The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In Martin Amis's War Against Cliché, a selection of critical essays and reviews published between 1971 and 2000, he establishes himself as one of the fiercest critics and commentators on the literature and culture of the late 20th century. (He has already established himself as one of the most controversial and original novelists writing in English with novels such as Money and Time's Arrow). In his "Foreword" Amis ruefully admits that his earlier reviews reveal a rather humourless attitude towards the "Literature and Society" debate of the time. Yet this only adds to the fascination of the collection, as Amis gradually finds his critical voice in the 1980s, confirming his passionate belief that "all writing is a campaign against cliché". In the subsequent sections of the book this war leads to some wonderfully cutting and amusing responses to whatever crosses his path, from books on chess and nuclear proliferation to the novels of his hero Vladimir Nabokov and Cervantes' Don Quixote. Praise for his literary heroes is often fulsome--JG Ballard's High-Rise "is an intense and vivid bestiary, which lingers in the mind and chronically disquiets it"--but his literary wrath is also devastating in its incisiveness. Thomas Harris's Hannibal is dismissed as "a novel of such profound and virtuoso vulgarity", whilst John Fowles is attacked because "he sweetens the pill: but the pill was saccharine all along". Often frank in its reappraisals (Amis conceded to being too hard on Ballard's Crash when reviewing the film many years later), some of the best writing is reserved for his journalism on sex manuals, chess and his beloved football. War Against Cliché will provoke strong reactions, but that only seems to confirm, rather than deny the value of Amis' writing. --Jerry Brotton
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
"Irresistible. . . . The man's a genius with words. . . . Whatever Amis has to say about a book or a writer seems just right--and lip smackingly phrased." --"The Washington Post
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"Brilliant prose. . . .[Amis] proselytizes for talent by demonstrating it, by doing it. . . . He is a master." -"The New York Times Book Review"
"Whatever the book, there is no one whose review of it you'd rather read than Amis's. His prose is always buzzing, so much so that he doesn't just review books, he rewrites them." --"San Francisco Chronicle"
"[Written] with intelligence and ardor and panache. . . . Speaks not just to a lifetime of reading but also to a fascination with individual writers mature." --"The New York Times"
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"Brilliant prose. . . .[Amis] proselytizes for talent by demonstrating it, by doing it. . . . He is a master." -"The New York Times Book Review"
"Whatever the book, there is no one whose review of it you'd rather read than Amis's. His prose is always buzzing, so much so that he doesn't just review books, he rewrites them." --"San Francisco Chronicle"
"[Written] with intelligence and ardor and panache. . . . Speaks not just to a lifetime of reading but also to a fascination with individual writers mature." --"The New York Times"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is a man, says Amis, who has succeeded Coleridge as having read every book in the world. No mean feat, considering the poet only had to contend with perhaps a fraction of books now extant. Of course, Amis is exaggerating. However, in this collection of literary criticism cribbed from nearly thirty years of book reviews and essays, Martin Amis certainly gives the impression that he has had a pretty good stab himself.
Although the collection is perhaps over-egged with pieces on his beloved Nabokov and Saul Bellow, there are highly entertaining critiques on works by Joyce and Murdoch, Philip Roth and John Updike.
A must for anyone who likes highly-charged articulate writing, and for Amis fans, this book will only make their hunger for that new novel even keener.
Although the collection is perhaps over-egged with pieces on his beloved Nabokov and Saul Bellow, there are highly entertaining critiques on works by Joyce and Murdoch, Philip Roth and John Updike.
A must for anyone who likes highly-charged articulate writing, and for Amis fans, this book will only make their hunger for that new novel even keener.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'd read some rather snotty reviews of this book in the literary sections of the UK press. They are all wrong - the book is a delight. Whether its Malcolm Allison and Martin Chivers or Philip Roth and John Updike (now who did they play for?) Amis if full of elegant insights into literature and modern living. It also contains the best essay I've read on the trouble with James Joyce's Ulysses. Indeed this essay and the writings on Nabokov reveal his real preferences in great writing - which I'd interpret as artistry and truth combined with warm humanity and humour.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dubbed "Smarty Marty" years ago when his writing ability seemed in advance of his years, it would be good to think that the title has lost the mocking tone that it had previously. Martin Amis really is smart and appears to have read just about every book in - and out of - the Leavis canon of "Great Literature".
He employs his wide range of analytical tools to review the obsessions of authors such as Bellow, Updike, Nabokov and Murdoch and in the process takes the reader on an extraordinary voyage of discovery.
Highly recommended for anyone has the most remote interest in literature or popular culture.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Martin at his best
Martin Amis was an excellent journalist and this volume of essays spanning three decades proves it. One can be - and I am - sceptical about the merits of some of his novels, but... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Andrew Ross
The War Against Cliché
This superb anthology of Mart's non-fiction essays is never hard-going, and is always entertaining. The man's style is such a pleasure to read, regardless of what he writes about... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2010 by Dave Gilmour's cat
Bad Writer, Great Reviewer
Anyone unfortunate enough to have read Martin Amis's fiction could be easily forgiven for deciding never again to pick up anything with his name on the front. Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2009 by Mr. B. Hammond
Martin's War Against Reason
First, let me say that there is much about this collection of (mostly) literary criticism that will amuse the average reader. Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2008 by Miracle
Ere, its me again
I've just looked up this book again, and i can't believe no-one has written a review since i did over two years ago! What was i talking about 'chapters of what we don't want'? Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2003 by "youjustmightlikeit"
wake up English writers!
Amis IS English literature right now. Fact. Nobody is covering as much ground as him,is more skilled with the craft,and still flying the flag of literary passion... Read more
Published on 22 May 2003 by barry ledgister
sublime
perhaps the funniest, most acutely perceptive book i've ever read. Amis is excellent on style, wide-ranging in scope (early on, we have the unforgettable depiction of the new man,... Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2003 by I. J. Mclachlan
Impressive
As i say, impressive, but i was left wanting more from 'Mart'. The criticism in the book is just that, nothing more, it was like reading a series of exam essays written by a very... Read more
Published on 13 July 2001
Incisive and original
Amis has a remarkably penetrating eye for cant and a peerless ear for bad writing. He stalks big game, and comes back with some impressive scalps. Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2001
A war well worth fighting
Whether defending Larkin against posthumous dirt-digging or reawakening the reader to the literary talents of DeLillo, Updike and Nabokov, this collection of reviews is... Read more
Published on 11 May 2001 by steveh@brunnings.co.uk
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