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----- Original Message -----=20
From: Sandy P. Klein=20
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 3:37 PM
Subject: Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother =
...
=20
=20
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/12/1063341765333.html
Fated to be hated September 13, 2003
=20
=20
=20
=20
Welcome to my nightmare . . . Martin Amis. Photo: Julian Andrews=20
=20
Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some have =
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those =
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.
Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some have =
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those =
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.
He looks like an ageing, short-arsed, clapped-out rocker. His unkempt, =
thinning hair is slicked back to the collar, he has the makings of a =
slight paunch and, below the puffy eyes, a flood plain of wrinkles. You =
expect a snarl, perhaps the famous lippy pout or, at least, indifference =
at the arrival of another bloody journo.
What you get is a soft handshake, a mug of tea, a quick half-smile. =
Politeness personified. Ageing, no doubt; burnt out and angry, no. =
Martin Amis probably is, as his friend and tennis partner Mike Mewshaw =
says, "a good egg, a gent". Like most people, he might want to be liked, =
even loved. Instead, he gets bile by the bucket.=20
Critics are panning his new novel, Yellow Dog, with the sort of =
no-holds-barred zeal reserved for child porn users. It's happened =
before, of course. Since the widely lauded Money in 1984, every new Amis =
has stirred critics and supposed admirers to controversy, =
disappointments or barely disguised envy.=20
But more often than not the public focus has been on peripheral or =
passing issues: his marriages (two), his teeth (fully and expensively =
remade), his record book advance ($1.25 million from HarperCollins for =
The Information), his personal tragedies (a cousin murdered by multiple =
killer/child abuser Fred West), his fights with famous friends (Julian =
Barnes, Christopher Hitchens), his alleged anti-semitism (hotly denied). =
Mewshaw, a London-based American writer and reviewer, said: "I think =
here, in England, there's an obsession with literary tittle-tattle, with =
literary scandal. In Martin's case, a lot of it is driven by envy. =
There's a feeling that he's somehow had an advantage that others =
haven't. His father was Kingsley Amis, he's clever, he's an Oxford =
[University] guy. [In the US], no one would know or care."
This time, the critics in Britain, some of them fellow writers, have =
gone for the jugular. "A strange, sad stew of a novel," wrote Matt =
Thorne in the Independent on Sunday. Amis is "a talent on its last =
legs", opined Peter Kemp for The Sunday Times. But such banter was =
nothing compared with the pasting he received from novelist Tibor =
Fischer, whose Voyage To The End of the Room has come out at the same =
time. Writing in London's Daily Telegraph, Fischer, a long-time Amis =
acolyte, likened Yellow Dog to finding "your favourite uncle being =
caught in the school playground, masturbating". "Yellow Dog isn't bad, =
as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It's =
not-knowing-where-to-look bad."
This attack on a man who produced some of the most memorable, comic and =
stylised books of the 1980s and '90s has brought forth Amis supporters, =
most notably the writer John Walsh, with an analysis of why younger =
novelists in particular appear to hate him. "The generation now in the =
ascendant - the Zadie Smith generation - don't venerate language in the =
same way," he wrote in London's Independent. "They venerate =
storytelling, personal testimony, plausible characters, understandable =
endings."=20
The furore has also delivered at least one spectacularly wrong - and =
uncorrected - story. "Amis out of Booker with dog of novel," crowed The =
Sunday Times, on August 10. Five days later, the longlist was announced =
in alphabetical order. Just under Monica Ali's Brick Lane sat Amis. The =
bookies instantly installed Yellow Dog at 8/1, joint second favourite =
with Melvyn Bragg's Crossing the Lines and behind J.M. Coetzee's =
Elizabeth Costello. It is perhaps worth noting that Fischer's novel did =
not get a look-in.
The chairman of the judging panel, John Carey, an academic and =
broadcaster, described the book as "not perfect ... but it's got writing =
in it that's better than anything on the list". The Booker shortlist =
comes out on Tuesday. If Yellow Dog makes it, it will be the closest =
Amis has got to the prize since Time's Arrow, 12 years ago. There will =
be a very long laugh coming from Amis's home in north London.=20
But the damage has, in part, been done. In his memoir, Experience =
(2000), Amis questioned the dictum that all publicity is good publicity. =
"As a New York publicist put it: 'What, the guy's an arsehole so I'll go =
and buy his novel?' ."=20
As he sits in a fug of roll-your-own fags, Amis, just turned 54, is =
feisty, but concedes the critics have landed a punch or two. "It =
exhausts me, and it contaminates me, these rounds of abuse.
"It's always a new low every time I have a book out. It is ill will, and =
a sort of irrational ill will. They all so piously say they loved Money =
or whatever, but if I produced Money now, it would be savaged. I'm =
everything they hate. It's not envy any more; it's sort of corroded down =
to hatred."
But how does he explain it? "What they [the novelists turned critics] =
don't like is, to them, my stuff now is like a drone of superiority; =
they don't like that it reminds them how semi-literate they are. What =
they don't like also is any sense of distance between the writer and the =
reader. It's got to be a more chummy and intimate and collegiate =
activity. When I read Saul Bellow, that distance is vital to the =
experience, but, for them, any kind of humility is a disgrace. I don't =
envy them their future of no comedy, no style, no talent. You feel their =
sourness coming into you, but it doesn't make me doubt for a second the =
quality of what I do."
Yellow Dog, the first Amis novel since the noir-ish, shortish Night =
Train in 1997, shares many of the preoccupations of his previous work. =
Sleaze, sex and low-life scum - journalists, actors, porn stars and =
crims - ooze from its pages and envelop and infect all social strata, =
from the British royals down (or should that be up?). =
Actor-turned-writer Xan Meo, the book's genesis and lead male, is =
relentlessly and violently punished. He probably deserves it.
Such characters are, says Amis, essential for his style of comedy. "I =
don't feel disgust for them. In fact, I feel love for them because you =
couldn't put them on the page otherwise. You need these characters for =
comedy. If you are basically a comic writer, then you can't put in the =
saintly philanthropist, the hard-working nurse. What's she going to do =
in a novel by me? There's nothing for her to do. That's how it's always =
been done in comedy - you hold the wicked up to ridicule."=20
Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother or even for =
your mother-in-law, unless she had more than a passing interest in and =
tolerance of pornography, incest and debased royals. "I had to evolve a =
sort of porno style for it. I wanted to take a look at this extreme wing =
of contemporary sexuality and also the weird example of the war between =
the sexes that it presents. The men in this pitiful position, they're =
just cocks, you know."=20
Driving much of the slapstick humour are Amis's royals, where King Henry =
IX, known as Hotty, is attended by an equerry called Bugger, a man =
servant called Love, and lover called He Zizhen.=20
Amis has plenty of fun with word play. Henry IX, hapless, lazy and =
unopinionated, is a sort of reverse of the real Prince Charles, whom =
Amis met at Clive James's dinner table a few years ago, when the Prince =
of Wales had more time for celebrity friends as well as his celebrity =
wife.
