Deploying his own life story in the service of his most audacious work of fiction yet - and featuring some of the greatest literary and artistic figures of the twentieth century - Amis reimagines his past and the events that have shaped his life and work.
His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the unseen portrait of Martin Amis extraordinary life, as a man and a writer.
This novel had its birth in a death that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his twenties, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.
What begins as a thrilling tale of romantic entanglements, family and friendship, evolves into a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die?
In his search for answers, Amis surveys the great horrors of the twentieth century, and the still unfolding impact of the 9/11 attacks on the twenty-first and what all this has taught him about how to be a writer. The result is one of Amis greatest achievements: a love letter to life that is at once exuberant, meditative, heartbreaking and ebullient, to be savoured and cherished for many years to come.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787332751
Number of pages: 560
Weight: 1041 g
Dimensions: 242 x 166 x 50 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
The Mick Jagger of literature... Amis is the most dazzling prose stylist in post-war British fiction. -- Mick Brown * Daily Telegraph *
Amis's prose, as you should know by now, has a rush and a power that sweeps you along like surf : you're never going to get a sentence that isn't pulling its weight... The scene at Hitchens's deathbed affected me more than anything else I can remember reading . -- Nicholas Lezard * Spectator *
Inside Story gathers just about every weapon in the writer's armoury... Tender...corrosively witty...swaggeringly funny... It exhilarates. -- Boyd Tonkin * i *
Highly entertaining. -- Emma Brockes * Guardian *
Amis's nonpareil sentences brim with warmth, candour, soul ... He has generously laid out this all-you-can-eat Amis buffet. Dig in. -- Janice Turner * The Times *
Consistently intelligent and compulsively readable... [Amis] applies his insight and curiosity as a novelist to this stylish and genuine account of his development as a writer. The result reaches the heights of his finest work. * Publishers Weekly *STARRED REVIEW* *
Profoundly moving ... If Experience was Amis elucidating the visible events of his life , the one-10th of the iceberg sitting above the waterline, then this book is a dark and tender exploration of the part that lies submerged . -- Richard Strachan * Herald Scotland *
You really feel that in this book you are getting to the heart of one of the most remarkable writers of our time . -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Express *
A deeply engaging 'novelised autobiography' that focuses on love and death... Wonderfully readable, rich in the familiar Amis pleasures of wit, insight, and well-formed anecdotes. An intriguing, often brilliant addition to a storied career. * Kirkus *STARRED REVIEW* *
Deploying his own life story in the service of his most audacious work of fiction yet - and featuring some of the greatest literary and artistic figures of the twentieth century - Amis reimagines his past and the events that have shaped his life and work.
His most intimate and epic work to date, Inside Story is the unseen portrait of Martin Amis extraordinary life, as a man and a writer.
This novel had its birth in a death that of the author's closest friend, Christopher Hitchens. We also encounter the vibrant characters who have helped define Martin Amis, from his father Kingsley, to his hero Saul Bellow, from Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated his twenties, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps.
What begins as a thrilling tale of romantic entanglements, family and friendship, evolves into a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die?
In his search for answers, Amis surveys the great horrors of the twentieth century, and the still unfolding impact of the 9/11 attacks on the twenty-first and what all this has taught him about how to be a writer. The result is one of Amis greatest achievements: a love letter to life that is at once exuberant, meditative, heartbreaking and ebullient, to be savoured and cherished for many years to come.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787332751
Number of pages: 560
Weight: 1041 g
Dimensions: 242 x 166 x 50 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
The Mick Jagger of literature... Amis is the most dazzling prose stylist in post-war British fiction. -- Mick Brown * Daily Telegraph *
Amis's prose, as you should know by now, has a rush and a power that sweeps you along like surf : you're never going to get a sentence that isn't pulling its weight... The scene at Hitchens's deathbed affected me more than anything else I can remember reading . -- Nicholas Lezard * Spectator *
Inside Story gathers just about every weapon in the writer's armoury... Tender...corrosively witty...swaggeringly funny... It exhilarates. -- Boyd Tonkin * i *
Highly entertaining. -- Emma Brockes * Guardian *
Amis's nonpareil sentences brim with warmth, candour, soul ... He has generously laid out this all-you-can-eat Amis buffet. Dig in. -- Janice Turner * The Times *
Consistently intelligent and compulsively readable... [Amis] applies his insight and curiosity as a novelist to this stylish and genuine account of his development as a writer. The result reaches the heights of his finest work. * Publishers Weekly *STARRED REVIEW* *
Profoundly moving ... If Experience was Amis elucidating the visible events of his life , the one-10th of the iceberg sitting above the waterline, then this book is a dark and tender exploration of the part that lies submerged . -- Richard Strachan * Herald Scotland *
You really feel that in this book you are getting to the heart of one of the most remarkable writers of our time . -- Jake Kerridge * Sunday Express *
A deeply engaging 'novelised autobiography' that focuses on love and death... Wonderfully readable, rich in the familiar Amis pleasures of wit, insight, and well-formed anecdotes. An intriguing, often brilliant addition to a storied career. * Kirkus *STARRED REVIEW* *