- Unknown Binding: 206 pages
- Publisher: Knopf; 1st American ed edition (1976)
- ASIN: B0006CJ4YK
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Dead Babies
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Very different from anything else in his oeuvre. Far faster paced and much more richly comedic than his other early works (which it is one of - maybe the web site should show the first publication date of a book to put an authors output in "historical" context). Far less bloated and pretentious than his later works, the humour and social comment is "in your face" and all the more refreshing for it; it won't win literary prizes but it will make you laugh out load more than any other Amis work (Kingsley or Mart). "Dead Babies" is fast paced whilst delivering crackling comedy on every page. Much more exuberance than you expect from Mart, reflecting his youth (when he wrote it) and giving a true taste of how you behave when you are young and feel invulnerable, all of life, especially the seedier aspects, are there to be enjoyed. Revel in characters that are grotesque caricatures, relish farcical humour with a manic intensity. As a special bonus, although some of his common neuroses seep through (especially the teeth!), they prove humorous rather than the usual tedious / depressing.
Dead babies themselves are not really a feature of the novel - just in case the name was putting anyone off.
Any book where the two most sympathetic characters are (in order) a large grazing mammal and a grossly overweight sex obsessed dwarf has to be a bit different from your average novel.
Buy and read the version here but if you can (maybe Amazon's out of print book find feature will help you - unfortunatelylet you. Find the old version (unfortunately not the cover shown on the reissue version Web page) and the paperback cover illustration may offend people / cause shady characters to come up to you offering various substances for sale - maybe Amazon's out of print book find feature will let you.
One drawback of this book is that without a certain cultural perspective / certain life experiences then a lot of the nuances can easily remain unappreciated (still that sentence holds true for most books).
Personally I don't find it shocking or offensive, you need a very narrow view of life or a humour bypass to be offended by this book - if it offends you have not really understood the joke, however if you are of a frail mental disposition read the warning below and avoid pain: Avoid this book if you have a phobia of dentists, worry about the dangers of tight shoes, dislike drugs, are offended by sex, physical cruelty, mental cruelty, dwarf abuse, self abuse or bovine abuse.
If you wake up and think; I fancy hot knives for breakfast/ time for a quick Sherman/ who's room is this/ who am I/ what did I do last night/ where did all that blood come from / I'm sure it wasn't septic yesterday/ Oh joy a visit to the dentist today/ 3 PM - still a bit early to get out of bed/ where are my Rizlas ... etc then you will probably quite enjoy this book.
Depending on which aspects of Martin Amis you most prefer then "Dead Babies" will either be your favorite or the most loathed of his works, I certainly "know what I like" - if I could only own one book by Mart this would be it.
FEEL FREE TO EDIT THIS TO FIT YOUR REVIEW GUIDELINES, ASPECTS OF THIS REVIEW ARE WRITTEN WITHIN THE SPIRIT OF THE BOOK BUT MAY BE REMOVED IF DEEMED OFFENSIVE
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Some 15 years before Bret Easton Ellis caused controversy with his book, "American Psycho", about loveless sex, hard drugs and bloody slaughter amoung the young and well-heeled, Martin Amis was covering similar ground with this early novel about a group of jaded, emotionally stunted nihilists who live in a castle inherited from rich, but otherwise despised parents, and spend their time indulging in hard drugs, porn and orgies - and the occassional philosophical debate - little realising that one of them is a deranged killer, who could snap at any minute.
At first the tone is one of black comedy as we meet the residents of Appleseed Rectory including Quentin, the urbane host, Andy, a casual misogynist, Giles, (Amis' alter-ego) entirely consumed by an obsession with teeth, Lucy, a good-natured whore and Keith, a frustrated, self-pitying dwarf and resident dogsbody. But after some American guests come to stay for the weekend, the novel starts to take on a darker tone as, one by one, the Appleseeder's begin to receive a series of disturbingly twisted letters which seem to pin-point their most deeply hidden fears. The notes are ominously signed "Johnny". Who in the house is "Johnny"? Amis keeps you guessing until the bloody end, and the way his identity is revealed is brilliantly effective and truely frightening.
Written in the mid-70's, "Dead Babies" reflects a time when the spaced out optimism of the swinging '60's was turning sour. The ideologies of love and peace had become to be seen as empty-headed mush - the very term "hippie" a term of abuse - and the time was right for the angry nihilism of punk, which was just around the corner. This atmosphere is reflected in the book and it hasn't mellowed with time. Apparantly there is set to be a film made of the book - after years of failed attempts. If faithful to the book, it's got all the makings of a rare darkly comic cult British movie.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
`Dead Babies' has to be one of the most off putting titles of a book that I can think of, though undoubtedly there are some other horrors out there. The image it instantly brings you isn't pleasant; there are no dead babies actually in the book though I can report there are some decidedly unpleasant characters. The premise of Martin Amis' second novel, originally published in 1975, is that a group of friends are in a house on the more rural outskirts of London for a weekend of drug and sex filled chaos with some American friends arriving in tow. Somewhere in the midst of this a mysterious character `Johnny' is causing an unsettling feeling through the group, already beyond paranoid from their concoctions, by leaving evil messages and gifts. That pretty much sums up the book without giving anything away.
