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heineaaen's review against another edition
3.0
Glimtvis genial, sproglig overlegen og (indrømmet) indimellem en intellektuel prøvelse. Det er sort humor når den er allermørkest.
mapdock's review against another edition
4.0
Quite the weird and wonderful trip, this book. The novel-within-a-novel device generally doesn't work for me, but it's done here in such an original way that it completely won me over. The timing and development of the three characters is so perfect, and I can't remember being this hungry for the last 10-20 pages of any book in some time.
faintgirl's review against another edition
3.0
I can't figure out what to make of this book at all. Either Amis really despises people or he finds them beneath him... or maybe he loves them but doesn't want to admit it to the rest of us. It makes for a rather schizophrenic novel, where the main male protagonists are unwitting, a little thick, but generally likeable (if not quite stand up chaps). Their downfall is Nicola Six, the devious and devilish young woman who has foreseen her own death at the hands of these gentleman. To the end she is manipulative, cruel, but essentially shallow. In places it's quite riveting, and his portrayal of Keith and Guy as the Everymen is funny and even occasionally warming. But Nicola and her baseless existential angst, her unwillingness to involved herself in any of the human side of day to day life, made it impossible for me to really feel this book. Hence it gets a three, but it's actually a lot more interesting than that rating would suggest.
blueyorkie's review against another edition
3.0
London Fields. Make no mistake about the title. There is nothing rustic about this novel. It is a story of murder, in a depressing London, not in itself - Portobello Road and its colorful facades, Notting Hill, but through the prism of the author's style, qualified as master of the "unpleasant new."
Let's start, as Martin Amis decreed, with the potential assassin, the ill-named Keith Talent, give me the expression: small, sweeping strike of the rogue genre, not enough shoulder for ultra-violence, the racketeering or robbery, low-level seducer. Champion of the pub he frequented, the follower of the national sport of any right self-respecting public house, darts or darts. He was hiding a woman and child in an apartment in a cramped closet. Let's move on to the victim: Nicola Six, attractive thirty-something woman, oh so artificial, quintessence in her way of the weaker sex, afflicted with a marked appetite for alcohol, and endowed with the faculty of guessing what necessarily - fatally instead,
will happen to him. And then we have Guy Clinch, the stooge of the two aforementioned, the good guy; the one who is said to be gentle with a little superior smile of commiseration suffers pain from those around him, particularly from his Pantagruel's son. Finally, let's not forget the narrator, Samson Young, an author afflicted with a crying lack of imagination, is omnipresent, taking us into the confidence of his writing novel. Who knows his characters and meets them at intervals regularly, and asks them to act according to his plans to tie up the work in creation.
The novel, where cynical humor is very present, describes an English Thatcherian society downgraded in the anxiety-provoking climate of possible nuclear annihilation and more broadly illustrated the absurdity and the grotesque of Western capitalist society. This disturbing book certainly has literary qualities but sometimes appears confused and will likely tire more than one.
Let's start, as Martin Amis decreed, with the potential assassin, the ill-named Keith Talent, give me the expression: small, sweeping strike of the rogue genre, not enough shoulder for ultra-violence, the racketeering or robbery, low-level seducer. Champion of the pub he frequented, the follower of the national sport of any right self-respecting public house, darts or darts. He was hiding a woman and child in an apartment in a cramped closet. Let's move on to the victim: Nicola Six, attractive thirty-something woman, oh so artificial, quintessence in her way of the weaker sex, afflicted with a marked appetite for alcohol, and endowed with the faculty of guessing what necessarily - fatally instead,
will happen to him. And then we have Guy Clinch, the stooge of the two aforementioned, the good guy; the one who is said to be gentle with a little superior smile of commiseration suffers pain from those around him, particularly from his Pantagruel's son. Finally, let's not forget the narrator, Samson Young, an author afflicted with a crying lack of imagination, is omnipresent, taking us into the confidence of his writing novel. Who knows his characters and meets them at intervals regularly, and asks them to act according to his plans to tie up the work in creation.
