Boox

[Deschanel]

Getting this out of the way, I really like Martin Amis- his prose stylings, string of truly good novels, his essays and book reviews and memoirs. He truly is a talented writer. And I know he's been "controversial" in the UK for a variety of reasons, including some very inflammatory statements about... current affairs in the past decade, let's say. And, I understand why.

Getting to my point, I am really, really annoyed and bored trying to get therough his latest novel, Lionel Asbo: State of England. Finding it boring and irritating. Amis seems to think himself an astute social observer somehow, as if he alone deigns to describe the culture of reality television, manufactured pop stars, the Daily Mail Online (which is actually the most-trafficked news-site in the world, one I sheepishly admit to perusing), the modern culture of Katy Price and chavs and TOWIEs and "glamour models" - well he seems to think he's Columbus discovering the New World here. It's supposed to be a "comic novel", but from someone as posh as him, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Except less funny, it's torturous. His references already seem out of date.

Throw in a subplot where a teenager is having sex with his grandmother, tons of colorful "regional" or low class accents rendered phonetically, and wow the condescension never ends. Newsflash from Martin Amis: modern culture is filled with vapid materialism, celebrity worship, and the immoral lower classes are indulging in this shamelessly! Oh, this book is so painfully obvious and unfunny. It's a shame, he's done so much better in the past.

[fluffmoln]

Getting this out of the way, I really like Martin Amis- his prose stylings, string of truly good novels, his essays and book reviews and memoirs. He truly is a talented writer. And I know he's been "controversial" in the UK for a variety of reasons, including some very inflammatory statements about... current affairs in the past decade, let's say. And, I understand why.

Getting to my point, I am really, really annoyed and bored trying to get therough his latest novel, Lionel Asbo: State of England. Finding it boring and irritating. Amis seems to think himself an astute social observer somehow, as if he alone deigns to describe the culture of reality television, manufactured pop stars, the Daily Mail Online (which is actually the most-trafficked news-site in the world, one I sheepishly admit to perusing), the modern culture of Katy Price and chavs and TOWIEs and "glamour models" - well he seems to think he's Columbus discovering the New World here. It's supposed to be a "comic novel", but from someone as posh as him, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Except less funny, it's torturous. His references already seem out of date.

Throw in a subplot where a teenager is having sex with his grandmother, tons of colorful "regional" or low class accents rendered phonetically, and wow the condescension never ends. Newsflash from Martin Amis: modern culture is filled with vapid materialism, celebrity worship, and the immoral lower classes are indulging in this shamelessly! Oh, this book is so painfully obvious and unfunny. It's a shame, he's done so much better in the past.

So you're saying that if I've read (and liked) Time's Arrow, I should stick to only (finally) read London Fields? Are there other books by him worthy of seeking out? The one you talk about really seems like a novelization of a random blogsite.

[Deschanel]

Well, Fluff, no I didn't say that you should only stick to that; I was talking about the book I'm currently reading, which is Lionel Asbo.

I'd recommend Success, Money, London Fields, The Information, Heavy Water and Other Stories for his fiction.

The Moronic Inferno, Visiting Mrs. Nabokov, Experience, The War Against Cliché for non-fiction essays, book reviews and memoirs. Hope this helps.