Scan barcode
A review by jeannemixon
The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis
4.0
I found it beautifully written and strange and very moving.
It is hard to write a review without spoilers. Basically it is a novel about the 70s a period Amis describes as on the cusp of the new era when women became sexually liberated and free to behave "like boys" and then he continues on through the fallout.
The setting is an Italian castle where some twenty year olds have gone for their summer break from college. It is saturated with literary references, most memorably from Jane Austen and DH Lawrence and Kafka, so our main character becomes K in the Castle who undergoes his sentimental education at the hands of three beauties and his plain Jane girlfriend. K's understanding of the world of relationships is divided into duds, possibles, and visions. He himself and his plain Jane girlfriend are both possibles. There is a fair amount of misogyny in the book (a girl is called the "dog" for reasons it takes K a surprising amount of time to figure out) and a touch of racism (although not too much, it's there).
K himself is on the cusp of defining for himself what he wants and what he has to do to get what he wants. He is literary critic of some insight and a talented poet, but there isn't a lot of money in that. And that is where a review without spoilers has to end, except to say that there is a lot of soaring writing. The novel is told oddly from the point of view of an unidentified much older third person who is looking back on a life well lived. The narrator has been through several marriages and has a large assemblage of biological and step children.
I can see why a lot of people didn't like it, but I found it largely enchanting.
It is hard to write a review without spoilers. Basically it is a novel about the 70s a period Amis describes as on the cusp of the new era when women became sexually liberated and free to behave "like boys" and then he continues on through the fallout.
The setting is an Italian castle where some twenty year olds have gone for their summer break from college. It is saturated with literary references, most memorably from Jane Austen and DH Lawrence and Kafka, so our main character becomes K in the Castle who undergoes his sentimental education at the hands of three beauties and his plain Jane girlfriend. K's understanding of the world of relationships is divided into duds, possibles, and visions. He himself and his plain Jane girlfriend are both possibles. There is a fair amount of misogyny in the book (a girl is called the "dog" for reasons it takes K a surprising amount of time to figure out) and a touch of racism (although not too much, it's there).
K himself is on the cusp of defining for himself what he wants and what he has to do to get what he wants. He is literary critic of some insight and a talented poet, but there isn't a lot of money in that. And that is where a review without spoilers has to end, except to say that there is a lot of soaring writing. The novel is told oddly from the point of view of an unidentified much older third person who is looking back on a life well lived. The narrator has been through several marriages and has a large assemblage of biological and step children.
I can see why a lot of people didn't like it, but I found it largely enchanting.