In writing about the book like that it doesn't sound like its really anything special and unfortunately in some ways it isn't. However I think that is because having read books later published such as Irvine Welsh's `Trainspotting' and the horrifically brilliant `American Psycho' by Brett Easton Ellis the book doesn't read as being as original as it perhaps was at the time, though in the 70's there was a wave of this sort of fiction. What separates it from those other books is a mixture of humour and character history. They are all vile but you find out why, even if on occasion the reasoning behind their mental states is slightly contrived. However, with characters like Giles Coldstream who is obsessed with teeth and the vile and appalling - yet strangely likeable - Keith who when he takes his clothes off makes people vomit and their backgrounds you do find you want to read on.
What really works in `Dead Babies', and makes this an accessible Amis book to my mind, is the humour, because in laughing your head of you do get through some pretty horrific people and their goings on without ever hating the book. I find authors who can write a book with vile lead characters like this and yet make the book enjoyable a rare breed and `Dead Babies' should be applauded for that. I did feel like this was a book set to shock and therefore sell though and despite my personal feelings on Amis (both the pro's and the con's) I did think he was maybe cleverer than that. I also, though I liked it and it creeped me out, didn't see the relevance of the `Johnny' storyline other than purely a plot device to make the book longer and make the reader carry on. That being said I finished it, which was a feat in itself both due to my prior reading of Amis. Plus despite the fact it gets quite uncomfortable amid the tears of laughter in parts its left me open to reading more of his work in the future, especially knowing that Keith Whitehead features in his new book `The Pregnant Widow'.
In writing about the book like that it doesn't sound like its really anything special and unfortunately in some ways it isn't. However I think that is because having read books later published such as Irvine Welsh's `Trainspotting' and the horrifically brilliant `American Psycho' by Brett Easton Ellis the book doesn't read as being as original as it perhaps was at the time, though in the 70's there was a wave of this sort of fiction. What separates it from those other books is a mixture of humour and character history. They are all vile but you find out why, even if on occasion the reasoning behind their mental states is slightly contrived. However, with characters like Giles Coldstream who is obsessed with teeth and the vile and appalling - yet strangely likeable - Keith who when he takes his clothes off makes people vomit and their backgrounds you do find you want to read on.
What really works in `Dead Babies', and makes this an accessible Amis book to my mind, is the humour, because in laughing your head of you do get through some pretty horrific people and their goings on without ever hating the book. I find authors who can write a book with vile lead characters like this and yet make the book enjoyable a rare breed and `Dead Babies' should be applauded for that. I did feel like this was a book set to shock and therefore sell though and despite my personal feelings on Amis (both the pro's and the con's) I did think he was maybe cleverer than that. I also, though I liked it and it creeped me out, didn't see the relevance of the `Johnny' storyline other than purely a plot device to make the book longer and make the reader carry on. That being said I finished it, which was a feat in itself both due to my prior reading of Amis. Plus despite the fact it gets quite uncomfortable amid the tears of laughter in parts its left me open to reading more of his work in the future, especially knowing that Keith Whitehead features in his new book `The Pregnant Widow'.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good grief!
Not for the faint hearted, the shortest Amis Jr book I've read but the one which took the most stamina! Perhaps I should have guessed from the title.... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2009 by Elaine Sivyer
Mordant wit abounds
In Amis' second novel, his repellent cast of drug users, sexual deviants and sociopaths spends a weekend at Appleseed Rectory that would have shamed Bacchus. Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2007 by Madly Bobbington-Blythe
scarily engrossing
this book's subject material is not something that would ordinarily have interested me. however, amis' style of writing is so completely phenomonal i could not put it down. Read more
Published on 8 Sep 2004 by "sal_5522"
Street Sadness...
Martin Amis is at his (unparalleled) best when unleashing his pen on his most obnoxious, repellent characters: Keith Flint, Gwen Barry... Read more
Published on 26 Sep 2002 by Simon Brandon
Don't be put off by hippies bearing drugs
Dead Babies lay on my bookshelf for months, gathering dust - everytime I scanned the shelves in search of an unread volume I always seemed to skip this book in favour of a later... Read more
Published on 9 April 2002
Hard-hitting
In Amis's own words his father, Kingsley, disapproved of his son's second book. Probably quite easy to see why; I don't think my Dad would be that chuffed if I offered up something... Read more
Published on 1 Oct 2001
euurgh!
I hate this book. Really hated it. Wouldn't have finished it if it hadn't been so short. It's mean and petty and childish without managing to be funny. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2001
Lean, Mean and Viscously Well-organized
Here's Martin in his youthful, super-economical mode. The thing is as heartless and elegant as a Keith Richard's riff. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2000
Still able to shock...
Concerned with events that took place a quarter of a century ago, this book does initially seem a little dated. Read more
Published on 9 May 2000
excellent conclusion but .......
After reading Money I was a little disappointed with this offering. But the ending is superb and one or two of the characters are real stand outs, especially Keith the dwarf.
Published on 13 Jan 2000
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