More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

Witty, brilliant sadistic tease of a novel, 14 Aug 2008
"London Fields" is a multi-layered, black, witty literary tour de force. A squad of characters, with the main roles ranging from Samson Young (the writer), Guy Clinch (the good, rich guy), Keith Talent (the criminal, pornography and masturbation addict, wanna-be-dart pro), Marmaduke (Guy's mighty and gruelly mean child- who serves for a big part of the best laughs here), Nicola Six (the murderee, who teases and manipulates all men in rather specific and imaginative ways) and the "absent" Mark Asprey (the writer, in whose appartment Sam is now living and writing- with the initials M.A., an alter ego of Martin Amis?). There are Guy's and Keith's wives, Guy's wife's sister Lizziboo (who rather falls for Sam) and the South African Nr. 7 tennis pro, who is, or is he not, Guy's wife's lover.
Nicola Six believes she will be murdered, by Guy or Keith, and narrates her story to Sam, who is using this "real" story to get over his writing blockade. Martin Amis does not seem to pity his characters, I would even say he sadistically spotlights their diverse flaws of character (which is rather zynical at times...). As Nicola teases the men in this setting, Martin Amis teases the reader all the way through and manages to bend the ending in an unexpected, surprising but completely devastatingly convincing way. Quite breathtaking is the moment, when you become aware of having had the clues (and most answers) hidden in front of your eyes right from the very beginning. Wonderful sharp writing, a plot where you never really know which way Martin Amis will go next, a riddle, a crime story, a love story, a novel, which is by all means, to use the words of Martin Amis, just "damned bloody good".

Superb, 06 Aug 2008
Other reviews have given synopses, so I'll skip that...

Firstly, this book is worth reading if you live in London - Amis captures perfectly the bizarre juxtaposition of sleaze against wealth that is everywhere in the city, and the book is wonderfully atmospheric of both of these aspects of London and more.

The wider appeal of the book is surely Amis' writing rather than the plot itself; his astounding use and manipulation of the English language makes 'London Fields' a real tour de force.

Most of all though, the general obvservations of peoples' behaviours, psychologies (particularly with regard to sex), reactions to one another, and the varying viewpoints on life offered here are captivating and, I would say, remove the need for a gripping, suspenseful story; these observations are also often made in an extremely witty way.

However, I also disagree with other reviewers, who claim that "nothing happens" in 'London Fields': this is a highly misleading thing to say about this book - there are several narrative strains which meet excitingly at the end of the novel and I personally found that despite Amis' determination to make the book more about the 'journey to the climax' than the ending itself, there is real tension. I do agree, though, that the plot might not be the main focus of the book.

All in all, I would recommend this book to almost anyone who feels that they might want to read something which is something other than (or more than) just a story and experience the writing of someone with a trully masterful command of the English language.

Darts rocks, 12 Jan 2008
This book is truly brilliant. Admittedly not much happens, but the characters (Keith Talent in particular) are so superbly evoked that you just can't help enjoying it. Amis is the great British talent of the late 20th century and writes with a passion and fury far beyond McEwan or Barnes. Everything in life is here. I put it down and started re-reading it the next day - first time I'd done that since A-level English in the 80s. Wonderful!

The thing about Marty, 15 Mar 2005
The thing about Marty, vis a vis Marty, is that the content is a bit variable. Or variegated. Or perhaps another word, a something-other word that sure as hell he'd have an opinion on. Yes Marty's a forest gump of an author (let's yawn while you remind yourself that you never know what you're going to get next) but the point is - you never really do - latterly while as the master chocolatier he's created a few lemon-soap-creams, they only serve to highlight what a truly fantastic tongue-drop London Fields is.

It may be the point of Martin Amis that while he's basically my favourite author ever, you still want to fizz him in the mush sometimes. Clearly this would interfere with the dentistry and he wouldn't enjoy it. But books which are not good Amis make you angry when you have such regard for his abilities. The less good list includes Time's Arrow, The Information and Night Train. How do you know they're not that good? Only by juxtaposing the Holy Trinity of Amis; Dead Babies, Money and London Fields. In the former, good books written by a great writer who didn't quite connect. In the latter, three books written over a long time period by a great writer who just tapped into the universe. Unbelievably good literature. Unbelievably good......

