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From Publishers Weekly
The big book on this new publisher's first list is an occasionally combative but more often sweet-natured account of a literary life with an extraordinary father. Even by English standards Kingsley Amis, whom his son rightly sees as the finest comic novelist of his generation, was a highly eccentric figure: a man who loved women in the flesh as much as he appeared to disapprove of them in principle, an alcoholic who managed to create a large body of clear-headed work, a man who couldn't bear to be alone in a house at night, but whose mastery of invective was second to noneAa difficult man to live with, it would seem, yet here recalled by Martin in the most fond and generous terms. The book revolves around a small group of seminal figures in Amis's life: his father; Saul Bellow, whom he seems to have adopted as a father figure; his young cousin Lucy Partington, who disappeared in 1973 and was later found to have been a victim of child-killer Frederick West; and longtime friend Christopher Hitchens. The controversial elements in his life aren't glossed over: the so-called cosmetic dentistry, about which the press so gloated at the time of Amis's parting from his previous agent for a larger book deal through Andrew Wylie, is shown to have been an attempt to correct, with extensive and painful surgery, a long-neglected condition of his teeth and jaw. His belated discovery of a previously unknown daughter is described with eloquent sweetness, and the account of the squabble with Kingsley's biographer, Eric Jacobs, over an account of the novelist's last days he gave to English newspapers is rendered more in sorrow than anger. There seems no doubt that a certain pugnaciousness in Amis has led to perplexingly hostile behavior toward him by the English press; it will be interesting to see how this candid, often funny and far from arrogant book will be treated there. B&W photos. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Following in the steps of Christopher Dickey (Summer of Deliverance; LJ 7/98) and V.S. Naipaul (Between Father and Son, LJ 1/00), Amis offers another portrait of the sometimes troubled, often poignant relationship between a writer son and his writer father. The younger Amis (The Information) chronicles father Kingsley!s (Lucky Jim) drunken debauches, his parents! marriage and subsequent remarriages, and the grimness of Kingsley!s final days. But Amis also weaves into his narrative accounts of his own failed first marriage, relationships with his children, friendship with Saul Bellow, and coming to terms with the disappearance and death of his cousin. In addition, Amis details his well-publicized dental nightmares and his falling out with novelist Julian Barnes. Though passages describing his relationship with his father are very moving, the rest of the book descends into a sophomoric and sometimes self-important exercise in namedropping and name calling. The book will appeal to fans of father and son and is recommended for large libraries and libraries where the two are popular."Henry Carrigan, Lancaster, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Muddling Through LIfe's Many Woes,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Experience: A Memoir (Paperback)
There are a number of aspects of Martin Amis' memoir, "Experience" that make for both a difficult and terrific read. One, the structure is multi-layered. It covers parts of his life as parallel strands that require close following and working out together over time. As one can well imagine, Amis's life is not easy to follow, given the complexities of his famous father's life. His issues with his dad (Kingsley), money, death, friendship, love, children, and his career are constantly presently new faces and challenges at every turn in the road of life. Two, his use of copious footnotes to back up the storyline is often daring and puzzling. While they allow the reader a unique glimpse inside the Amis mind, they disrupt the potential momentum the book has going for it. It is almost as if Amis wants his readers to chug through this book in tedious fashion to fully appreciate the painful moments in his own life. Three, the scope of this work is enormous, breath-taking and filled with all kinds of little half-finished rabbit chases that are picked up unexpectedly at some later point in the story. I found that Amis started to hit his stride only when enough of the pieces of his life fell into place and he began to discover what he calls the Joycian inadvertancy of life. There is no set plan or pattern as to how one's life is meant to look except that which is formed by living and experiencing both its fortunes and outrages. This study is a very persistant attempt to undertand the metaphysical forces that shape life and prepare us inevitably for our own mortality. I enjoyed immensely Amis' effort to bring into play a wealth of personal connections he had with literary giants like Larkin and Leavis. In the end, Amis, the young Turk of post-modern British literature who initially rebelled against everything his curmudgeon of a father stood for, becomes in his later life a similar cantankorous being, uncertain of what cards life is really dealing him. There are lots of funny moments as Amis wrestles with getting his rotten British teeth fixed, begs for money from his tight-fisted parents while at university, and struggles to be a good parent to his own children long after the marriage has gone south. Great read as long as one has the patience to stick with it through the many twists and turns in Amis' adventurous life.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Arise, Sir Osric.,
By Mike Galvin (UK) - See all my reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some fascinating revelations,
By A Customer
I'm still wading through the book and enjoying it mightily. It does sometimes veer too close to pastiche, and sometimes the insights he comes close to he can't seem to bear to examine for more than a minute. What I'm impressed and moved by is his confession of his own lack of innocence as a child. The molestation episode - which takes place in America in the 50s and is incredibly Nabokovian(!) - has stayed with me and haunted me. In so many ways he was a neglected child, brought up by a wilful, childish father with no sexual boundaries. The very fact that so many pictures were taken of him smoking as a kid is mind-boggling. Anyway, somewhere in there is a man who has learned to care about other people.
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