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Title: London Fields (Vintage International) by MARTIN AMIS ISBN: 0-679-73034-6 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 April, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.84 (73 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Amis delivers a lovely stroll through the urban apocalypse.
Comment: Please ignore the comments by "A Reader" which occurred on August 15th of 1999, I believe. This person has some sort of puerile vendetta going on against Mr. Amis. "A Reader" may not have even read these books: the same critique is posted to every one of Amis's books on Amazon, without an actual comment on any particular book.
London Fields is a wonderful read. I read it several years ago and elements of the book still rumble around in the back of my admittedly impressionable mind--especially Keith Talent, vulgar sportsman that he is. Words and phrases from LF even worked their way into my vocabulary, and as a college student with a passable IQ and access to a dictionary I had no problem eventually digesting any of the multisyllabic constructs Amis threw my way.
Reading a book with a dictionary on hand really isn't a bad thing, innit?
Rating: 5
Summary: The best book ever?
Comment: I've read this book five times now and the precision with which Amis chooses his words never fails to amaze me. Unlike some of his earlier books, he doesn't flex his undoubtedly huge vocabulary just to try and impress - in London Fields it is hard to see how the progress of Nicola Six towards the inevitable November 6 rendezvous could be better described.
Apparently the structure of the novel, which is superficially very simple (girl wants to die, and does) yet incredibly complex, evolved rather than being planned from the start; Amis originally intended this as a short story rather than the weighty opus it is now. Although Keith was in the original draft, neither Guy nor Sam, the narrator, had yet been created. The use of the narrator as a character in his own right is, however, common to most of Amis' work and the novel would not ring true to type without him (read The Information afterwards to see what is missing from the later book). Other typical Amis features are the slightly odd character names and, as in Money, he can't resist a reference to himself (the wholly absent character of Mark Asprey, only revealed in his 'fantastically offensive' letters to Sam).
As far as the final denouement is concerned, it must be one of the most delicious twists ever devised in fiction. The novel can be read as an account of Samson Young's spiritual redemption, in which he realises at the eleventh hour that what he has been writing is wrong - which is, of course, what Nicola had always known would happen. Rather naughtily, Amis throws his readers a teaser towards the end of the book (in one of Sam's tortured dreams) that hints at a different surprise ending to the true one.
If there is a weak or clumsy spot in the book, it is Guy's failure to recognise the significance of Nicola's imaginary friend Enola Gay and her son Little Boy ('a little knowledge here just might have saved him'). Presumably this was done in order to contrast Guy's naivete further with Nicola's deviousness and Keith's working-class savoir-faire.
There are some great comedy moments, including of course Keith's darts obsession, his late-night video viewing (six hours' worth fast-forwarded in 20 minutes while looking for images of sex/violence/money), his women and his appalling diet of ready-meals. His succinct explanation of why darts players only drink lager is so logical that it almost has to be true.
Overall, though, London Fields becomes progressively darker in tone and the humour vanishes abruptly in the last act as Sam realises too late that 'a cross has four points, not three'. Nevertheless, the endpapers are not entirely bereft of hope, particularly for Kim Talent, Keith's baby daughter, whom Sam has rescued from abuse by her mother, herself abused by Keith.
There is a final 'whydoit' question at the end of the book, addressed to Mark Asprey, who it transpires was, and still may be, Nicola's lover. Did Asprey set up the whole thing? You will have to make up your own mind, for, as with Fielding Goodney in Money, Amis leaves no real clues as to a possible motive.
Rating: 5
Summary: I love you for all the sick and twisted reasons
Comment: You can always rely on Martin Amis for the unconventional being pushed to the limit, and LONDON FIELDS is no exception. This novel is a warped combination of a twisted love story, quirky science fiction, and a murder mystery waiting to happen. In other words, it's a sheer joy.
Amis has always had a knack for assembling the most uncharacteristic characters, winding them up, and letting them run amok. In this case, we watch the oversexed but suicidal Nicola Six waggle her charms before the all to accepting attentions of the hoidy-toidy Guy Clinch and the dart-throwing, bigoted, wrong side of any track, Keith Talent. However, Nicola's motives are not what they expect: she is manipulating them to commit a murder, on herself. But, as always, there are complications and twists along the way, and Amis keeps you hanging on for dear life along the ride. LONDON FIELDS is a marvelous example of a writer who has mastered his craft, and I recommend it highly.
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Title: Money by Martin Amis ISBN: 0140088911 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1986 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Rachel Papers by MARTIN AMIS ISBN: 0679734589 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Information by Martin Amis ISBN: 0679735739 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Time's Arrow: Or the Nature of the Offense by Martin Amis ISBN: 0679735720 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Yellow Dog by Martin Amis ISBN: 1401352030 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 05 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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