London Fields is not the book with which to take issue with Martin Amis. It is a magnificent sprawling epic of a book that I can still pick up and read snatches of for sheer enjoyment many years on. Other commentors are exactly right - for heaven's sake do NOT start your Amis career with London Fields - it's too big, too challenging and too f*cked up. When you're into him, take it on with a sense of challenge and gusto. This is an amazing book. Whatever Amis's bugbears and demons, this is the book which rewards far beyond its cost price. Just find it when you know a little of him first. London Fields is the "long book / long novel" acknowledged by Amis as the book that took the most out of him. But it's worth it all in a way that I can't possibly adequately describe. It's just London Fields....London Fields......

London Fields, 31 Dec 2004
London Fields was the first substantial piece of Amis's work I had read and my jaw dropped at the standard of his prose, and the combination of his sense of humour, story telling technique, and the unique perspective through which Amis tells the story/stories. At the time I started reading this, (around Christmas 2003), the darts was on the television and I associated Keith immediately with one of the darts players, so this might have made the story coincidentally more vivid for me in the scenes with Keith. I think that for the days after finishing reading London Fields my heart sank when I thought of Nicola Six, as she doesn't just end up by breaking Keith and Guy's hearts but also that of the reader. I haven't read anything since London Fields one year ago that has been as memorable.. I've tried buying other Amis novels such as Time's Arrow, Other People, and Yellow Dog, though I haven't read any of these in full, but The Information seems like the best candidate for finding another novel by Amis as good as London Fields; (that is what I am hoping from having read the first dozen or so pages). It could well be that London Fields is Amis's tour de force, and Amis is one of the most technically skilled, artistically talented, insightful, and cool writers of present times as far as I know/can tell, so London Fields is a really great novel. I think there was a slight case of 'the right novel at the right time' when I read it, so maybe you won't appreciate how good the book is if it doesn't emotionally touch you at the time. I think that the final great thing about Amis is that he is conscientious about the environment et al, which just adds to the enjoyment and credibility of his moving writing. This is the kind of literature to be published as a classic in 2100, not least because it reflects modern times just as Dickens' writing reflected Victorian times, hence it is an important historical document as much as anything else; it gives the real character of the times, (and the place, aka London), which no history book can really do. Also, Amis's philosophical insights are impressive and his use of hyperbole is delightful.

More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

Provocative and Rewarding, 07 Mar 2008
THE SECOND PLANE is made up of 12 essays and two short stories, all exploring the issue of Islamism. To paraphrase Wikipedia, this is the belief that "...Islam is not only a religion but a political system. Its proponents believe that western military, economic, political, social, and cultural influences in the Muslim world are un-Islamic and should be replaced by purely Islamic influences." For Amis, Islamism has these features. But its primary characteristic is violent extremism.

The subtitle for this book, September 11: 2001-2007, explains what Amis is up to. In his own words, he is presenting a "narrative of misery, and also of desperate fascination" on the currents flowing into and out of 9/11. What was surprising to me is that his essays don't read like yesterday's news. Instead, his pieces, many appearing first in The Times or The Guardian, are built on fundamentals that, in America, are often obscured as our politicians and their hacks justify or attack policy for short-term political gain. Here's a sample of Mart's thoughts:

o "We are arriving at an axiom in long-term thinking about international terrorism: the real danger lies, not in what it inflicts, but in what it provokes. Thus by far the gravest consequence of September 11, to date, is Iraq."

o "Why, in our current delirium of faith and fear, would Bush want things to become more theological rather than less theological? The answer is clear enough in human terms: to put it crudely, it makes him feel easier about being intellectually null. He wants geopolitics to be less about the intellect, and more about gut-instincts and beliefs--because he knows he's got them."

o "We may compare radical Islam with ... Bolshevism and Nazism (to each of which Islamism is indebted). Of the many affinities that emerge, we may list, to begin, some secondary characteristics. The exaltation of a godlike leader; the demand, not just for submission to the cause, but for utter transformation in its name; a self-pitying romanticism; a hatred of liberal society, individualism, and affluent inertia; an obsession with sacrifice and martyrdom; a morbid adolescent rebelliousness combined with a childish love of destruction...But these are incidentals. Thanatism derives its real energy, its fever and its magic, from something far more radical.... I mean the rejection of reason."

As a Yank living in New York, I don't see Amis much on TV in his role of wise man and commentator. Instead, Mart, for me, largely remains a novelist. As a result, I was also happy to see Amis make a few literary asides in THE SECOND PLANE. Here's one:

o "Commentators respond, not to the novel, but to its personnel, whom they want to `care about', in whom they want to `believe'. Such remarks as `I didn't like the characters' are now thought capable of settling the hash of a work of fiction. This critical approach will eventually elicit what it fully deserves--a literature of ingratiation."