"They were very enjoyable evenings," recalls Amis. "He's nice, Prince =
Charles. Got a good heart, I think. [But] I wouldn't wish the job on his =
son."=20
Sons and daughters feature heavily in the Amis world, both real and =
imagined. His sons from his first marriage, to Antonia Phillips, are now =
in their late teens. His daughters from his second, to Isabel Fonseca, =
are just at or nearing school age. He concedes his daughters, in =
particular, have softened him as a person, possibly as a writer. "You =
spend a lot of your time on what Nabokov called beauty assimilation," he =
says. "It's a tremendous part of what you get back, looking at these =
exquisite little creatures."
Yellow Dog turns on the very real sense felt by Amis that, in the =
aftermath of the September 11 terrorist strikes, in a world of chaos and =
random murder, it is impossible for a father to protect his children. =
The book takes the theme to its outer and most grotesque limits, with an =
examination of incest.=20
"It was always an illusion that you can protect your children but it =
[September 11] shoved it into you that you couldn't. And that's half the =
crisis that the Xan Meo character had, that he wanted to protect them =
but he can't and it all gets primitive in him. I also had the shadow of =
Fred West over me, as well. He thought by sleeping with his daughters, =
he was wonderfully enveloped in them. He thought he was protecting them. =
It's a kind of anti-love, mistaken for love by the parent."=20
It is almost 30 years since Amis won the prestigious Somerset Maugham =
award for his first novel, The Rachel Papers. Yellow Dog is his 10th. =
Another is, he says, already brewing. You can't say he hasn't been =
productive, hasn't tried, that he hasn't been compelled to write. "I =
don't feel myself unless I am writing," he says. "You'd feel something =
was absent from the day if you didn't have an hour, not necessarily =
brooding or reading and stuff."=20
Throughout, the critics have been carping at him for being more =
interested in dazzling with style than satisfying with substance, for =
being clever and inventive with language rather than telling good yarns. =
But the harshest criticism of the new novel is that it lacks even that. =
Erica Wagner, in The Times, argued that "there is only so far a certain =
language can go. As the world changes, so must the writer: one sees =
little sign, in Yellow Dog, of any change in Martin Amis."=20
This is a new flank in the assault on Amis, and one that leaves him =
caught between two stools. On one hand, he celebrates the well-crafted, =
innovative sentence as the essence of his work. "I would say there's an =
emphasis on style but it's not something that is slapped on like a paint =
job at the end. It's inherent in the way you perceive. You are just =
trying to get those perceptions over as exactly and expressively as =
possible, with a rhythm that pleases, that is in tune with you, with me, =
as I write."
But, of Yellow Dog, he says: "I would have thought in this one I have =
held back a bit on style, so that the plot could be freer. I think it's =
my world but it's mobilised, set in motion more efficiently than I've =
done before. There's more sort of drive."=20
Most other writers can have both - but then most other writers can't do =
either as well as Amis. No matter where he goes, it seems, a bunfight or =
word fight will follow. Last year, Amis turned his attention again to =
non-fiction, releasing Koba the Dread, a study on the ravages and =
utopian idealism of Stalin.=20
Exactly why Amis decided to lend his name and talents to such a weighty =
and well-explored subject remains a puzzle. It sparked an outcry, =
especially, as John Walsh notes, when he also used the book to discuss =
the death of his sister, Sally, and compared the night cries of his then =
two-year-old daughter, Clio, to the terror of Stalin's victims.=20
A heated exchange with Hitchens, one of his oldest friends and to whom =
much of the book was addressed, ensued. At ringside, the critics =
clapped, jeered and suggested Amis had lost what little plot he ever =
had. Worse still, he had become serious. An Amis friend, who declined to =
be named, said: "His admirers think they own him. It's a kind of =
stalking."
Amis says the Hitchins spat was nothing more than that - he also says =
his friendship with Barnes is on the mend - but makes no apologies for =
"giving myself a political education". It felt right to have a "vacation =
from fiction" and he was fascinated by Stalin, "and with this question =
of utopianism and what a sort of dreadful joke it is on human nature =
that the proposed utopia becomes its hellish opposite almost overnight".
"We love ideology," he says. "We fucking love it. We much prefer to =
believe than to think and to know. Belief is such a release. It's =
heaven. You join a crowd, a herd, and the release of your individuality =
is, it would seem, delicious to a human being."
Amis will escape the British winter this year for Uruguay. He and his =
wife, who is half Uruguayan, have built a house up the coast from =
Montevideo and may spend the next year there, as their children learn =
Spanish and the adults visit cousins.=20
For all the barbs sharpened in London's literary salons, Amis is very =
much an English writer, and it will be interesting to see how his pen =
flows from a spot south of the equator. Amis takes solace in the fact =
that further north, in the US, his books tend to gain a more even =
reception, as they do in Australia. "In fact, they get me more in =
America than they do here. The Americans, unlike the Brits, are not =
famed for irony, are they? And the Brits are. And yet they don't get =
it."
He plans a book of short stories before attempting the next novel and =
would like to visit Australia for the first time.
But the longest journeys are, as always, being taken in his head. He =
confesses to having gained a certain mellowness and insight with age =
and, without a hint of bitterness or late-onset midlife crisis, accepts =
that he is on the downward side of life's slope.=20
These feelings and their counterpoint in male anxiety - a favourite Amis =
subject - are likely to inform the next novel.
"I said, as early as in The Information [1995], that at a certain point, =
writers stop saying hi and start saying bye," he says. "That was =
premature in a way, but now I really am feeling that. You are no longer, =
when you are out in the street, you are no longer feeling your way into =
it. You are feeling your way away from it, and, funny enough, it looks =
much more precious and moving going the other way. No, it's not a =
midlife crisis - it's a deep rhythm, a master rhythm of human life."
Amis has little idea where the rhythm will take him. It doesn't, he =
says, fill him with dread. But wherever it leads, there will be someone =
ready to have a go. "It's my fate," he says.
Yellow Dog, by Martin Amis, is published by Random House, $45.
