Visiting Mrs. Nabokov and Other Excursions

I've always enjoyed Amis's nonfiction excursions - in many ways they are the equal, if not the superior (I'm looking at you, Yellow Dog), of his literary adventures. Here we find some criticism, some travel writing of a sort, and some cultural examinations; never less than interesting and engaging, they are sometimes superlative, and certainly the sort of thing that any lover of David Foster Wallace's nonfiction would appreciate.

This is an easy fast read covering sports from poker to darts and many pieces on various writers. It is these writer pieces that I felt the most interesting. They range from Saul Bellow (about More Die of Heartbreak), Madonna (Sex), Asimov, Salman Rushdie in the wake of The Satanic Verses controversy, the title piece, etc,

What a pleasant discovery this book was - Martin Amis as a journalist. Amusing and surprising. Astute and natural in his description. I liked it very much.

Warily looking back through these pieces, I glimpse a series of altered or vanished worlds, icluding those of my younger and much younger selves. (p. ix)

Martin Amis is often remarkably candid in his introductions. His wary looks at his work could serve as a warning to the reader: not much of interest here.

The journalistic work of Martin Amis deserves neither to be called essays, nor literary criticism. The written pieces collected in Visiting Mrs Nabokov, and other excursions were all written between 1977 and 1990, but appear in no particular order. They lack both depth and inspiration. Most are occasional pieces that served that purpose in another time, describing people and habits that are now either long dead or disappeared. None of show more them demonstrate any particular insight or essaistic interest to lift them to a higher level, nor is there the suggestion that the selection presents a coherent choice of authors and works that might lead to a better understanding of Martin Amis.

Most of the pieces are too short, an average length of eight pages, to develop an interesting point of view. Besides literary pieces, consisting of reviews and interviews, there are journalistic pieces about other topics, including tennis, chess, the Rolling Stones, the Frankfurt Book Fair, RoboCop II, Cannes, Carnival and Madonna.

Several of the pieces are written in the chummy style, tpical of Martin Amis which suggests that he himself is the binding factor, acting at the same level, forcing himself as much into the spotlight as the object of his writing. Thus, authors who are described or interviewed are often deliberately described as being very close to Amis himself. show less

В жизни Мартина Эмиса все способствовало тому, чтобы он стал литератором. Родился он в семье известного писателя Кингсли Эмиса, дом которого посещали многие поэты и прозаики. В Оксфорде одним из его преподавателей был Джонатан Вордсворт - потомок поэта Уильяма Вордсворта. В 21 год Мартин Эмис уже писал книжные обозрения для еженедельника. В 24 Мартин Эмис опубликовал свой первый роман. Через два года - show more второй, а еще через три - свой третий роман "Успех".

На сегодня Мартин Эмис - автор трех десятков книг и, по признанию критиков, один из самых значительных авторов Британии, наряду с Джоном Фаулзом, Джулианом Барнсом и Иэном Макьюэном. show less