Scan barcode
solstraalen's review against another edition
Er latterleg mange hot takes her.
Don Quixote: "A primal soup of fiction"
Don Quixote: "A primal soup of fiction"
rebus's review against another edition
5.0
Quite simply the finest book of literary criticism I've ever read. I learned more about the noble art of critique from this book than any other source.
enoughgaiety's review against another edition
4.0
I like Martin Amis's nonfiction better than his fiction, basically.
ferretonfire's review against another edition
4.0
"One of the historical vulnerabilities of literature, as a subject for study, is that it has never seemed difficult enough. This may come as news to the buckled figure of the book reviewer, but it's true. Hence the various attempts to elevate it, complicate it, systematize it. Interacting with literature is easy."
Amis does not suffer fools gladly, and he certainly does not suffer fools who "suffer fools gladly". He hates clichés, because he deems their staleness the antithesis of good writing. An author writing something like that should be able to back such statements up, and so I began scanning each page as I read for a misplaced comma, or a confusing metaphor. There were none that I could see in the first fifty pages or so. That doesn't mean there were none in the entire book, but the man is at the very least not an abject hypocrite. His prose is annoyingly good, erudite but leisurely.
I found Amis most interesting when he has a specific target: wasted talent. Rather than preen and gloat when given the chance to rip into icons such as Iris Murdoch and Anthony Burgess, as one might expect from a man of such a fierce reputation, he reprimands them like a frustrated schoolmaster who has been disappointed. You get the impression that if he could, he would crack these celebrated novelists on the hand with a ruler and warn that they should do better next time.
His diversions into the politics of nuclear deterrence and the perceived beauty of Thatcher were entertaining, as were his essays about Philip Larkin and Dickens, but it's when he sets his eye on the comparatively low-brow that I became fixated. Michael Crichton, Thomas Harris -- having an extremely clever person explain why something simple is good fun and strangely fascinating. It seems to be a theme in the non-fiction I'm reading this year.
Amis does not suffer fools gladly, and he certainly does not suffer fools who "suffer fools gladly". He hates clichés, because he deems their staleness the antithesis of good writing. An author writing something like that should be able to back such statements up, and so I began scanning each page as I read for a misplaced comma, or a confusing metaphor. There were none that I could see in the first fifty pages or so. That doesn't mean there were none in the entire book, but the man is at the very least not an abject hypocrite. His prose is annoyingly good, erudite but leisurely.
I found Amis most interesting when he has a specific target: wasted talent. Rather than preen and gloat when given the chance to rip into icons such as Iris Murdoch and Anthony Burgess, as one might expect from a man of such a fierce reputation, he reprimands them like a frustrated schoolmaster who has been disappointed. You get the impression that if he could, he would crack these celebrated novelists on the hand with a ruler and warn that they should do better next time.
His diversions into the politics of nuclear deterrence and the perceived beauty of Thatcher were entertaining, as were his essays about Philip Larkin and Dickens, but it's when he sets his eye on the comparatively low-brow that I became fixated. Michael Crichton, Thomas Harris -- having an extremely clever person explain why something simple is good fun and strangely fascinating. It seems to be a theme in the non-fiction I'm reading this year.
littlenyssa's review
4.0
Mistitled, but very clever and instructive. Sometimes verges on unpleasant arrogance.
More...