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<DIV style=3D"FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----=20
<DIV style=3D"BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A=20
title=3Dspklein52@hotmail.com =
href=3D"mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com">Sandy P.=20
Klein</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, September 12, 2003 3:37 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for =
your=20
mother ...</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
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<DIV><A=20
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3D5><STRONG>Fated to be hated</HEADLINE></STRONG></FONT> =
<TABLE cellSpacing=3D0 cellPadding=3D0 width=3D"100%" border=3D0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>
<P class=3Darticledetails><DATE><FONT size=3D1>September 13,=20
2003</DATE><BR></FONT></P></TD>
<TD align=3Dright>
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<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD> </TD>
<TD align=3Dleft></TD></TR>
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<TD> </TD>
<TD =
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R=20
clear=3Dall>
<TABLE class=3Darticleextrasbox cellSpacing=3D0 cellPadding=3D0 =
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<TBODY>
<TR vAlign=3Dtop>
<TD><IMG height=3D244 alt=3D""=20
=
src=3D"http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1063341772891_2003/09=
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width=3D238 border=3D0> </TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<P class=3Dpicturecaption>Welcome to my nightmare . . . Martin =
Amis. Photo:=20
Julian Andrews =
</P></TD></TR><!--imagePrefix=3D/--></TBODY></TABLE>
<P><STRONG>Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and =
some have=20
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those=20
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter =
Fray.</STRONG></P><BOD>
<P><B>Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some =
have=20
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those=20
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.</B></P>
<P>He looks like an ageing, short-arsed, clapped-out rocker. His =
unkempt,=20
thinning hair is slicked back to the collar, he has the makings of a =
slight=20
paunch and, below the puffy eyes, a flood plain of wrinkles. You expect =
a snarl,=20
perhaps the famous lippy pout or, at least, indifference at the arrival =
of=20
another bloody journo.</P>
<P>What you get is a soft handshake, a mug of tea, a quick half-smile.=20
Politeness personified. Ageing, no doubt; burnt out and angry, no. =
Martin Amis=20
probably is, as his friend and tennis partner Mike Mewshaw says, "a good =
egg, a=20
gent". Like most people, he might want to be liked, even loved. Instead, =
he gets=20
bile by the bucket. </P>
<P>Critics are panning his new novel, <I>Yellow Dog</I>, with the sort =
of=20
no-holds-barred zeal reserved for child porn users. It's happened =
before, of=20
course. Since the widely lauded <I>Money</I> in 1984, every new Amis has =
stirred=20
critics and supposed admirers to controversy, disappointments or barely=20
disguised envy. <ISLANDAD>
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<P>But more often than not the public focus has been on peripheral or =
passing=20
issues: his marriages (two), his teeth (fully and expensively remade), =
his=20
record book advance ($1.25 million from HarperCollins for <I>The=20
Information</I>), his personal tragedies (a cousin murdered by multiple=20
killer/child abuser Fred West), his fights with famous friends (Julian =
Barnes,=20
Christopher Hitchens), his alleged anti-semitism (hotly denied). </P>
<P>Mewshaw, a London-based American writer and reviewer, said: "I think =
here, in=20
England, there's an obsession with literary tittle-tattle, with literary =
scandal. In Martin's case, a lot of it is driven by envy. There's a =
feeling that=20
he's somehow had an advantage that others haven't. His father was =
Kingsley Amis,=20
he's clever, he's an Oxford [University] guy. [In the US], no one would =
know or=20
care."</P>
<P>This time, the critics in Britain, some of them fellow writers, have =
gone for=20
the jugular. "A strange, sad stew of a novel," wrote Matt Thorne in the=20
<I>Independent on Sunday</I>. Amis is "a talent on its last legs", =
opined Peter=20
Kemp for <I>The Sunday Times</I>. But such banter was nothing compared =
with the=20
pasting he received from novelist Tibor Fischer, whose <I>Voyage To The =
End of=20
the Room</I> has come out at the same time. Writing in London's <I>Daily =
Telegraph</I>, Fischer, a long-time Amis acolyte, likened <I>Yellow =
Dog</I> to=20
finding "your favourite uncle being caught in the school playground,=20
masturbating". "<I>Yellow Dog</I> isn't bad, as in not very good or =
slightly=20
disappointing. It's not-knowing-where-to-look bad."</P>
<P>This attack on a man who produced some of the most memorable, comic =
and=20
stylised books of the 1980s and '90s has brought forth Amis supporters, =
most=20
notably the writer John Walsh, with an analysis of why younger novelists =
in=20
particular appear to hate him. "The generation now in the ascendant - =
the Zadie=20
Smith generation - don't venerate language in the same way," he wrote in =
London's <I>Independent</I>. "They venerate storytelling, personal =
testimony,=20
plausible characters, understandable endings." </P>
<P>The furore has also delivered at least one spectacularly wrong - and=20
uncorrected - story. "Amis out of Booker with dog of novel," crowed =
<I>The=20
Sunday Times</I>, on August 10. Five days later, the longlist was =
announced in=20
alphabetical order. Just under Monica Ali's <I>Brick Lane</I> sat Amis. =
The=20
bookies instantly installed <I>Yellow Dog</I> at 8/1, joint second =
favourite=20
with Melvyn Bragg's <I>Crossing the Lines</I> and behind J.M. Coetzee's=20
<I>Elizabeth Costello</I>. It is perhaps worth noting that Fischer's =
novel did=20
not get a look-in.</P>
<P>The chairman of the judging panel, John Carey, an academic and =
broadcaster,=20
described the book as "not perfect ... but it's got writing in it that's =
better=20
than anything on the list". The Booker shortlist comes out on Tuesday. =
If=20
<I>Yellow Dog</I> makes it, it will be the closest Amis has got to the =
prize=20
since <I>Time's Arrow</I>, 12 years ago. There will be a very long laugh =
coming=20
from Amis's home in north London. </P>
<P>But the damage has, in part, been done. In his memoir, =
<I>Experience</I>=20
(2000), Amis questioned the dictum that all publicity is good publicity. =
"As a=20
New York publicist put it: 'What, the guy's an arsehole so I'll go and =
buy his=20
novel?' ." </P>
<P>As he sits in a fug of roll-your-own fags, Amis, just turned 54, is =
feisty,=20
but concedes the critics have landed a punch or two. "It exhausts me, =
and it=20
contaminates me, these rounds of abuse.</P>
<P>"It's always a new low every time I have a book out. It is ill will, =
and a=20
sort of irrational ill will. They all so piously say they loved =
<I>Money</I> or=20
whatever, but if I produced <I>Money</I> now, it would be savaged. I'm=20
everything they hate. It's not envy any more; it's sort of corroded down =
to=20
hatred."</P>
<P>But how does he explain it? "What they [the novelists turned critics] =
don't=20
like is, to them, my stuff now is like a drone of superiority; they =
don't like=20
that it reminds them how semi-literate they are. What they don't like =
also is=20
any sense of distance between the writer and the reader. It's got to be =
a more=20
chummy and intimate and collegiate activity. When I read Saul Bellow, =
that=20
distance is vital to the experience, but, for them, any kind of humility =
is a=20
disgrace. I don't envy them their future of no comedy, no style, no =
talent. You=20
feel their sourness coming into you, but it doesn't make me doubt for a =
second=20
the quality of what I do."</P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I>, the first Amis novel since the noir-ish, shortish =
<I>Night=20
Train</I> in 1997, shares many of the preoccupations of his previous =
work.=20
Sleaze, sex and low-life scum - journalists, actors, porn stars and =
crims - ooze=20
from its pages and envelop and infect all social strata, from the =
British royals=20
down (or should that be up?). Actor-turned-writer Xan Meo, the book's =
genesis=20
and lead male, is relentlessly and violently punished. He probably =
deserves=20
it.</P>
<P>Such characters are, says Amis, essential for his style of comedy. "I =
don't=20
feel disgust for them. In fact, I feel love for them because you =
couldn't put=20
them on the page otherwise. You need these characters for comedy. If you =
are=20
basically a comic writer, then you can't put in the saintly =
philanthropist, the=20