This is very high-level and interesting work and recommended.






Ignore the reviews and buy this book, 20 Feb 2008
Why do the reviewers and critics hate Martin Amis so much ? Ignore them and buy this book. The writing is breathtaking and the analysis provoking. This book and Updike's The Terrorist should be required reading for anyone interested in the post 9/11 world.

More talked about than read, 06 Feb 2008
I'm beginning to suspect that Amis's views on Islamist terrorism are more talked about than read. This is a pity since he was some genuine insights and is - I think - correct in most of his analysis. He is also an excellent writer and a joy to read. All the articles in this book are reprints from articles, book reviews and two short stories so you may have already read at least one article (it was only halfway through one of the short stories that I realised I'd already read it).



spiritual warfare, 01 Feb 2008
Amis understands and describes with a superb eye, both the ugly soul of totalitarianism and the death cult of religous fanaticsm facing the west. Along with Paul Berman, Amis helps you make the leap into the minds of those who want to kill us and shows us the dreadful emptiness of their souls. This collection of essays includes two short stories. "In the palace of the end," the story is based on a body double for the psychotic and sadistic son of the dictator and is based in a torture centre. The horror is skilfully amplified by the dullness of tone and terrifyingly, sadism and rape are reduced to bureaucratic procedures. The essays range from the wacky evilness of Ahmedinijad in Iran to spending time with Tony Blair and are rich in detail colour. Even though I would disagree with some of Amis' emphasis and conclusions, each essay stands up as a fine piece of writing. This is an excellent book. I would urge anyone who enjoys it to also read Berman's "Terror and Liberalism"

Witty, brilliant sadistic tease of a novel, 14 Aug 2008
"London Fields" is a multi-layered, black, witty literary tour de force. A squad of characters, with the main roles ranging from Samson Young (the writer), Guy Clinch (the good, rich guy), Keith Talent (the criminal, pornography and masturbation addict, wanna-be-dart pro), Marmaduke (Guy's mighty and gruelly mean child- who serves for a big part of the best laughs here), Nicola Six (the murderee, who teases and manipulates all men in rather specific and imaginative ways) and the "absent" Mark Asprey (the writer, in whose appartment Sam is now living and writing- with the initials M.A., an alter ego of Martin Amis?). There are Guy's and Keith's wives, Guy's wife's sister Lizziboo (who rather falls for Sam) and the South African Nr. 7 tennis pro, who is, or is he not, Guy's wife's lover.
Nicola Six believes she will be murdered, by Guy or Keith, and narrates her story to Sam, who is using this "real" story to get over his writing blockade. Martin Amis does not seem to pity his characters, I would even say he sadistically spotlights their diverse flaws of character (which is rather zynical at times...). As Nicola teases the men in this setting, Martin Amis teases the reader all the way through and manages to bend the ending in an unexpected, surprising but completely devastatingly convincing way. Quite breathtaking is the moment, when you become aware of having had the clues (and most answers) hidden in front of your eyes right from the very beginning. Wonderful sharp writing, a plot where you never really know which way Martin Amis will go next, a riddle, a crime story, a love story, a novel, which is by all means, to use the words of Martin Amis, just "damned bloody good".

Superb, 06 Aug 2008
Other reviews have given synopses, so I'll skip that...

Firstly, this book is worth reading if you live in London - Amis captures perfectly the bizarre juxtaposition of sleaze against wealth that is everywhere in the city, and the book is wonderfully atmospheric of both of these aspects of London and more.

The wider appeal of the book is surely Amis' writing rather than the plot itself; his astounding use and manipulation of the English language makes 'London Fields' a real tour de force.

Most of all though, the general obvservations of peoples' behaviours, psychologies (particularly with regard to sex), reactions to one another, and the varying viewpoints on life offered here are captivating and, I would say, remove the need for a gripping, suspenseful story; these observations are also often made in an extremely witty way.

However, I also disagree with other reviewers, who claim that "nothing happens" in 'London Fields': this is a highly misleading thing to say about this book - there are several narrative strains which meet excitingly at the end of the novel and I personally found that despite Amis' determination to make the book more about the 'journey to the climax' than the ending itself, there is real tension. I do agree, though, that the plot might not be the main focus of the book.

