- Paperback: 493 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; Open Market Ed edition (13 Nov 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 000655024X
- ISBN-13: 978-0006550242
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11.2 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,359,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'A book of brilliant energies, a comedy of enraged passions. Amis's writing shares the grandeur of the big American writers.' Malcolm Bradbury, The Times
‘No one can hold a candle to Martin Amis.’ Val Hennessy, Daily Mail
‘A funny, vicious portrait of literary London.’ Evening Standard
‘Any other writer would kill to reach this high style. Amis can stroll the heights at his leisure – the writing is on fire.’ Allison Pearson
‘Martin Amis is an iconic figure. He cracks out memorable sentences like a ringmaster in the circus of the grotesque. He is the good-looking bad guy of late-twentieth-century Eng Lit – faster on the phrase than any of the other inky cowboys on the streets.’ Melvyn Bragg
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Book Description
'No-one can hold a candle to Martin Amis' Daily Mail
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first time I read this, I hated it. It seemed self-indulgent, pointless, unrealistic, unbelievable, and far, far too long.
Now, several years later, spurred on by Amis's return to form with the wonderful "Experience", I thought I'd give it another try. And what a pleasant surprise. Yes, I stand by my claim that it is far too long. It could easily have lost 100 pages, and been much tighter and more exciting as a result. Otherwise, however, it is witty, clever, endlessly surprising and at times hysterically funny ("Unfortunately I am terminally ill").
Amis has always been a writer in love with language, and "The Information" sees him almost drowning in words. There are far too many of them. Far too many descriptions of clouds, planets, stars, seemingly endless sojourns with largely irrelevant low-life characters and their artlessly-depicted speech patterns. But just when you think he's lost it, he finds it, and you remember why there really is no one else quite like him. Certainly the rash of young male writers who rose to power after his golden age (from "Success" to "London Fields", inclusively) would kill to write half as well. Because when Amis is on form - and for about seventy five per cent of this, he is - then he remains untouchable. The story - a simple one - at times a ludicrously simple one - plays out over a background of hilarious failure (Richard Tull's) and irritating success (Gwyn Barry). The depiction of life at the farthest margins of London's literary scene ("The Little Magazine", The Tantalus Press) is hilarious and spot-on. The running gag of Richard's novel and its deleterious effect on its (very few) readers is hilarious. The vile Barry is perfectly drawn.
If only Amis had read none of the reviews of his last "major" work ("London Fields") all of which praised his melding of low and high culture to such a degree that it must have really gone to his head, forcing him to insert unnecessary scenes involving frankly unbelievable low-life (there is no one here to rival the amazing Keith Talent) who really have so little to do with the action, they might as well not be there at all.
Amis is a great writer. Perhaps he is even the best we have. This is not his best book, but it contains some of his best writing. It demands to be read.
Now, several years later, spurred on by Amis's return to form with the wonderful "Experience", I thought I'd give it another try. And what a pleasant surprise. Yes, I stand by my claim that it is far too long. It could easily have lost 100 pages, and been much tighter and more exciting as a result. Otherwise, however, it is witty, clever, endlessly surprising and at times hysterically funny ("Unfortunately I am terminally ill").
Amis has always been a writer in love with language, and "The Information" sees him almost drowning in words. There are far too many of them. Far too many descriptions of clouds, planets, stars, seemingly endless sojourns with largely irrelevant low-life characters and their artlessly-depicted speech patterns. But just when you think he's lost it, he finds it, and you remember why there really is no one else quite like him. Certainly the rash of young male writers who rose to power after his golden age (from "Success" to "London Fields", inclusively) would kill to write half as well. Because when Amis is on form - and for about seventy five per cent of this, he is - then he remains untouchable. The story - a simple one - at times a ludicrously simple one - plays out over a background of hilarious failure (Richard Tull's) and irritating success (Gwyn Barry). The depiction of life at the farthest margins of London's literary scene ("The Little Magazine", The Tantalus Press) is hilarious and spot-on. The running gag of Richard's novel and its deleterious effect on its (very few) readers is hilarious. The vile Barry is perfectly drawn.