hard-working nurse. What's she going to do in a novel by me? There's =
nothing for=20
her to do. That's how it's always been done in comedy - you hold the =
wicked up=20
to ridicule." </P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I> is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother =
or even=20
for your mother-in-law, unless she had more than a passing interest in =
and=20
tolerance of pornography, incest and debased royals. "I had to evolve a =
sort of=20
porno style for it. I wanted to take a look at this extreme wing of =
contemporary=20
sexuality and also the weird example of the war between the sexes that =
it=20
presents. The men in this pitiful position, they're just cocks, you =
know." </P>
<P>Driving much of the slapstick humour are Amis's royals, where King =
Henry IX,=20
known as Hotty, is attended by an equerry called Bugger, a man servant =
called=20
Love, and lover called He Zizhen. </P>
<P>Amis has plenty of fun with word play. Henry IX, hapless, lazy and=20
unopinionated, is a sort of reverse of the real Prince Charles, whom =
Amis met at=20
Clive James's dinner table a few years ago, when the Prince of Wales had =
more=20
time for celebrity friends as well as his celebrity wife.</P>
<P>"They were very enjoyable evenings," recalls Amis. "He's nice, Prince =
Charles. Got a good heart, I think. [But] I wouldn't wish the job on his =
son."=20
</P>
<P>Sons and daughters feature heavily in the Amis world, both real and =
imagined.=20
His sons from his first marriage, to Antonia Phillips, are now in their =
late=20
teens. His daughters from his second, to Isabel Fonseca, are just at or =
nearing=20
school age. He concedes his daughters, in particular, have softened him =
as a=20
person, possibly as a writer. "You spend a lot of your time on what =
Nabokov=20
called beauty assimilation," he says. "It's a tremendous part of what =
you get=20
back, looking at these exquisite little creatures."</P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I> turns on the very real sense felt by Amis that, in =
the=20
aftermath of the September 11 terrorist strikes, in a world of chaos and =
random=20
murder, it is impossible for a father to protect his children. The book =
takes=20
the theme to its outer and most grotesque limits, with an examination of =
incest.=20
</P>
<P>"It was always an illusion that you can protect your children but it=20
[September 11] shoved it into you that you couldn't. And that's half the =
crisis=20
that the Xan Meo character had, that he wanted to protect them but he =
can't and=20
it all gets primitive in him. I also had the shadow of Fred West over =
me, as=20
well. He thought by sleeping with his daughters, he was wonderfully =
enveloped in=20
them. He thought he was protecting them. It's a kind of anti-love, =
mistaken for=20
love by the parent." </P>
<P>It is almost 30 years since Amis won the prestigious Somerset Maugham =
award=20
for his first novel, <I>The Rachel Papers</I>. <I>Yellow Dog</I> is his =
10th.=20
Another is, he says, already brewing. You can't say he hasn't been =
productive,=20
hasn't tried, that he hasn't been compelled to write. "I don't feel =
myself=20
unless I am writing," he says. "You'd feel something was absent from the =
day if=20
you didn't have an hour, not necessarily brooding or reading and stuff." =
</P>
<P>Throughout, the critics have been carping at him for being more =
interested in=20
dazzling with style than satisfying with substance, for being clever and =
inventive with language rather than telling good yarns. </P>
<P>But the harshest criticism of the new novel is that it lacks even =
that. Erica=20
Wagner, in <I>The Times</I>, argued that "there is only so far a certain =
language can go. As the world changes, so must the writer: one sees =
little sign,=20
in <I>Yellow Dog</I>, of any change in Martin Amis." </P>
<P>This is a new flank in the assault on Amis, and one that leaves him =
caught=20
between two stools. On one hand, he celebrates the well-crafted, =
innovative=20
sentence as the essence of his work. "I would say there's an emphasis on =
style=20
but it's not something that is slapped on like a paint job at the end. =
It's=20
inherent in the way you perceive. You are just trying to get those =
perceptions=20
over as exactly and expressively as possible, with a rhythm that =
pleases, that=20
is in tune with you, with me, as I write."</P>
<P>But, of <I>Yellow Dog</I>, he says: "I would have thought in this one =
I have=20
held back a bit on style, so that the plot could be freer. I think it's =
my world=20
but it's mobilised, set in motion more efficiently than I've done =
before.=20
There's more sort of drive." </P>
<P>Most other writers can have both - but then most other writers can't =
do=20
either as well as Amis. No matter where he goes, it seems, a bunfight or =
word=20
fight will follow. Last year, Amis turned his attention again to =
non-fiction,=20
releasing <I>Koba the Dread</I>, a study on the ravages and utopian =
idealism of=20
Stalin. </P>
<P>Exactly why Amis decided to lend his name and talents to such a =
weighty and=20
well-explored subject remains a puzzle. It sparked an outcry, =
especially, as=20
John Walsh notes, when he also used the book to discuss the death of his =
sister,=20
Sally, and compared the night cries of his then two-year-old daughter, =
Clio, to=20
the terror of Stalin's victims. </P>
<P>A heated exchange with Hitchens, one of his oldest friends and to =
whom much=20
of the book was addressed, ensued. At ringside, the critics clapped, =
jeered and=20
suggested Amis had lost what little plot he ever had. Worse still, he =
had become=20
serious. An Amis friend, who declined to be named, said: "His admirers =
think=20
they own him. It's a kind of stalking."</P>
<P>Amis says the Hitchins spat was nothing more than that - he also says =
his=20
friendship with Barnes is on the mend - but makes no apologies for =
"giving=20
myself a political education". It felt right to have a "vacation from =
fiction"=20
and he was fascinated by Stalin, "and with this question of utopianism =
and what=20
a sort of dreadful joke it is on human nature that the proposed utopia =
becomes=20
its hellish opposite almost overnight".</P>
<P>"We love ideology," he says. "We fucking love it. We much prefer to =
believe=20
than to think and to know. Belief is such a release. It's heaven. You =
join a=20
crowd, a herd, and the release of your individuality is, it would seem,=20
delicious to a human being."</P>
<P>Amis will escape the British winter this year for Uruguay. He and his =
wife,=20
who is half Uruguayan, have built a house up the coast from Montevideo =
and may=20
spend the next year there, as their children learn Spanish and the =
adults visit=20
cousins. </P>
<P>For all the barbs sharpened in London's literary salons, Amis is very =
much an=20
English writer, and it will be interesting to see how his pen flows from =
a spot=20
south of the equator. Amis takes solace in the fact that further north, =
in the=20
US, his books tend to gain a more even reception, as they do in =
Australia. "In=20
fact, they get me more in America than they do here. The Americans, =
unlike the=20
Brits, are not famed for irony, are they? And the Brits are. And yet =
they don't=20
get it."</P>
<P>He plans a book of short stories before attempting the next novel and =
would=20
like to visit Australia for the first time.</P>
<P>But the longest journeys are, as always, being taken in his head. He=20
confesses to having gained a certain mellowness and insight with age =
and,=20
without a hint of bitterness or late-onset midlife crisis, accepts that =
he is on=20
the downward side of life's slope. </P>
<P>These feelings and their counterpoint in male anxiety - a favourite =
Amis=20
subject - are likely to inform the next novel.</P>
<P>"I said, as early as in <I>The Information</I> [1995], that at a =
certain=20
point, writers stop saying hi and start saying bye," he says. "That was=20
premature in a way, but now I really am feeling that. You are no longer, =
when=20
you are out in the street, you are no longer feeling your way into it. =
You are=20
feeling your way away from it, and, funny enough, it looks much more =
precious=20
and moving going the other way. No, it's not a midlife crisis - it's a =
deep=20
rhythm, a master rhythm of human life."</P>
<P>Amis has little idea where the rhythm will take him. It doesn't, he =
says,=20
fill him with dread. But wherever it leads, there will be someone ready =
to have=20
a go. "It's my fate," he says.</P>
<P><B><I>Yellow Dog</I>, by Martin Amis, is published by Random House,=20
$45.</B></P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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----- Original Message -----=20
From: Sandy P. Klein=20
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 3:37 PM
Subject: Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother =
...