The novel, where cynical humor is very present, describes an English Thatcherian society downgraded in the anxiety-provoking climate of possible nuclear annihilation and more broadly illustrated the absurdity and the grotesque of Western capitalist society. This disturbing book certainly has literary qualities but sometimes appears confused and will likely tire more than one.
suzzeb22's review against another edition
4.0
Well. It's taken me over 18 years of my husband's nagging to finally set about reading this book innit?
I loved the characters. I was interested and impressed by Martin Amis' prose. I didn't quite get some of it. Maybe the English jargon a bit, or maybe some of it just went over my head. I wasn't sure about the direction the novel was taking or even in the end exactly what transpired. But I would recommend it. I also found his writing very funny. Worth the wait for sure.
I loved the characters. I was interested and impressed by Martin Amis' prose. I didn't quite get some of it. Maybe the English jargon a bit, or maybe some of it just went over my head. I wasn't sure about the direction the novel was taking or even in the end exactly what transpired. But I would recommend it. I also found his writing very funny. Worth the wait for sure.
whimsicalmeerkat's review against another edition
2.0
I should have liked this book, by all logical assessments, but I didn't all that much. It is a good book and I can certainly appreciate it, but I just did not care for it. It was a little too filled with self-aggrandizement on the part of Martin Amis. Still, worth reading and many critics find it to be one of his best. It's entirely possible that would change if I re-read it.
arp_3103's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
airplex's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
drdreuh's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
2.5
I wanted to read Martin Amis because he died last year, and suddenly the literati were all atwitter with odes for an author I had never heard of. I stumbled on "London Fields" in a used bookstore in Barcelona. Is it representative of his work? Where does it sit in his portfolio? No idea.
"London Fields" is a man's book. A weird thing to write, but nonetheless true. Raging hard-ons abound. Dirty and sometimes violent sex, and women, and bars and cigarettes, and a long drawn out competition of a "sport" I couldn't care less about, darts. Gritty. Reminds me a bit of T.C. Boyle's style. And Elmore Leonard. Vonnegut, maybe. So aggressively misogynistically male that I wonder if you could get this book published today. No relationship that is not abusive. Freudian. Everything that is taboo, really.
But its also very smart. A book within a book full of literary references and funny Briticisms. Multiple point of view. Multi-class. Writing about writing.
Astronomical events and the threat of world war burbling in the background seemed unnecessary.
Structurally interesting, and the whodunit energy hooked me, even though we were told from the start who done it. But otherwise I'm glad to have the reading of this Amis, anyway, behind me.
Lines I loved:
Countries go insane like people go insane ... Some had been insane all their lives, and some had gone insane and then gotten better again and then gone insane again.
Most places just are something, but America had to mean something too ...
He thought of straw: was this the kind you clutched at, or the kind that broke your back?
Curious how madness and obscenity go together.
"London Fields" is a man's book. A weird thing to write, but nonetheless true. Raging hard-ons abound. Dirty and sometimes violent sex, and women, and bars and cigarettes, and a long drawn out competition of a "sport" I couldn't care less about, darts. Gritty. Reminds me a bit of T.C. Boyle's style. And Elmore Leonard. Vonnegut, maybe. So aggressively misogynistically male that I wonder if you could get this book published today. No relationship that is not abusive. Freudian. Everything that is taboo, really.
But its also very smart. A book within a book full of literary references and funny Briticisms. Multiple point of view. Multi-class. Writing about writing.
Astronomical events and the threat of world war burbling in the background seemed unnecessary.
Structurally interesting, and the whodunit energy hooked me, even though we were told from the start who done it. But otherwise I'm glad to have the reading of this Amis, anyway, behind me.
Lines I loved:
Countries go insane like people go insane ... Some had been insane all their lives, and some had gone insane and then gotten better again and then gone insane again.
Most places just are something, but America had to mean something too ...
He thought of straw: was this the kind you clutched at, or the kind that broke your back?
Curious how madness and obscenity go together.
5starliv's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A very funny book