- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate (2 Dec 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857026810
- ISBN-13: 978-1857026818
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.6 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 826,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
The Evening Standard, December 1996
A masterpiece...The greatest novelist under the age of fifty has now stepped onto the stage.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The Daily Mail, December 1996
It's like Dickens without the long-winded bits. It makes you laugh, it makes you blub..an excellent and entertaining read.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a jaundiced but funny and poignant look at a small circle of Oxbridge graduates in London who are cutting each others' throats on their way to the top of the media at the end of the last century. It is a hugely ambitious book, ranging from the world of mega rich media magnate Max de Monde (Robert Maxwell in disguise)to the run down housing estate lived in by single mum Grace. The heroine Mary thinks that if you can't beat em you just have to join em, and becomes the most savage book reviewer of them all, until she sees how destructive her pen can be. She is a likeable and believable character, and the whole story whips along at a cracking pace, by turns funny, excruciating, sad, wise, and, when it comes to bringing up baby, toe-curling. Altogether a Good Read.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Amanda Craig's book is a tour-de-force: a panoramic, Dickensian swoop around 90's London. Vivid, funny, and passionate, Craig's fictional world seethes with humour and wonderful set pieces. Although primarily set in the bitchy world of literary criticism, Craig also brilliantly explores the way motherhood can turn your world upside down. A must- read for anyone who loves fiction, and a welcome introduction to Craig's best fictional creation: the slobby, lecherous critic Ivo Sponge, who makes a welcome return in Craig's latest, "Love in Idleness."
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a delight to read -- and read again after reading Craig's earlier novels, Foreign Bodies and A Private Place, which are loosely linked to each other and this one. Compelling well-drawn characters, rich plots, and an authorial voice that strikes the perfect balance between harshness and light, satire and empathy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Painful pleasure!
Vicious it is . . . and delightfully funny! It is also shrewd, witty and engrossing; and the title's pun is neatly executed. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Suzette A. Hill
Not quite on the money
Three stars might suggest it was O-Kayish, but I really loved reading it. The writing was so witty, entertaining and page turning it was a sheer delight to open the book. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Lovejoy
Worthy of the "modern Dickens" accolade
I have read and reread this book several times since I bought it in hardback when it was first published. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Alice Chalmers
A Keen Observing Eye
It's rare that one finds a novel that combines satire and serious thought as well as this. As a Cambridge graduate myself, I recognized many of the 'types' described in this novel,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Devour this Tale
I have long admired Amanda Craig's book reviews, and this year I have also had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with her fiction. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Quicksilver
An acid wit and sharp observations
Amanda Craig shows and amazing insight into the world of writing and publishing. A Vicious Circle is inhabited with journalists, literary agents, media moguls, editors and... Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2009 by Wynne Kelly
Witty, clever and compassionate.
A brilliant and sharply observed novel about competitive friendships and the world of arts journalism. Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2009 by Book -devourer
Amanda Craig is a national treasure
Surely it is only a matter of time before Amanda Craig gets the recognition she deserves for her wonderful novels, although I'm not sure her publisher has done her any favours by... Read more
Published on 6 Jun 2003 by C. Bones
A wonderful, wicked black comedy
As an author and long-time observer of the often hideous literary scene, I found this book both laugh-out-funny and squirmingly real! Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2002 by Sophie Masson
A modern 'Way We Live Now'
If you're put off by all the five stars and raves - don't be! I knew nothing about this book apart from other people's recommendations, but now I can't think why this hasn't been... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2002
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