=20
=20
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/12/1063341765333.html
Fated to be hated September 13, 2003
=20
=20
=20
=20
Welcome to my nightmare . . . Martin Amis. Photo: Julian Andrews=20
=20
Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some have =
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those =
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.
Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some have =
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those =
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.
He looks like an ageing, short-arsed, clapped-out rocker. His unkempt, =
thinning hair is slicked back to the collar, he has the makings of a =
slight paunch and, below the puffy eyes, a flood plain of wrinkles. You =
expect a snarl, perhaps the famous lippy pout or, at least, indifference =
at the arrival of another bloody journo.
What you get is a soft handshake, a mug of tea, a quick half-smile. =
Politeness personified. Ageing, no doubt; burnt out and angry, no. =
Martin Amis probably is, as his friend and tennis partner Mike Mewshaw =
says, "a good egg, a gent". Like most people, he might want to be liked, =
even loved. Instead, he gets bile by the bucket.=20
Critics are panning his new novel, Yellow Dog, with the sort of =
no-holds-barred zeal reserved for child porn users. It's happened =
before, of course. Since the widely lauded Money in 1984, every new Amis =
has stirred critics and supposed admirers to controversy, =
disappointments or barely disguised envy.=20
But more often than not the public focus has been on peripheral or =
passing issues: his marriages (two), his teeth (fully and expensively =
remade), his record book advance ($1.25 million from HarperCollins for =
The Information), his personal tragedies (a cousin murdered by multiple =
killer/child abuser Fred West), his fights with famous friends (Julian =
Barnes, Christopher Hitchens), his alleged anti-semitism (hotly denied). =
Mewshaw, a London-based American writer and reviewer, said: "I think =
here, in England, there's an obsession with literary tittle-tattle, with =
literary scandal. In Martin's case, a lot of it is driven by envy. =
There's a feeling that he's somehow had an advantage that others =
haven't. His father was Kingsley Amis, he's clever, he's an Oxford =
[University] guy. [In the US], no one would know or care."
This time, the critics in Britain, some of them fellow writers, have =
gone for the jugular. "A strange, sad stew of a novel," wrote Matt =
Thorne in the Independent on Sunday. Amis is "a talent on its last =
legs", opined Peter Kemp for The Sunday Times. But such banter was =
nothing compared with the pasting he received from novelist Tibor =
Fischer, whose Voyage To The End of the Room has come out at the same =
time. Writing in London's Daily Telegraph, Fischer, a long-time Amis =
acolyte, likened Yellow Dog to finding "your favourite uncle being =
caught in the school playground, masturbating". "Yellow Dog isn't bad, =
as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It's =
not-knowing-where-to-look bad."
This attack on a man who produced some of the most memorable, comic and =
stylised books of the 1980s and '90s has brought forth Amis supporters, =
most notably the writer John Walsh, with an analysis of why younger =
novelists in particular appear to hate him. "The generation now in the =
ascendant - the Zadie Smith generation - don't venerate language in the =
same way," he wrote in London's Independent. "They venerate =
storytelling, personal testimony, plausible characters, understandable =
endings."=20
The furore has also delivered at least one spectacularly wrong - and =
uncorrected - story. "Amis out of Booker with dog of novel," crowed The =
Sunday Times, on August 10. Five days later, the longlist was announced =
in alphabetical order. Just under Monica Ali's Brick Lane sat Amis. The =
bookies instantly installed Yellow Dog at 8/1, joint second favourite =
with Melvyn Bragg's Crossing the Lines and behind J.M. Coetzee's =
Elizabeth Costello. It is perhaps worth noting that Fischer's novel did =
not get a look-in.
The chairman of the judging panel, John Carey, an academic and =
broadcaster, described the book as "not perfect ... but it's got writing =
in it that's better than anything on the list". The Booker shortlist =
comes out on Tuesday. If Yellow Dog makes it, it will be the closest =
Amis has got to the prize since Time's Arrow, 12 years ago. There will =
be a very long laugh coming from Amis's home in north London.=20
But the damage has, in part, been done. In his memoir, Experience =
(2000), Amis questioned the dictum that all publicity is good publicity. =
"As a New York publicist put it: 'What, the guy's an arsehole so I'll go =
and buy his novel?' ."=20
As he sits in a fug of roll-your-own fags, Amis, just turned 54, is =
feisty, but concedes the critics have landed a punch or two. "It =
exhausts me, and it contaminates me, these rounds of abuse.
"It's always a new low every time I have a book out. It is ill will, and =
a sort of irrational ill will. They all so piously say they loved Money =
or whatever, but if I produced Money now, it would be savaged. I'm =
everything they hate. It's not envy any more; it's sort of corroded down =
to hatred."
But how does he explain it? "What they [the novelists turned critics] =
don't like is, to them, my stuff now is like a drone of superiority; =
they don't like that it reminds them how semi-literate they are. What =
they don't like also is any sense of distance between the writer and the =
reader. It's got to be a more chummy and intimate and collegiate =
activity. When I read Saul Bellow, that distance is vital to the =
experience, but, for them, any kind of humility is a disgrace. I don't =
envy them their future of no comedy, no style, no talent. You feel their =
sourness coming into you, but it doesn't make me doubt for a second the =
quality of what I do."
Yellow Dog, the first Amis novel since the noir-ish, shortish Night =
Train in 1997, shares many of the preoccupations of his previous work. =
Sleaze, sex and low-life scum - journalists, actors, porn stars and =
crims - ooze from its pages and envelop and infect all social strata, =
from the British royals down (or should that be up?). =
Actor-turned-writer Xan Meo, the book's genesis and lead male, is =
relentlessly and violently punished. He probably deserves it.
Such characters are, says Amis, essential for his style of comedy. "I =
don't feel disgust for them. In fact, I feel love for them because you =
couldn't put them on the page otherwise. You need these characters for =
comedy. If you are basically a comic writer, then you can't put in the =
saintly philanthropist, the hard-working nurse. What's she going to do =
in a novel by me? There's nothing for her to do. That's how it's always =
been done in comedy - you hold the wicked up to ridicule."=20
Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother or even for =
your mother-in-law, unless she had more than a passing interest in and =
tolerance of pornography, incest and debased royals. "I had to evolve a =
sort of porno style for it. I wanted to take a look at this extreme wing =
of contemporary sexuality and also the weird example of the war between =
the sexes that it presents. The men in this pitiful position, they're =
just cocks, you know."=20
Driving much of the slapstick humour are Amis's royals, where King Henry =
IX, known as Hotty, is attended by an equerry called Bugger, a man =
servant called Love, and lover called He Zizhen.=20
Amis has plenty of fun with word play. Henry IX, hapless, lazy and =
unopinionated, is a sort of reverse of the real Prince Charles, whom =
Amis met at Clive James's dinner table a few years ago, when the Prince =
of Wales had more time for celebrity friends as well as his celebrity =
wife.
"They were very enjoyable evenings," recalls Amis. "He's nice, Prince =
Charles. Got a good heart, I think. [But] I wouldn't wish the job on his =
son."=20
Sons and daughters feature heavily in the Amis world, both real and =
imagined. His sons from his first marriage, to Antonia Phillips, are now =
in their late teens. His daughters from his second, to Isabel Fonseca, =
are just at or nearing school age. He concedes his daughters, in =
particular, have softened him as a person, possibly as a writer. "You =
spend a lot of your time on what Nabokov called beauty assimilation," he =
says. "It's a tremendous part of what you get back, looking at these =
exquisite little creatures."
