February 14th, 2010 / 4:50 am
Snippets
Snippets
Nick Antosca—
Martin Amis’s new novel, The Pregnant Widow, is out in the UK, and once again he’s the subject of much British comment, according to Olivia Cole at the Daily Beast. I cannot wait to read The Pregnant Widow, and I thought House of Meetings was the best novel of his career. Amis recently predicted a “silver tsunami”: “There’ll be a population of demented very old people, like an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafes and shops. I can imagine a sort of civil war between the old and the young in 10 or 15 years’ time.”
Wow. I thought House of Meetings was pretty awful but if the new Amis is anywhere near the standard of Money or London Fields I can’t wait to read it!
Wow. I thought House of Meetings was pretty awful but if the new Amis is anywhere near the standard of Money or London Fields I can’t wait to read it!
You thought HOM was awful, really? How come? Not trying to instigate an argument, genuinely curious.
You thought HOM was awful, really? How come? Not trying to instigate an argument, genuinely curious.
In reflection awful is an enormous exaggeration but I just found the novel to be unconvincing. I thought the frame narrative was unnecessary and poorly done and also that in writing about eastern Europe Amis tried to force the novel to be overly eastern European if that makes any sense. The odd character names, place names and the dulled sexual longing just seem to be a pastiche of late 20th century eastern European lit. I just feel it ends up coming across as a weak Kundera.
That said, as I mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Amis’s earlier work.
In reflection awful is an enormous exaggeration but I just found the novel to be unconvincing. I thought the frame narrative was unnecessary and poorly done and also that in writing about eastern Europe Amis tried to force the novel to be overly eastern European if that makes any sense. The odd character names, place names and the dulled sexual longing just seem to be a pastiche of late 20th century eastern European lit. I just feel it ends up coming across as a weak Kundera.
That said, as I mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Amis’s earlier work.