do, and that in and of itself deserves exposure. Just remember that
though it may seem his pen is guided with a divine hand, there is - and
you'll find this yourself - something missing. And I think the thing that's
missing is heart.
Other writers you may enjoy
include Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and, given his own prodigious language
skills, Samuel Johnson. You might also like a nonfiction writer like Barbara
Ehrenreich, but that's your problem, not mine.
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Bibliography
The Rachel Papers Cape,
1973
Dead Babies Cape, 1975
Success Cape, 1978
Other People: A Mystery Story Cape, 1981
Invasion of the Space Invaders Hutchinson, 1982
Money: A Suicide Note Cape, 1984
The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America Cape, 1986
Einstein's Monsters Cape, 1987
London Fields Cape, 1989
Time's Arrow Cape, 1991
Visiting Mrs Nabokov and Other Excursions Cape, 1993 The Information
Flamingo, 1995
Night Train Cape, 1997
Heavy Water and Other Stories Cape, 1998
Experience Cape, 2000
The War Against Cliché Cape, 2001
Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million Cape, 2002
On Modern British Fiction (contributor: 'Against Dryness')
Oxford University Press, 2002
Yellow Dog Cape,
2003
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