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A review by proseamongstthorns
Inside Story by Martin Amis
2.0
I struggled with this one. I studied two of Amis' texts at Uni and when I saw the chance for an advanced copy of his latest book I jumped for it. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. Having only read 2 of his novels, I feel like I just don't know his prose well enough to fall in love. Many of the reviews I have come across have been glowing reports; for me however, the tell-all book fell flat.
Time means absolutely nothing in this book or names or narration. We jump around in time in a way that is thoroughly disorientating, people's names change intermittently and for a period Amis refers to himself in 3rd person before returning to 1st. This style of writing is entirely new to me and as someone who has very little experience with Amis I felt a little lost at sea.
By the time I reached the half-way point I had eased into it more. The final third of the book was much more engaging and emotional. His accounts of dealing with so much loss were very raw and honest and seemed to be one of the few points in the novel where I felt I was truly seeing the real Martin Amis. His insights into writing were also fascinating and as an aspiring author (aren't we all) I found these section particularly useful.
All in all, I'd say this book has an intended audience and I wasn't it. I feel like Inside Story requires a reader who is familiar with Amis, both in literature and in his life, so that this novel's enlightening anecdotes have an impact. Towards the end of the novel, as I got more of a sense of Amis' character and his circle of friends and family, I was certainly invested and got much more pleasure from his writing.
Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage and Martin Amis for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review. Inside Story is available now.
Time means absolutely nothing in this book or names or narration. We jump around in time in a way that is thoroughly disorientating, people's names change intermittently and for a period Amis refers to himself in 3rd person before returning to 1st. This style of writing is entirely new to me and as someone who has very little experience with Amis I felt a little lost at sea.
By the time I reached the half-way point I had eased into it more. The final third of the book was much more engaging and emotional. His accounts of dealing with so much loss were very raw and honest and seemed to be one of the few points in the novel where I felt I was truly seeing the real Martin Amis. His insights into writing were also fascinating and as an aspiring author (aren't we all) I found these section particularly useful.
All in all, I'd say this book has an intended audience and I wasn't it. I feel like Inside Story requires a reader who is familiar with Amis, both in literature and in his life, so that this novel's enlightening anecdotes have an impact. Towards the end of the novel, as I got more of a sense of Amis' character and his circle of friends and family, I was certainly invested and got much more pleasure from his writing.
Thank you to NetGalley, Vintage and Martin Amis for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review. Inside Story is available now.