All in all, I would recommend this book to almost anyone who feels that they might want to read something which is something other than (or more than) just a story and experience the writing of someone with a trully masterful command of the English language.

Darts rocks, 12 Jan 2008
This book is truly brilliant. Admittedly not much happens, but the characters (Keith Talent in particular) are so superbly evoked that you just can't help enjoying it. Amis is the great British talent of the late 20th century and writes with a passion and fury far beyond McEwan or Barnes. Everything in life is here. I put it down and started re-reading it the next day - first time I'd done that since A-level English in the 80s. Wonderful!

The thing about Marty, 15 Mar 2005
The thing about Marty, vis a vis Marty, is that the content is a bit variable. Or variegated. Or perhaps another word, a something-other word that sure as hell he'd have an opinion on. Yes Marty's a forest gump of an author (let's yawn while you remind yourself that you never know what you're going to get next) but the point is - you never really do - latterly while as the master chocolatier he's created a few lemon-soap-creams, they only serve to highlight what a truly fantastic tongue-drop London Fields is.

It may be the point of Martin Amis that while he's basically my favourite author ever, you still want to fizz him in the mush sometimes. Clearly this would interfere with the dentistry and he wouldn't enjoy it. But books which are not good Amis make you angry when you have such regard for his abilities. The less good list includes Time's Arrow, The Information and Night Train. How do you know they're not that good? Only by juxtaposing the Holy Trinity of Amis; Dead Babies, Money and London Fields. In the former, good books written by a great writer who didn't quite connect. In the latter, three books written over a long time period by a great writer who just tapped into the universe. Unbelievably good literature. Unbelievably good......

London Fields is not the book with which to take issue with Martin Amis. It is a magnificent sprawling epic of a book that I can still pick up and read snatches of for sheer enjoyment many years on. Other commentors are exactly right - for heaven's sake do NOT start your Amis career with London Fields - it's too big, too challenging and too f*cked up. When you're into him, take it on with a sense of challenge and gusto. This is an amazing book. Whatever Amis's bugbears and demons, this is the book which rewards far beyond its cost price. Just find it when you know a little of him first. London Fields is the "long book / long novel" acknowledged by Amis as the book that took the most out of him. But it's worth it all in a way that I can't possibly adequately describe. It's just London Fields....London Fields......

London Fields, 31 Dec 2004
London Fields was the first substantial piece of Amis's work I had read and my jaw dropped at the standard of his prose, and the combination of his sense of humour, story telling technique, and the unique perspective through which Amis tells the story/stories. At the time I started reading this, (around Christmas 2003), the darts was on the television and I associated Keith immediately with one of the darts players, so this might have made the story coincidentally more vivid for me in the scenes with Keith. I think that for the days after finishing reading London Fields my heart sank when I thought of Nicola Six, as she doesn't just end up by breaking Keith and Guy's hearts but also that of the reader. I haven't read anything since London Fields one year ago that has been as memorable.. I've tried buying other Amis novels such as Time's Arrow, Other People, and Yellow Dog, though I haven't read any of these in full, but The Information seems like the best candidate for finding another novel by Amis as good as London Fields; (that is what I am hoping from having read the first dozen or so pages). It could well be that London Fields is Amis's tour de force, and Amis is one of the most technically skilled, artistically talented, insightful, and cool writers of present times as far as I know/can tell, so London Fields is a really great novel. I think there was a slight case of 'the right novel at the right time' when I read it, so maybe you won't appreciate how good the book is if it doesn't emotionally touch you at the time. I think that the final great thing about Amis is that he is conscientious about the environment et al, which just adds to the enjoyment and credibility of his moving writing. This is the kind of literature to be published as a classic in 2100, not least because it reflects modern times just as Dickens' writing reflected Victorian times, hence it is an important historical document as much as anything else; it gives the real character of the times, (and the place, aka London), which no history book can really do. Also, Amis's philosophical insights are impressive and his use of hyperbole is delightful.

