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| The War Against Cliche: Essay's and Reviews 1971-2000 (Talk Miramax Books)
Hardcover
Author: Martin Amis
Publisher: Miramax Books
Release Date: November 2001
ISBN-10: 0786866748
ISBN-13: 9780786866748
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
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
Martin's War Against Reason
| Customer Rating:  | First, let me say that there is much about this collection of (mostly) literary criticism that will amuse the average reader. Not many of us are above the guilty pleasure of seeing easy targets being taken out. Amis, the premier have-a-go merchant of the English book world, is quite good at pinning easy targets and he does so here with considerable gusto, casting his penetrating critical eye over such literary heavyweights as Michael Crichton and Thomas Harris. He also takes a look at a cheap Elvis biography and the very silly `90s bestseller Iron John. So far, so good.
He gives quite favourable reviews to works by the likes of Don De Lillo, Iris Murdoch, Philip Roth and Kurt Vonnegut, and spars with older brawlers such as Anthony Burgess and Norman Mailer. Fair enough.
There is a bit of sucking up to Saul Bellow, an unsubstantiated swipe at Samuel Beckett, and a cursory glance at Kafka. Ok then.
The central piece, however, concerns Joyce's Ulysses. Amis can't handle Ulysses, and he more or less admits as much. He also confesses Joyce's genius, but then proceeds to compare the great maverick to a "teacher's pet", dismissing his work as "not reader-friendly". (What type of reader does he mean? The Crichton reader? The tabloid newspaper reader?) He goes on to place Nabakov - yes, Nabakov - ahead of Joyce in the literary pile, a bit like placing Henry Mancini ahead of Mozart. It's all a little bit baffling, except of course when one considers how paralysing and envied a presence Joyce is for contemporary novelists of a certain ilk. As for Amis himself, I'd say the role of Salieri is a snug fit. Exeunt!
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Ere, its me again
| Customer Rating: | | 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'? Sorry Mr Amis if you ever get to read this, i liked it. I must have had a hangover or something. |
wake up English writers!
| Customer Rating: | | 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...could do without the Murdoch section,but still am encouraged to read this author I`ve tried to get into before...the bits about chess etc only pale because they are alongside such brilliant criticism. Rushing out to get all James Joyce,Don Delillo and Bellow`s `Augie March` due to his criticism. Hell,even Philip Larkin comes across as a genius. Sumptuous! |
sublime
| Customer Rating: | | 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, nappy in one hand, pack of tarot cards in the other), and amusingly critical of his youthful self (he lambasted a new collection of Coleridge's work without bothering to thoroughly acquaint himself with its contents). i didn't agree with all of his 'findings'. while Amis makes an excellent case for the undeniable stylistic mastery of Bellow's 'The Adventures of Augie March', he doesn't acknowledge the rambling nature of the book, the great lists of characters that are wheeled on and off all the time so that the reader struggles to remember anyone but the narrator and his brother, the boring avuncular tone. overall - leaves other literary critics fumbling with their trainers in the starting blocks while he's already run the race, picked up the medal, and is taking his shower in the changing rooms. |
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