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Amazon.co.uk Review
At one point in this remarkable book, Martin Amis refers to a phrase he coined in a 1983 newspaper piece on Saul Bellow. "Higher autobiography", intended to convey a fork taken by late 20th century literature, lingers on the palate long after the final page, awash with pictures of his various children. He is no longer "the kid", as Bellow puts it to him after the death of father Kingsley in 1995, and this generational shift is sharply in evidence within the quietly smouldering pages of Experience. Shunning orthodox chronology for more satisfying linearity, Amis explores the issues that have dogged his life and his reputation for too long. Though he is angry--mostly with the English media--the tone of the book is one of patient memorial and reconciliation, with most obviously Kingsley, and his own manifestations, but also with his "missing"--the cousin, Lucy Partington, a victim of Fred West's "prepotence", and the daughter, Delilah, by an earlier relationship. Gossip column titbits are confronted head-on: divorce, the change of literary agent, the falling-out with Julian Barnes, the row with Kingsley's biographer Eric Jacobs and, of course, the Teeth (actually deserving of a full set of capitals; the hardest heart would flinch and whimper at the reconstructive surgery he endured, ignorantly disparaged as "cosmetic").

The revelation of the book, however, lies in the body of the book, in its weave and stitching. Copious footnotes adorn most pages, not digressive but novelistically collusive to a self-defeating desire to "speak without artifice". A book of love, it is also one of the funniest books ever to wear the cloak of death and mortality so constantly. Money was a novel, says Amis, about "the fear that childlessness will condemn you to childishness". This volume, about how many people leave a room compared to entering it--to quote a recurrent theme--exorcises that particular fear, and a more general dread that has perpetually haunted his prose. Experience, pitched between his splendid journalism and his fiction, is a wake-up call to those who have too easily dismissed his work. It is a considerable, haunting work. --David Vincent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
Martin Amis is perhaps the most gifted and innovative novelist of his generation. His prose refashions the English language into a lean and brilliant instrument, dazzling readers with its energy and wit. His novels and short stories chart a world that is uniquely his: as John Updike puts it, ‘Amis is trying to construct a large, reaching, ambitious set of books – trying to cover the world in fiction’. His celebrity as a novelist is also unique – few writers have attracted such obsessive media attention. In this much anticipated memoir, Amis writes with striking candour about his life and looks intimately at the process of writing itself.As the son of a famous writer, the great comic novelist Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis explores his relationship with his father and writes about the various crises of Kingsley’s life, including the final crisis of his death. Amis also examines the case of his cousin, Lucy Partington, who disappeared without trace in 1973 (a month afte! r the publication of his first novel), and was exhumed in 1994 from the back garden of Frederick West, Britain’s most prolific serial killer. Inevitably, too, the memoir records the changing literary scene in Britain and the United States, with many anecdotes and pen-portraits.The result is a remarkable work of autobiography – profound, witty, and ruthlessly honest. As a writer’s self-portrait, it is destined to become a classic of its kind. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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20 Reviews 5 star:  (11) 4 star:  (4) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:  (2)           Average Customer Review (20 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   8 of 9 people found the following review helpful: Songs of innocence & experience, 19 May 2002 By  "gummo_marx" - See all my reviews Experience is great read. It is a very selective and stylised autobiographical memoir, with a haunted look about it, and surprisingly humble. After reading it you wish that Kinglsey Amis could come back to life, such is the warm, flawed human portrait drawn of him in the book. I like Experience so much that I keep my copy of it on the bedside table, and reread it in a loop. The bit where a beer can sprays beer over Kingsley is my favourie scene. My only complaint would be that Martin Amis uses too many words like "infarction", "ablution" and "bathetic". I think the book would have been just as good (better, even?) if it had been written in good old ordinary words like "lump", "washing" and "high-falluting". But hey, I have a low IQ so please excuse my episteme! This book is top quality. Buy Two copies in case you lose one!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   6 of 7 people found the following review helpful: Hard work for a lazy reader but worth it, 5 Oct 2001 By A Customer I borrowed this book from the library and am now buying it because I want it on my bookshelf. I'm one of those readers who trips over themselves trying to get to the end of the paragraph before finishing the beginning. Consequently the footnotes and dense prose of this book had me working very hard indeed but it was so worth it. I found it extremely moving and surprisingly humble. Perhaps he bangs on about his teeth too much but, as someone who has experienced the trauma of extensive dental work, I can understand how it can permeate all conscious thought and experience. I've always been very fond of both Martin & (more so) Kingsley Amis' work but have been slightly uncomfortable about their more hard-boiled attitudes and their misogyny. However, I can generally forgive people most things if they make me laugh and this book is also very witty. Like his father, Martin Amis' writing can make you cackle/snort out loud and, most importantly, forget the tedious tube/train journey you're taking.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   6 of 7 people found the following review helpful: A remarkable and truthful memoir that should dispel previous, 6 May 2001 By