Yellow Dog

Yellow Dog is a strange and deeply unpleasant novel where father-daughter incest is the central theme but also features tabloid journalism, pornography and the Royal Family.

The main character is Xan Meo, an actor turned author, and father of two young girls, who on a night out in London to celebrate the anniversary of his first marriage's decree nisi is clubbed over the head by two assailants. Before the assault he has a normal, healthy relationship with his wife daughters but after the attack his personality changes, he attempts to rape his wife and has incestuous thoughts about his eldest daughter, four-year-old Billie.

Clint Smoker, a tabloid journalist, writes for a sex-obsessed paper which appears to be based on the UK's Daily show more Sport called the Morning Lark and whose journalists routinely refers to its readers as "wankers". Smoker is the author of a column called "Yellow Dog", in which he states that raping 14-year-olds is fine if you've had a few drinks or they look 16, and that they're wearing school uniform counts as "provocation". When Smoker takes a trip to the US to visit the centre of the country's Californian sex industry the reader is given a long description of the evolution of various genres of sex films.

Henri IX is on the throne in Britain and despite being lazy is generally popular with his subjects. One day he receives a still of his 15 year-old daughter naked in a bath taken without her knowledge, as images and a DVD are released we learn that the princess was joined in the bath by the king's Chinese concubine. The images of the naked princess are widely circulated in the Morning Lark and the king along with his closest ally, nicknamed Bugger, (the Queen being on a life support machine in a Scottish hospital after a horse riding accident) try to find the source of the footage and to protect the young princess from the fallout.

There are several other smaller sub-plots, including a gangster narrative and a doomed flight, but they add little to the whole.

There is some humour within this book I found if it often more cringe-worthy than funny. However what is most dislikeable is that there seems to be a suggestion that father-daughter incest is quite normal and it is what leads many women to become involved in pornography industry both of which any right-minded person would find repugnant. Whilst the Royal Family are often a favourite target for satirists this felt over-egged as is Amis's representation of the class divide. Put simply other authors have done a far better job of it.

This is my third Amis novel, after Money and London Fields, and the one I disliked most. Whilst this may idea may have been OK the execution was poor. show less

I could not stay with this one. I found the comedy much too broad for my taste, and the idiom too cryptically British. And I am one of Amis's most devoted readers, too. I love Money and London Fields. I wish I could say why the britishisms in those novels did not prove as off-putting as the ones here. Oh well, I will give it another shake someday. Let me also cast a vote here for House of Meetings. Quite wonderful.

Another brilliant novel by the master of post-modern symbolism

Xan Meo es un hombre de múltiples talentos y algunos secretos. Actor, músico, escritor, y también hijo de un célebre delincuente. Una noche llega a casa, saluda a su mujer y se marcha al pub. Es verano, Xan se sienta a tomar su copa en la terraza y, al poco rato de estar allí, dos hombres le parten la cabeza a cachiporrazos. Se salvará tras una difícil convalecencia, pero será otro. Y tal como le anuncia Pearl, su áspera y combativa primera mujer, deberá acostumbrarse a su nuevo ser, y también deberán acostumbrarse todos los que le rodean. Sobre todo Russia, su actual mujer, y sus dos hijas, y también los dos hijos que tuvo con Pearl, porque el civilizado y encantador Xan dejará de ser el marido soñado y se convertirá en show more un antimarido, en un antipadre, en un hombre más violento, movido por impulsos primarios y con una sexualidad muy, muy perturbadora. show less

Xan Meo es un hombre de múltiples talentos: actor, músico, escritor, y también hijo de un célebre delincuente. Una noche, Xan se sienta a tomar una copa en la terraza de un pub y, al poco rato, dos hombres le parten la cabeza a cachiporrazos. Tras una difícil convalecencia será otro. Deberá acostumbrarse a su nuevo ser, como todos los que le rodean, porque Xan se convertirá en un antimarido, en un antipadre, movido por impulsos primarios y con una sexualidad muy perturbadora. Pero hay otros personajes que inciden en la vida de Xan. Clint Smoke, un periodista de un diario amarillista volcado en la pornografía y las noticias de escándalo, y también Henry England, el rey de Inglaterra y padre de la Princesita, a la que alguien show more ha fotografiado desnuda en su bañera. También está el misterioso Joseph Andrews, como una araña en el centro de una vasta red. show less

A trop vouloir faire la malin avec son intrigue à tiroirs (et encore c'est un euphémisme), Martin Amis dilue son écriture dans un méli-mélo satiro-politico-policier besogneux.