Yellow Dog turns on the very real sense felt by Amis that, in the =
aftermath of the September 11 terrorist strikes, in a world of chaos and =
random murder, it is impossible for a father to protect his children. =
The book takes the theme to its outer and most grotesque limits, with an =
examination of incest.=20
"It was always an illusion that you can protect your children but it =
[September 11] shoved it into you that you couldn't. And that's half the =
crisis that the Xan Meo character had, that he wanted to protect them =
but he can't and it all gets primitive in him. I also had the shadow of =
Fred West over me, as well. He thought by sleeping with his daughters, =
he was wonderfully enveloped in them. He thought he was protecting them. =
It's a kind of anti-love, mistaken for love by the parent."=20
It is almost 30 years since Amis won the prestigious Somerset Maugham =
award for his first novel, The Rachel Papers. Yellow Dog is his 10th. =
Another is, he says, already brewing. You can't say he hasn't been =
productive, hasn't tried, that he hasn't been compelled to write. "I =
don't feel myself unless I am writing," he says. "You'd feel something =
was absent from the day if you didn't have an hour, not necessarily =
brooding or reading and stuff."=20
Throughout, the critics have been carping at him for being more =
interested in dazzling with style than satisfying with substance, for =
being clever and inventive with language rather than telling good yarns. =
But the harshest criticism of the new novel is that it lacks even that. =
Erica Wagner, in The Times, argued that "there is only so far a certain =
language can go. As the world changes, so must the writer: one sees =
little sign, in Yellow Dog, of any change in Martin Amis."=20
This is a new flank in the assault on Amis, and one that leaves him =
caught between two stools. On one hand, he celebrates the well-crafted, =
innovative sentence as the essence of his work. "I would say there's an =
emphasis on style but it's not something that is slapped on like a paint =
job at the end. It's inherent in the way you perceive. You are just =
trying to get those perceptions over as exactly and expressively as =
possible, with a rhythm that pleases, that is in tune with you, with me, =
as I write."
But, of Yellow Dog, he says: "I would have thought in this one I have =
held back a bit on style, so that the plot could be freer. I think it's =
my world but it's mobilised, set in motion more efficiently than I've =
done before. There's more sort of drive."=20
Most other writers can have both - but then most other writers can't do =
either as well as Amis. No matter where he goes, it seems, a bunfight or =
word fight will follow. Last year, Amis turned his attention again to =
non-fiction, releasing Koba the Dread, a study on the ravages and =
utopian idealism of Stalin.=20
Exactly why Amis decided to lend his name and talents to such a weighty =
and well-explored subject remains a puzzle. It sparked an outcry, =
especially, as John Walsh notes, when he also used the book to discuss =
the death of his sister, Sally, and compared the night cries of his then =
two-year-old daughter, Clio, to the terror of Stalin's victims.=20
A heated exchange with Hitchens, one of his oldest friends and to whom =
much of the book was addressed, ensued. At ringside, the critics =
clapped, jeered and suggested Amis had lost what little plot he ever =
had. Worse still, he had become serious. An Amis friend, who declined to =
be named, said: "His admirers think they own him. It's a kind of =
stalking."
Amis says the Hitchins spat was nothing more than that - he also says =
his friendship with Barnes is on the mend - but makes no apologies for =
"giving myself a political education". It felt right to have a "vacation =
from fiction" and he was fascinated by Stalin, "and with this question =
of utopianism and what a sort of dreadful joke it is on human nature =
that the proposed utopia becomes its hellish opposite almost overnight".
"We love ideology," he says. "We fucking love it. We much prefer to =
believe than to think and to know. Belief is such a release. It's =
heaven. You join a crowd, a herd, and the release of your individuality =
is, it would seem, delicious to a human being."
Amis will escape the British winter this year for Uruguay. He and his =
wife, who is half Uruguayan, have built a house up the coast from =
Montevideo and may spend the next year there, as their children learn =
Spanish and the adults visit cousins.=20
For all the barbs sharpened in London's literary salons, Amis is very =
much an English writer, and it will be interesting to see how his pen =
flows from a spot south of the equator. Amis takes solace in the fact =
that further north, in the US, his books tend to gain a more even =
reception, as they do in Australia. "In fact, they get me more in =
America than they do here. The Americans, unlike the Brits, are not =
famed for irony, are they? And the Brits are. And yet they don't get =
it."
He plans a book of short stories before attempting the next novel and =
would like to visit Australia for the first time.
But the longest journeys are, as always, being taken in his head. He =
confesses to having gained a certain mellowness and insight with age =
and, without a hint of bitterness or late-onset midlife crisis, accepts =
that he is on the downward side of life's slope.=20
These feelings and their counterpoint in male anxiety - a favourite Amis =
subject - are likely to inform the next novel.
"I said, as early as in The Information [1995], that at a certain point, =
writers stop saying hi and start saying bye," he says. "That was =
premature in a way, but now I really am feeling that. You are no longer, =
when you are out in the street, you are no longer feeling your way into =
it. You are feeling your way away from it, and, funny enough, it looks =
much more precious and moving going the other way. No, it's not a =
midlife crisis - it's a deep rhythm, a master rhythm of human life."
Amis has little idea where the rhythm will take him. It doesn't, he =
says, fill him with dread. But wherever it leads, there will be someone =
ready to have a go. "It's my fate," he says.
Yellow Dog, by Martin Amis, is published by Random House, $45.
