It's been a long time since I posted anything here - I don't have the energy during term time and often end up in remote parts of Scotland for my holidays. But now Summer is here I'll try to be good! I record what I read on Twitter - @dave_windsor - but again, I find it difficult to read much during term time.
Anyway! This most recent novel by Martin Amis has been slated by many critics - unfairly in my humble view. It's a comedy around the usual Amis theme of the criminal underclass, with an accurate depiction of British celebrity culture and the impoverished, culture-free life led by so many today. Critics seem to suggest that Amis has lost his youthful edge and will never be able to create works as great as "Money" and "Success". I would say that, this work, rather than inferior, is different. The author, although still dwelling on dark and often depraved subject matter, has mellowed. Or perhaps, as a narrator, he no longer stands back from this subject matter, assuming that we will pass judgment ourselves; instead he shows, just a little, that he has a heart! This previous narrative standpoint has perhaps led to some of the venom aimed at him by the press: he writes about crime and misogyny without any narrative condemnation, therefore he is a misogynist.
Here's an example of this caring side:
Des, what happens when I don't know what I'm saying?
It'll pass, Gran.
... I won't be able to open my eyes. I won't be able to close my mouth.
No, Gran. The other way round.
And he felt he was preparing for a long voyage on a dark sea where, one by one, all the stars would be going out.
No one writes like Amis, and there are the usual phrases that you just want to write down; from the swearing dogs to London's "white van sky" to "Des assumed that this feeling would one day subside, this riven feeling, with its equal parts of panic and rapture. Not soon, though. The thing was that he considered it a perfectly logical response to being alive."
Right that's enough. I have "Generosity" by Richard Powers to finish