"The world has stopped making sense again...", 14 Aug 2008
Tod T. Friendly (who is in fact Odilo Unverdorben, a Nazi Doctor and assistant to Josef Mengele in Auschwitz-Birkenau), at the moment of his death in late 20th century New York, re-lives his life (which to the people surrounding him is a complete secret), or more correctly, a shadow or rather perplex and surprised double of Tod Friendly (or John Young, and finally Odilo Unverdorben), who is the narrator of this account, does. Ingeniously, Martin Amis has mirrored this life as inversion, making it something like a upside down account of the 20th century.
Definetely not an easy read in the beginning (Martin Amis never is, thankfully- and reading inverse dialogues is wee bit like running backwards- not that I've tried running backwards though), "Time's Arrow" needs time getting accustomed to, increases momentum until finally Odilo Unverdorben re-enters his mothers womb. Inverse dialogue, inverse sexual acts, inverse life- even Auschwitz and Odilos role during the holocaust inversed: especially this part of this novel is the one making this book an unforgettable reading experience, this is the part, which stuns most, with leaves you breathlessly following Odilos shadows inverse view of the Schoah.
Martin Amis' prose is ironical, black, ice-cold, cruel and consciously pathetical at times. A shattering, stunning and utterly original visionary work of literature.

Warning: This book will mess with your mind., 14 Mar 2007
Writing life backwards is not original. Yet it is a mark of Martin Amis's subtle humour that he is able to say something truly fascinating about human nature. This is the story of Todd T. Friendly, former Nazi Medical Executioner and now all-round American nice-guy. By situating the narrator within Todd's body but not actually part of his mind, the narrator is able to take a step back from the action, to observe the absurdities of life, whether backwards or forwards. This book also plays with your consciousness, blurring your interaction with the world. Whenever I stopped reading, I found myself completely unsure which way round things should happen: should I get in or out of the bath next? How many books can alter the state of your mind, even for a few moments? Martin Amis is toying with your psyche, few author have the playful sense of humour to do this with such an apparently serious subject.

Breathtakingly impressive, 25 Sep 2006
Taking any life through a backwards lense would have been sufficient to display the dazzling literary technique at work here, but to have the courage (or audacity) needed to tackle the subject of the holocaust in this way lifts the novel from a clever work to a truly monumental work of literature. The reader's own confusion, followed by collusion, is used as a powerful tool of engagement.

not for the faint of heart, 06 Apr 2006
By far Amis's best, but most controversial novel, one that will leave you stunned, but yearning for more from start to finish. it is short enough to read in one sitting, but long enough to keep you guessing and make you understand the massive twist which takes place. Something that anyone and everyone should read at least 10 times. Amis at his best.

Powerful, 05 Apr 2005
One of the most interesting books I've ever read.

Constantly funny and appealing, and eventually devastating.

The way Amis handles Auschwitz is truly breath-taking, a ridiculously surreal way of looking at something that is all-too-real. By presenting it in this seemingly light-hearted manner, he increases the tragic effect.

A very important book that should be read.

More please..., 09 Sep 2008
I loved this book, it is my favourite by Martin Amis so far. Its darkly funny, and I think quite a clever plot. I just wish the author had reproduced this form a few more times. Sometimes, I just think he can try to be a little too clever and forget that some of us just want to be entertained by his cynical witt! This book certainly does that. Enjoy.

Wanton, fierce brilliance, 13 Jul 2008
My personal theory about Martin Amis is that he's a great writer in need of a great story. I think he doesn't often find one: so his extraordinary literary brilliance is just thrown out in showy flashes and sparks which glow fiercely and die instantly. It's his curse: impelled to write, lacking that great theme, what he writes seems to just invite these extremes of opinion. I don't know, I'm baffled by it - is it the whiff of nepotism? The casual, wrist-flicking brilliance of his prose with its aura of presumptuous arrogance? But eventually he stumbles upon something perfect: an actual story. "Money" feels as though he made a deal with the devil over this one, to everyone's benefit.

"Money" is an absolute classic, there's no doubt whatever. Amis has taken the temperature of the times - the early 80s - and set it down, searingly, brutally, on the printed page, where it hums, alive and fuming. I see him, writing this, like Mephistopheles himself, impish, awful, powerful. I think he felt, writing this, that you had better blow them all to hell: risk everything, to write at all. And I'm so glad he did: many years on this is still a powerhouse, still has something to tell us about humanity.

John Self is the 'hero' of this story: dividing his time between London and New York, "Money" tells the story of Self's journey from the TV small time to - perhaps - the movie big time. His rampant appetites, his friends, his lovers, his prospects, are unveiled in extraordinary and brilliant prose. It's funny, dark and very, very human.