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<DIV style=3D"FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----=20
<DIV style=3D"BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A=20
title=3Dspklein52@hotmail.com =
href=3D"mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com">Sandy P.=20
Klein</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, September 12, 2003 3:37 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Yellow Dog is not the sort of book you'd buy for =
your=20
mother ...</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
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<DIV><A=20
href=3D"http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/12/1063341765333.html">htt=
p://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/12/1063341765333.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=3D5><STRONG>Fated to be hated</HEADLINE></STRONG></FONT> =
<TABLE cellSpacing=3D0 cellPadding=3D0 width=3D"100%" border=3D0>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD>
<P class=3Darticledetails><DATE><FONT size=3D1>September 13,=20
2003</DATE><BR></FONT></P></TD>
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<TD =
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R=20
clear=3Dall>
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<TR vAlign=3Dtop>
<TD><IMG height=3D244 alt=3D""=20
=
src=3D"http://www.smh.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1063341772891_2003/09=
/12/ent_martinamis1309.jpg"=20
width=3D238 border=3D0> </TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD>
<P class=3Dpicturecaption>Welcome to my nightmare . . . Martin =
Amis. Photo:=20
Julian Andrews =
</P></TD></TR><!--imagePrefix=3D/--></TBODY></TABLE>
<P><STRONG>Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and =
some have=20
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those=20
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter =
Fray.</STRONG></P><BOD>
<P><B>Whatever Martin Amis writes, the critics always bite - and some =
have=20
really stung. It's lucky he believes in himself. Otherwise those=20
"semi-literates" could really get him down. By Peter Fray.</B></P>
<P>He looks like an ageing, short-arsed, clapped-out rocker. His =
unkempt,=20
thinning hair is slicked back to the collar, he has the makings of a =
slight=20
paunch and, below the puffy eyes, a flood plain of wrinkles. You expect =
a snarl,=20
perhaps the famous lippy pout or, at least, indifference at the arrival =
of=20
another bloody journo.</P>
<P>What you get is a soft handshake, a mug of tea, a quick half-smile.=20
Politeness personified. Ageing, no doubt; burnt out and angry, no. =
Martin Amis=20
probably is, as his friend and tennis partner Mike Mewshaw says, "a good =
egg, a=20
gent". Like most people, he might want to be liked, even loved. Instead, =
he gets=20
bile by the bucket. </P>
<P>Critics are panning his new novel, <I>Yellow Dog</I>, with the sort =
of=20
no-holds-barred zeal reserved for child porn users. It's happened =
before, of=20
course. Since the widely lauded <I>Money</I> in 1984, every new Amis has =
stirred=20
critics and supposed admirers to controversy, disappointments or barely=20
disguised envy. <ISLANDAD>
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<P>But more often than not the public focus has been on peripheral or =
passing=20
issues: his marriages (two), his teeth (fully and expensively remade), =
his=20
record book advance ($1.25 million from HarperCollins for <I>The=20
Information</I>), his personal tragedies (a cousin murdered by multiple=20
killer/child abuser Fred West), his fights with famous friends (Julian =
Barnes,=20
Christopher Hitchens), his alleged anti-semitism (hotly denied). </P>
<P>Mewshaw, a London-based American writer and reviewer, said: "I think =
here, in=20
England, there's an obsession with literary tittle-tattle, with literary =
scandal. In Martin's case, a lot of it is driven by envy. There's a =
feeling that=20
he's somehow had an advantage that others haven't. His father was =
Kingsley Amis,=20
he's clever, he's an Oxford [University] guy. [In the US], no one would =
know or=20
care."</P>
<P>This time, the critics in Britain, some of them fellow writers, have =
gone for=20
the jugular. "A strange, sad stew of a novel," wrote Matt Thorne in the=20
<I>Independent on Sunday</I>. Amis is "a talent on its last legs", =
opined Peter=20
Kemp for <I>The Sunday Times</I>. But such banter was nothing compared =
with the=20
pasting he received from novelist Tibor Fischer, whose <I>Voyage To The =
End of=20
the Room</I> has come out at the same time. Writing in London's <I>Daily =
Telegraph</I>, Fischer, a long-time Amis acolyte, likened <I>Yellow =
Dog</I> to=20
finding "your favourite uncle being caught in the school playground,=20
masturbating". "<I>Yellow Dog</I> isn't bad, as in not very good or =
slightly=20
disappointing. It's not-knowing-where-to-look bad."</P>
<P>This attack on a man who produced some of the most memorable, comic =
and=20
stylised books of the 1980s and '90s has brought forth Amis supporters, =
most=20
notably the writer John Walsh, with an analysis of why younger novelists =
in=20
particular appear to hate him. "The generation now in the ascendant - =
the Zadie=20
Smith generation - don't venerate language in the same way," he wrote in =
London's <I>Independent</I>. "They venerate storytelling, personal =
testimony,=20
plausible characters, understandable endings." </P>
<P>The furore has also delivered at least one spectacularly wrong - and=20
uncorrected - story. "Amis out of Booker with dog of novel," crowed =
<I>The=20
Sunday Times</I>, on August 10. Five days later, the longlist was =
announced in=20
alphabetical order. Just under Monica Ali's <I>Brick Lane</I> sat Amis. =
The=20
bookies instantly installed <I>Yellow Dog</I> at 8/1, joint second =
favourite=20
with Melvyn Bragg's <I>Crossing the Lines</I> and behind J.M. Coetzee's=20
<I>Elizabeth Costello</I>. It is perhaps worth noting that Fischer's =
novel did=20
not get a look-in.</P>
<P>The chairman of the judging panel, John Carey, an academic and =
broadcaster,=20
described the book as "not perfect ... but it's got writing in it that's =
better=20
than anything on the list". The Booker shortlist comes out on Tuesday. =
If=20
<I>Yellow Dog</I> makes it, it will be the closest Amis has got to the =
prize=20
since <I>Time's Arrow</I>, 12 years ago. There will be a very long laugh =
coming=20
from Amis's home in north London. </P>
<P>But the damage has, in part, been done. In his memoir, =
<I>Experience</I>=20
(2000), Amis questioned the dictum that all publicity is good publicity. =
"As a=20
New York publicist put it: 'What, the guy's an arsehole so I'll go and =
buy his=20
novel?' ." </P>
<P>As he sits in a fug of roll-your-own fags, Amis, just turned 54, is =
feisty,=20
but concedes the critics have landed a punch or two. "It exhausts me, =
and it=20
contaminates me, these rounds of abuse.</P>
<P>"It's always a new low every time I have a book out. It is ill will, =
and a=20
sort of irrational ill will. They all so piously say they loved =
<I>Money</I> or=20
whatever, but if I produced <I>Money</I> now, it would be savaged. I'm=20
everything they hate. It's not envy any more; it's sort of corroded down =
to=20
hatred."</P>
<P>But how does he explain it? "What they [the novelists turned critics] =
don't=20
like is, to them, my stuff now is like a drone of superiority; they =
don't like=20
that it reminds them how semi-literate they are. What they don't like =
also is=20
any sense of distance between the writer and the reader. It's got to be =
a more=20
chummy and intimate and collegiate activity. When I read Saul Bellow, =
that=20
distance is vital to the experience, but, for them, any kind of humility =
is a=20
disgrace. I don't envy them their future of no comedy, no style, no =
talent. You=20
feel their sourness coming into you, but it doesn't make me doubt for a =
second=20
the quality of what I do."</P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I>, the first Amis novel since the noir-ish, shortish =
<I>Night=20
Train</I> in 1997, shares many of the preoccupations of his previous =
work.=20
Sleaze, sex and low-life scum - journalists, actors, porn stars and =
crims - ooze=20
from its pages and envelop and infect all social strata, from the =
British royals=20
down (or should that be up?). Actor-turned-writer Xan Meo, the book's =
genesis=20
and lead male, is relentlessly and violently punished. He probably =
deserves=20
it.</P>
<P>Such characters are, says Amis, essential for his style of comedy. "I =
don't=20
feel disgust for them. In fact, I feel love for them because you =
couldn't put=20
them on the page otherwise. You need these characters for comedy. If you =
