- Hardcover: 424 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan (16 May 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 140505462X
- ISBN-13: 978-1405054621
- Product Dimensions: 16.1 x 23.9 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 887,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Spectator
'Powell entertainingly rehearses the boozing and infidelity and he is shrewd and persuasive in ranking Kingsley's novels...'
Sunday Telegraph
'Powell is extremely sharp about the fault-lines that ran through Kingsley Amis's character...'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Amis & Son is a well-crafted book about messrs Kingsley and Martin, and just as much about the times they live (or in Kingsley's case lived) in. It is not a proper biography (and never says that it is), but includes bits of biography, bits of literary criticism, and bits of personal opinions about both the individuals and their work. It must be said that the part about Kingsley is longer, more readable and more charitable than the part about Martin. It is eminently clear that Powell enjoys Kingsley's work, and (incidentally just like Kingsley) simply does not get Martin's (he admits so himself). Even though I am a big fan of Martin Amis - as well as of Kingsley for that matter - I still found myself nodding approvingly when Powell appraised the younger Amis's literary quirks. I found Powell's objections both relevant and reasonable, but they are not counterbalanced by a discussion about his (to me) evident strengths. Now, if Powell cannot see any such strengths, he should of course not invent them for the sake of impossible impartiality. The problem, to me, is that I can almost see Powell's frustrated shrug of the shoulders, and the subsequent cutting of pre-planned Martin Amis chapters, to be rid of the thing. This creates a central imbalance in the book that detracted from the reading experience. I hasten to add, that I would still buy it on the strength of the Kingsley portrait alone, and would then consider bits of the Martin "literary review" as a most welcome bonus.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Really bizarre. 75% of this is a plodding, chronological survey of Kingsley's life and work. With every publication along the way the text breaks off to provide a 2-3 page synopsis, some (mostly negative) lit crit, and then lurches on with the biographical stuff.
The title is "Amis and Son", and yet during the Kingsley bit (i.e. most of the book) Martin's existence is barely mentioned, let alone his work considered. There is certainly nothing on what we want and what the title and blurb promise, i.e. the relationshp between the two men and how they influenced each other's life, work.
Then when we reach Kingsley's death the chronology of the book is yanked back to Martin's birth and we're off again into the same lit-biog plod. Martin's bit is shorter, though. Fewer books, see. I also suspect it's because the Martin bit is tagged on the end as a way of flogging what would otherwise be an utterly inessential survey of a (these days) largely overlooked and unrated writer.
What's so odd, though, is how little the author likes both the Amises and their books. And his attitude to Martin is weirdly competitive. There's quite a bit about how they are peers, and some first person plural references to the two of them (Martin and the author), despite there being no evident relationship. This whole thing is then peppered with point-scoring about Martin's style, his lack of experience of real life, etc. Really tellingly, the illustrations the author gives from Martin's work then demonstrate how lively and funny his writing is despite (and sometimes because of) what the author is belly-aching about. They're the best bits of this mean-spirited and strange book.
Read "Experience", read Kingsley's letters (and Larkin's to him). Don't read this.
The title is "Amis and Son", and yet during the Kingsley bit (i.e. most of the book) Martin's existence is barely mentioned, let alone his work considered. There is certainly nothing on what we want and what the title and blurb promise, i.e. the relationshp between the two men and how they influenced each other's life, work.
Then when we reach Kingsley's death the chronology of the book is yanked back to Martin's birth and we're off again into the same lit-biog plod. Martin's bit is shorter, though. Fewer books, see. I also suspect it's because the Martin bit is tagged on the end as a way of flogging what would otherwise be an utterly inessential survey of a (these days) largely overlooked and unrated writer.
What's so odd, though, is how little the author likes both the Amises and their books. And his attitude to Martin is weirdly competitive. There's quite a bit about how they are peers, and some first person plural references to the two of them (Martin and the author), despite there being no evident relationship. This whole thing is then peppered with point-scoring about Martin's style, his lack of experience of real life, etc. Really tellingly, the illustrations the author gives from Martin's work then demonstrate how lively and funny his writing is despite (and sometimes because of) what the author is belly-aching about. They're the best bits of this mean-spirited and strange book.
Read "Experience", read Kingsley's letters (and Larkin's to him). Don't read this.
Format:Paperback
The tone of this book is remarkably like that of my astute grammar school English teacher who recommended "Lucky Jim" to us in 1963. Astute and necessary. I was born in '48, so that helping of the 20th Century days was familiar to me too.
It's hard to admit to a taste for the writing of either Amis in mixed company, but I've enjoyed everything Amis pere ever wrote, and admire Martin Amis' "Other People" and share his taste for the wordhound Nabokov.
The word processor used in composing the book let down both writer and copy editor on occasion, but that's nothing new.
It's hard to admit to a taste for the writing of either Amis in mixed company, but I've enjoyed everything Amis pere ever wrote, and admire Martin Amis' "Other People" and share his taste for the wordhound Nabokov.
The word processor used in composing the book let down both writer and copy editor on occasion, but that's nothing new.
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