- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; 1st Edition edition (1 Oct 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0224051261
- ISBN-13: 978-0224051262
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.6 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,492,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Heavy Water And Other Stories
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This collection of stories spans a period from 1975 to 1997, and is a good reflection of the range of Amis's writing. That writing is always skilful, and consistently seductive-- sometimes irritatingly so. Amis lures his reader into an intense interest in his characters, and then, in some unsettling way, encourages us to patronize or disparage them. It's an odd strategy, but it holds our attention. By making us uncomfortable about our own less admirable attitudes, Amis focuses us intently on his story line.
In "Coincidence of the Arts", Amis's targets are both the feckless painter Sir Rodney Peel, and the black doorman of his building and aspiring novelist Pharsin Courier, who turns to Peel for artistic encouragement. When Peel embarks on a curious sexual affair with a black waitress, it is sheer coincidence that she should turn out to be Pharsin's wife. The consequences reflect well on neither Peel nor Pharsin. In "State of England", we smirk knowingly at Big Mal, a bullshitting East Ender trying to sort out his life at his small son's sports day, but are nevertheless compelled to find out what will become of him. Familiar stories about obsessive bad sex like "Let Me Count the Times", have not stood the test of time, and Amis writes far too often about literary agents, aspiring novelists and spoilt bestsellers who surely only interest an inner coterie. Still, when he is on form, this is the short story at its best. --Lisa Jardine
Review
"Amis applies his comic timing, his perfect pitch and his curatorial eye to some of the burning issues of our time." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"Martin Amis is a force unto himself. . . . There is, quite simply, no one else like him." --"The Washington Post" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"Martin Amis is a force unto himself. . . . There is, quite simply, no one else like him." --"The Washington Post" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Martin Amis. His stories either seduce you or leave you cold. Here, in 'Heavy Water and Other Stories', even Amis's most eager fans will probably find something they don't like or don't understand. To balance this, however, they will also find here plenty to cherish and discuss for hours. And MY opinion?
Well, I felt pretty seduced by 'Career Move' (a story of bestselling poems and worstselling sci-fi pulp), 'Let Me Count the Times' (a story of a man having an affair with his hand) and 'Straight Fiction' (where straight people are perceived as a minority but finally start fighting for their rights) and such stories as 'What Happened To Me On My Holiday' (a child discovers what death is and tells us all about it using almost unreadable spelling) or 'Heavy Water' (to be honest, I didn't get this one - not even after the second reading) left me cold. Martin Amis is a writer whom I always liked but I'm still waiting for his book to OVERWHELM me - this collection of short stories is too uneven to be just that.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a fantastic collection of stories which range from funny comments on modern life to those where ordinary assumptions have been completely reversed resulting in thought provoking results. Well worth reading.
Format:Paperback
Some of these stories were great. Particularly Straight Fiction and the start of Let Me Count The Times which unfortunately descended into nonsense. Others were just ok. As for the final story which was written as if the narrator had some sort of sinus problem, I gave up after the first page because the spelling was just too bad to make it worth the effort.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