are=20
basically a comic writer, then you can't put in the saintly =
philanthropist, the=20
hard-working nurse. What's she going to do in a novel by me? There's =
nothing for=20
her to do. That's how it's always been done in comedy - you hold the =
wicked up=20
to ridicule." </P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I> is not the sort of book you'd buy for your mother =
or even=20
for your mother-in-law, unless she had more than a passing interest in =
and=20
tolerance of pornography, incest and debased royals. "I had to evolve a =
sort of=20
porno style for it. I wanted to take a look at this extreme wing of =
contemporary=20
sexuality and also the weird example of the war between the sexes that =
it=20
presents. The men in this pitiful position, they're just cocks, you =
know." </P>
<P>Driving much of the slapstick humour are Amis's royals, where King =
Henry IX,=20
known as Hotty, is attended by an equerry called Bugger, a man servant =
called=20
Love, and lover called He Zizhen. </P>
<P>Amis has plenty of fun with word play. Henry IX, hapless, lazy and=20
unopinionated, is a sort of reverse of the real Prince Charles, whom =
Amis met at=20
Clive James's dinner table a few years ago, when the Prince of Wales had =
more=20
time for celebrity friends as well as his celebrity wife.</P>
<P>"They were very enjoyable evenings," recalls Amis. "He's nice, Prince =
Charles. Got a good heart, I think. [But] I wouldn't wish the job on his =
son."=20
</P>
<P>Sons and daughters feature heavily in the Amis world, both real and =
imagined.=20
His sons from his first marriage, to Antonia Phillips, are now in their =
late=20
teens. His daughters from his second, to Isabel Fonseca, are just at or =
nearing=20
school age. He concedes his daughters, in particular, have softened him =
as a=20
person, possibly as a writer. "You spend a lot of your time on what =
Nabokov=20
called beauty assimilation," he says. "It's a tremendous part of what =
you get=20
back, looking at these exquisite little creatures."</P>
<P><I>Yellow Dog</I> turns on the very real sense felt by Amis that, in =
the=20
aftermath of the September 11 terrorist strikes, in a world of chaos and =
random=20
murder, it is impossible for a father to protect his children. The book =
takes=20
the theme to its outer and most grotesque limits, with an examination of =
incest.=20
</P>
<P>"It was always an illusion that you can protect your children but it=20
[September 11] shoved it into you that you couldn't. And that's half the =
crisis=20
that the Xan Meo character had, that he wanted to protect them but he =
can't and=20
it all gets primitive in him. I also had the shadow of Fred West over =
me, as=20
well. He thought by sleeping with his daughters, he was wonderfully =
enveloped in=20
them. He thought he was protecting them. It's a kind of anti-love, =
mistaken for=20
love by the parent." </P>
<P>It is almost 30 years since Amis won the prestigious Somerset Maugham =
award=20
for his first novel, <I>The Rachel Papers</I>. <I>Yellow Dog</I> is his =
10th.=20
Another is, he says, already brewing. You can't say he hasn't been =
productive,=20
hasn't tried, that he hasn't been compelled to write. "I don't feel =
myself=20
unless I am writing," he says. "You'd feel something was absent from the =
day if=20
you didn't have an hour, not necessarily brooding or reading and stuff." =
</P>
<P>Throughout, the critics have been carping at him for being more =
interested in=20
dazzling with style than satisfying with substance, for being clever and =
inventive with language rather than telling good yarns. </P>
<P>But the harshest criticism of the new novel is that it lacks even =
that. Erica=20
Wagner, in <I>The Times</I>, argued that "there is only so far a certain =
language can go. As the world changes, so must the writer: one sees =
little sign,=20
in <I>Yellow Dog</I>, of any change in Martin Amis." </P>
<P>This is a new flank in the assault on Amis, and one that leaves him =
caught=20
between two stools. On one hand, he celebrates the well-crafted, =
innovative=20
sentence as the essence of his work. "I would say there's an emphasis on =
style=20
but it's not something that is slapped on like a paint job at the end. =
It's=20
inherent in the way you perceive. You are just trying to get those =
perceptions=20
over as exactly and expressively as possible, with a rhythm that =
pleases, that=20
is in tune with you, with me, as I write."</P>
<P>But, of <I>Yellow Dog</I>, he says: "I would have thought in this one =
I have=20
held back a bit on style, so that the plot could be freer. I think it's =
my world=20
but it's mobilised, set in motion more efficiently than I've done =
before.=20
There's more sort of drive." </P>
<P>Most other writers can have both - but then most other writers can't =
do=20
either as well as Amis. No matter where he goes, it seems, a bunfight or =
word=20
fight will follow. Last year, Amis turned his attention again to =
non-fiction,=20
releasing <I>Koba the Dread</I>, a study on the ravages and utopian =
idealism of=20
Stalin. </P>
<P>Exactly why Amis decided to lend his name and talents to such a =
weighty and=20
well-explored subject remains a puzzle. It sparked an outcry, =
especially, as=20
John Walsh notes, when he also used the book to discuss the death of his =
sister,=20
Sally, and compared the night cries of his then two-year-old daughter, =
Clio, to=20
the terror of Stalin's victims. </P>
<P>A heated exchange with Hitchens, one of his oldest friends and to =
whom much=20
of the book was addressed, ensued. At ringside, the critics clapped, =
jeered and=20
suggested Amis had lost what little plot he ever had. Worse still, he =
had become=20
serious. An Amis friend, who declined to be named, said: "His admirers =
think=20
they own him. It's a kind of stalking."</P>
<P>Amis says the Hitchins spat was nothing more than that - he also says =
his=20
friendship with Barnes is on the mend - but makes no apologies for =
"giving=20
myself a political education". It felt right to have a "vacation from =
fiction"=20
and he was fascinated by Stalin, "and with this question of utopianism =
and what=20
a sort of dreadful joke it is on human nature that the proposed utopia =
becomes=20
its hellish opposite almost overnight".</P>
<P>"We love ideology," he says. "We fucking love it. We much prefer to =
believe=20
than to think and to know. Belief is such a release. It's heaven. You =
join a=20
crowd, a herd, and the release of your individuality is, it would seem,=20
delicious to a human being."</P>
<P>Amis will escape the British winter this year for Uruguay. He and his =
wife,=20
who is half Uruguayan, have built a house up the coast from Montevideo =
and may=20
spend the next year there, as their children learn Spanish and the =
adults visit=20
cousins. </P>
<P>For all the barbs sharpened in London's literary salons, Amis is very =
much an=20
English writer, and it will be interesting to see how his pen flows from =
a spot=20
south of the equator. Amis takes solace in the fact that further north, =
in the=20
US, his books tend to gain a more even reception, as they do in =
Australia. "In=20
fact, they get me more in America than they do here. The Americans, =
unlike the=20
Brits, are not famed for irony, are they? And the Brits are. And yet =
they don't=20
get it."</P>
<P>He plans a book of short stories before attempting the next novel and =
would=20
like to visit Australia for the first time.</P>
<P>But the longest journeys are, as always, being taken in his head. He=20
confesses to having gained a certain mellowness and insight with age =
and,=20
without a hint of bitterness or late-onset midlife crisis, accepts that =
he is on=20
the downward side of life's slope. </P>
<P>These feelings and their counterpoint in male anxiety - a favourite =
Amis=20
subject - are likely to inform the next novel.</P>
<P>"I said, as early as in <I>The Information</I> [1995], that at a =
certain=20
point, writers stop saying hi and start saying bye," he says. "That was=20
premature in a way, but now I really am feeling that. You are no longer, =
when=20
you are out in the street, you are no longer feeling your way into it. =
You are=20
feeling your way away from it, and, funny enough, it looks much more =
precious=20
and moving going the other way. No, it's not a midlife crisis - it's a =
deep=20
rhythm, a master rhythm of human life."</P>
<P>Amis has little idea where the rhythm will take him. It doesn't, he =
says,=20
fill him with dread. But wherever it leads, there will be someone ready =
to have=20
a go. "It's my fate," he says.</P>
<P><B><I>Yellow Dog</I>, by Martin Amis, is published by Random House,=20
$45.</B></P></DIV>
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