If only Amis had read none of the reviews of his last "major" work ("London Fields") all of which praised his melding of low and high culture to such a degree that it must have really gone to his head, forcing him to insert unnecessary scenes involving frankly unbelievable low-life (there is no one here to rival the amazing Keith Talent) who really have so little to do with the action, they might as well not be there at all.
Amis is a great writer. Perhaps he is even the best we have. This is not his best book, but it contains some of his best writing. It demands to be read.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When you were at school and a certain kid always got the praise, the love, the admiration and the gold stars. Did you want to be him: or did you want to re-house the blackboard eraser, where only the Colonic experts at Guys Hospital, could dream of relocating it. The Information speaks of the traits in all of us, the once we don't have the nerve to acklowedge. Its a challenge but only because it twists like a eplileptic sea snake. Nice one Martin, keep them comming.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Information about The Information: it's a great book. Not Martin Amis's best (that's Money), but not too far off. This is essentially a darkly comic tragedy and a wry look at human vanity, jealousy and insecurity. Some of the writing is very, very funny indeed. Amis tackles the mid-life crisis full on, and the realization of mortality (and our place in the cosmic scheme of things) seems to underpin almost everything in the book. He also satirises the literary world to great effect, placing Richard Tull's demanding modernist fiction at one end of the scale, and Gwyn Barry's artless, clichéd 'trex' at the other. Then there are the running jokes about the effect of reading Richard's book on its (very few) readers, the endless biographies of minor literary figures that Tull is forced to review, and the humiliating ways authors are forced to promote and hype (thus cheapening) their wares.
Some people say this novel is too long. I like it this way, as the finely honed tragedy is allowed to unfold over a greater distance, this becoming even more pitiful and wretched. I would have been happy for a few more hundred pages. It's a wonderfully rich, sprawling work crammed with dazzlingly inventive sentences and ideas.
I have now read it twice and enjoyed it even more on the second go.
If you like Money and London Fields, you'll enjoy this.
Some people say this novel is too long. I like it this way, as the finely honed tragedy is allowed to unfold over a greater distance, this becoming even more pitiful and wretched. I would have been happy for a few more hundred pages. It's a wonderfully rich, sprawling work crammed with dazzlingly inventive sentences and ideas.
I have now read it twice and enjoyed it even more on the second go.
If you like Money and London Fields, you'll enjoy this.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
One star is pretty generous...
With all the good reviews I decided to try a Amis's The Information and I tried to like it, I really did but it was just too tedious. Read more
Published 1 day ago by aya
brilliant but wordy
This brilliant book is very funny, a wonderful satire of the publishing world through two writers, one a failed novelist insanely jealous of his highly successful friend. Read more
Published 22 months ago by P. Bird
The Unbearable Sameness of Amis...
Let me start by saying that Martin Amis is quite brilliant, intellectually that is. His work is multi-layered and you'll discover a word you've never seen before every few pages,... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2010 by Justice Peace
Low Life
Amis has an interest in seedy minor criminals. Morrissey has the same affliction. The characters here though are completely unconvincing and drag the story down whenever they... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2009 by Gargoyle
Laughter in the Dark
I truly enjoyed this sad and funny book, which explores the interaction between two old Oxford friends -- Richard Tull, a failed and impotent cult writer, and Gwyn Barry, a... Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2006 by Ethan Cooper
Not a masterpiece, but a lot better than most bestsellers.
Be warned: this book is not everybody's cup of tea. An appreciation of black, irreverent humour is absolutely essential if you want to enjoy this novel and it is no wonder that a... Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2002 by A. van Gelderen
This is why typewriters are manufactured
Leave English to the English. No North American could possibly produce such a rich, red wine novel: smoky, dark, giddiness-inducing.
But the subject is so perverse! Read more
Published on 5 July 2002 by Erin O'Brien
What a waste
Amis is a v talented writer - see Money, one of the best books of the twentieth century - but he's just throwing it away here. Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2001
This book made me laugh out loud on the Tube.
Amis is occassionally a little self-indulgent, but this is an hilarious read. It's full of insights into strands of English (and often specifically London) life, including the... Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2000
4 stars!
The Information focuses on two writers, Richard Tull and his 'oldest friend' Gwyn Barry. It's main theme is literary jealousy and the quest for The Universal. Read more
Published on 7 May 2000 by jules.is@popstar.com
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