Patrick Hamilton frequently gets compared to Dickens, but this is just as true of Amis: never mind the descriptive character names, I don't care about (or for) all that. John Self - yeah, yeah, I get it. It's not that - it's the eyes-peeled exploration of the grubby, nasty world around him; the ability to find the (black) humour in the grimmest of situations; the trough, the mire of hellish circumstances that Amis paints, that makes him like Dickens. I love listening in my head to his John Self: the awful lonesome midatlantic ex-glottal barking, the stone drunks and the mad panic tumblings to reality and the occasional dimly perceived insight; his mad advertising past, his pub dad, his porn addiction, his loaf-like body and his unforgettable, bruiser face. I love the slang John Self uses - hurls - at life: "mad rugs", flailing back in his costly, barely-running "Fiasco" to his "sock". It's made of brilliance, it assails you with brilliance. You come out a little scorched yourself - brief contact with life in Hell. But it's a hell full of fiery humour - you kind of like it there: your normal life, after "Money", is perhaps just a teensy bit dull.

John Self is a truly unforgettable hero. He's such an awful, awful man, his appetites so gross and needy - but he's so like you (all right, me?). He flails around and stumbles and falls like you, he does unforgiveable things and feels bad about it afterwards; he's rejected his past but hasn't embraced the new world he thinks he could be part of - he's not, of course; he never will be. I defy anyone not to pity Self just a little as he flails around the tennis court during his match with Fielding Goodney, or realises that he's messed up again with The Girl.

Having said all this, whatever you thought about "Money", forget it: read his semi-autobiographical "Experience" and I think you won't feel the same way about Amis again. It's moving and beautiful and brilliant all at the same time - a real story, and a real writer's work.

A savage funny monologue, 01 Feb 2008
This is a novel written in the early 80's and is one long monologue about money and what chasing money, having money( and not having money) does to John Self the central character. He is a successful Ad director but at heart a fast talking East end boozing womaniser addicted to fast food and porno. And if you still like him, he beats up women, tends to be a racist, and hates gays... and horror of horror smokes. But he does have a turbulent broth of family relationships to deal with!

This could be an echo of real life as Martin Amis had a troubled relationship with his father Kingsley Amis. Who incidentally was critical of the device of having the author as a character in the story which allows Martin to take some sly digs at the pretensions of writers and writing.

John Self meets a producer in New York and spins him a story based on his own life (drunkard father, two timing mother, time waster son) and is then embroiled in the nightmare of putting the money, script and casting together. He lurches between New York and London loving money and suffering from excesses of drink, food and sex and looses girlfriend, friends and family along the way in a glorious buffoon way.

As he tries to deal with actor's egos, money men demands and scripts he is also hounded by a stalker . Or is he? We can only understand what john understands and as he is drinking several bottles of whiskies on week long benders he is a little hazy some times on the details. During the story we get to find out what the truth of his rise to the Money as well as family secrets and who cheats who.

As the novel is set up to be a long suicide note you can sense the depths of his pain. So is this a gloomy, slash your wrist Leonard Cohen fun feast? No it's a very funny and savage satire on money, money and money and oh the film industry. Normally, I dislike first person novels but I strongly recommended this one.


A TRUE MORALIST, 30 Oct 2007
Martin Amis is the Jonathan Swift of our age. He exposes the inner corruption of self deceit and the lies that money brings. He brings a brilliant searchlight into the dark corners of our civilisation. A fearless prophet for our time: read his essays on Islamism.

Relentless...and exhausting...., 23 Oct 2007
Money is just exhausting to read.... It describes the main character's (John Self) self-destruction - his own relentless drive to descend deeper and deeper into a pit of his own filfth until he annihilates anything human about himself. John Self is one large pustulating festering boil of a human being, full of weakness, sadism, spite, bile and everything unpleasant you can think of.

Money is very gritty and grim and the characters are despicable - all of them: man and woman included. Even the author, who is also a character in the book, doesn't get off lightly!

As a book about the darker side of 1980s materialism it works well and it's certainly very compelling reading, but I felt kind of grubby whenever I put it down (which is probably the point...) and wouldn't call Money an enjoyable read and it certainly wasn't in the slightest bit uplifting.

It's clear when you read this book why Amis is considered a good writer. He has the ability to see straight through to the most repellent side of human nature and the technique to put it down on paper. However, I don't think I can stomach any more of his novels as I have a feeling that this is his style...!

This is definitely more of a bloke's book than a woman's.

Provocative and Rewarding,