I also wanted to do Farewell to Arms, but I have to say that The Sun Also Rises--brittle and the most nihilist Hemingway--will always be the superior book for me. Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?!?
Not one of my faves either, except for that scene where he's stacking trout between layers of ferns. Have you ever read "A Farewell to Arms"? Far and away my favorite of his novels
Oddly, I have not--I think I must have been boycotting Ernie back in the day and then never caught up with him. So "...Farewell" is in the top next five on my list.
Yeah, after The Information I think his novels got less interesting. And oh dear how he has to tell the reader that the Anglophone trad is Social Realist All the Time! My takeaway from this is that Amis was rather quite invested in a happy family life. His father was too. I think it helped justify enunciating really parochial views on novels and literature. I go on because Amis was the Novelist of the 80s. In retrospect he wasn't but Pynchon was gestating another Big Book and DeLillo had yet to write Libra. The Brat Pack were one-offs and while Ellis seemed cool, his zero-degree minimalism was a dead end, just as one character ends up dead in a swimming pool. But there was Amis who was doing broader things--accessible is the word rather than realist--and made you laugh too. Of course now the 80s is about the rise of Cyberpunk and nothing else really matters.
One of his best novels…
I also wanted to do Farewell to Arms, but I have to say that The Sun Also Rises--brittle and the most nihilist Hemingway--will always be the superior book for me. Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?!?
Just finished The Sun Also Rises. I had no idea I had never read it. Worth reading to consider Hemingway’s style and persona. Not one of my faves.
Not one of my faves either, except for that scene where he's stacking trout between layers of ferns. Have you ever read "A Farewell to Arms"? Far and away my favorite of his novels
Oddly, I have not--I think I must have been boycotting Ernie back in the day and then never caught up with him. So "...Farewell" is in the top next five on my list.
For some reason, Martin & Kingsley Amis. For my sins.
Hahaha. My favorite Martin Amis book is that memoir "Experience" that he wrote all about his dad! What a fantastic book that is
Yeah, after The Information I think his novels got less interesting. And oh dear how he has to tell the reader that the Anglophone trad is Social Realist All the Time! My takeaway from this is that Amis was rather quite invested in a happy family life. His father was too. I think it helped justify enunciating really parochial views on novels and literature. I go on because Amis was the Novelist of the 80s. In retrospect he wasn't but Pynchon was gestating another Big Book and DeLillo had yet to write Libra. The Brat Pack were one-offs and while Ellis seemed cool, his zero-degree minimalism was a dead end, just as one character ends up dead in a swimming pool. But there was Amis who was doing broader things--accessible is the word rather than realist--and made you laugh too. Of course now the 80s is about the rise of Cyberpunk and nothing else really matters.