Gregory's life is a series of effortless conquests. Sister, employers, acquaintances are but co-stars among a cast of thousands to have passed through his bed. His foster-brother, Terry, has to make do with the leavings as he pursues his own existence of squalid mediocrity. But roles are reversed.
Success
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Review
"Beautifully constructed to make a coherent, powerful and still fairly unusual statement about changing English society" (Evening Standard )
"An instantly recognizable voice, penetrating, loquacious, slightly hysterical, upsetting, rising above the basso pseudo-profundo babble of his competitors like filed fingernails scraping down glass - Martin Amis is a dazzling phrasemaker" (Sunday Times )
"Amis pulls off his literary feat with panache" (James Buchan Spectator ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"An instantly recognizable voice, penetrating, loquacious, slightly hysterical, upsetting, rising above the basso pseudo-profundo babble of his competitors like filed fingernails scraping down glass - Martin Amis is a dazzling phrasemaker" (Sunday Times )
"Amis pulls off his literary feat with panache" (James Buchan Spectator ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
'A terrifying, painfully funny Swiftian exercise in moral disgust' Observer (20030924)
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm not an unswerving Amis fan - there are definitely longeurs in many of his longer novels and his use of repetition and stereotyping sometimes fall flat i.m.h.o.- but this is an amazingly tight, verbally dextrous masterpiece. Neither Gregory or Terry's voices are meant to be taken 100% literally, or as giving the direct views of Martin Amis - we're inside their minds, with all the misconceptions, prejudices and self-delusions they're burdened with. The differences between what these two unreliable narrators report about events, places and conversations are pointed and revealing, and while for much of the book we see them as grotesques, this is in fact how they view themselves, the reports of their own inner voices, and they are not static characters but evolve throughout. What I love about this work, apart from Amis's dazzling powers of originality in language, and Gregory's masterclass in snobbery, is that by the (hugely poignant) ending the reader's sympathies and expectations have been completely and expertly warped round. Anyone looking for a comforting, intellectually bankrupt, politically correct read that's chewing gum for the mind need not pick this up - but if you want to cackle out loud and be challenged and amazed by a master of language then get stuck in at once.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By ice cream
Format:Paperback
I just finished reading "success" and I liked it. It is quite dark but not disturbing. I didnt feel any sympathy for any of the characters but unusally enough that didnt matter! Its a beautifully written piece and an easy read.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Morris
Format:Paperback
I read this book a few years ago, and have just picked it up again.
It really is rather good.
London is portrayed wonderfully, its grime, its perculiarities, its downright strangeness (I am currently suffering withdrawal systomes, being based on the Cote d'Azur, so this is especially appealing to me).
The writing is sharp, it's funny, it's just plain good.
Amis disects the British class system with painfully accuracy.
I would recommend the novel 'Money' to anyone who enjoyed 'success'.
I may be going 'tonto'...
As Keith Talent might say... 'Nice Darts'.
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3.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Narrative perspective effectively questioned.-
Not read for many a year, but really upsetting when it was first read. 1980?!
We all put up fronts as societal people . Read more
We all put up fronts as societal people . Read more
Published 4 months ago by D. E. Pawson
5.0 out of 5 stars
An oldie but a greaty
This is one of the funniest and most heartbreaking novels I've ever read. I've read it three times. I've read all of Amis' work, and while I realize that Money, London Fields, and... Read more
Published 23 months ago by William Clifford Smeal
4.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful writer
This book is wonderful - everything a modern novel should be - easy to read, fast-paced and edgy. And this from a reader who loves Anne Tyuler's work and not used to sex dribbling... Read more
Published on 26 July 2010 by P. Bird
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great prose style but disappointing story.
This was my first experience of Martin Amis's work and I have to say that I really enjoyed the prose style and his love of language. Read more
Published on 8 July 2009 by Script Angel
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable Read
This is the first Martin Amis book I have read which I picked up due to being recommended in print by another writer, I must say I have enjoyed this book. Read more
Published on 23 July 2008 by Jen
1.0 out of 5 stars
I really wanted to like this book.
Reading through Kingsley Amis's letters, you find he hated his son's novels. If the rest of them are anything like this, you can see why. This is unreadable. Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creepy, but wonderfully well-read by Neil Conrich
A journey of despair and social climbing as told by step-brothers. At times macabre, then hilariously funny. Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Criminally Undrerrated Classic from the Genuius of BritLit
Martin Amis's "Success" is a brilliant and witty examination of the urban male psyche. Told over the space of one year in dual narrative, by adoptive brothers, Amis's... Read more
Published on 29 July 2001 by "gummo_marx"
1.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your money.
A pointless story with unsympathetic characters. I don't even know how I managed to finish this. Save your money and buy a Julian Barnes book instead.
Published on 23 Mar 2001 by Martin Lowe
1.0 out of 5 stars
A awful, plotless, soul-less book. Real pulp.
This is, in all honesty and with no trace of bias since i do like M.Amis's prose, a very very heatless, aimless, and dissapointing book. Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2000 by "gosibro"
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