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Money

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 7,638 ratings · 456 reviews

Time Magazine included the book in its list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The story of John Self and his insatiable appetite for money, alcohol, fast food, drugs, porn and more, Money is ceaselessly inventive and thrillingly savage; a tale of life lived without restraint, of money and the disasters it can precipitate.

Paperback, 394 pages

Published April 7th 2005 by Vintage (first published 1984)

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Nov 09, 2009 MJ Nicholls rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, sassysassenachs

I would like to begin this review with a statement: I am not a rich man. The highest amount of capital I have ever accrued amounts to approximately two thousand British pounds, and after reading Money: A Suicide Note from Martin Amis, I can also state in all conviction – that will do quite nicely for me.

I picked this book up expecting a white-hot satire on the power of money to corrupt and infect the individual, and to rot society from the inside out. I also, perhaps, on some level, needed some...more

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Jun 17, 2010 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no

Shelves: substance-related-disorders, here-is-new-york, leetle-boys, bad-reads, dicklits

I loathed this book, especially its reekingly horrid, brain-damagingly idiotic mess of an ending, which felt like watching a drug-addicted alcoholic trainwreck you've seen self-destructing for years finally have his royal rock-bottom meltdown into utter psychosis, destitution, and multiple organ failure.

"But Jess!" you might be yelling. "Wasn't that the point?"

Probably, almost definitely, but really, I gotta ask: was this point really one that needed to be made? I think not, yet close to a year...more

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May 12, 2012 William rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20-ce, uk, fiction, signed, candidate-to-reread

This was really an essential text for me. I first read it shortly after it came out in the U.S. (1985) and it was like nothing I had ever come across before. A hydrogen-bomb of a novel. The sheer speed of the narrative, the word play, the telling detail. In short Money possessed the masterful technique that causes a narrative to jump from the page. Though "originality" we now know is something of a misnomer--every artist has his or her models and Amis has always been quite frank about his--never...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

I've read a lot of hideous men novels in 2012-- not as any planned thing...been hanging out with The Undergound Man (Notes from the Underground), Bob Slocum (Something Happened), William Frederick Kohler (The Tunnel) and a bunch of nasty folk in Kosinski's Steps. It's mid-December so it looks like John Self, the fat guy with the bad rug who narrates Money may be the hideous man to round the year out. They're all, ultimately, sympathetic (er, maybe not the voices in Steps and Kohler very rarely),...more I've read a lot of hideous men novels in 2012-- not as any planned thing...been hanging out with The Undergound Man (Notes from the Underground), Bob Slocum (Something Happened), William Frederick Kohler (The Tunnel) and a bunch of nasty folk in Kosinski's Steps. It's mid-December so it looks like John Self, the fat guy with the bad rug who narrates Money may be the hideous man to round the year out. They're all, ultimately, sympathetic (er, maybe not the voices in Steps and Kohler very rarely), but Self maybe the most so, partially because he actually is the victim of the kind of conspiracy that many of these hideous men like to make up for themselves (Self, early in the novel, begins receiving threatening phone calls from someone who seems to be stalking him), partially because he's a hopeless addict, to quick food, alcohol, strippers, "handjobs", hookers, and especially pornography (which he applies the logic of to everything) and money (is there a book whose title appears more often in the text?). He's trying to quit, but can he without quitting the twentieth century? He's us barreling to an end, not toward a destination, forsaking real pleasure for the ability to kill pain, choosing present over a future Self can't believe in.

All these hideous men novels are voice novels. Self has got a expansive vocabulary for a now-rich once--well...still yob, and can turn a phrase. (He has this character named Martin Amis re-rewriting a script for the film he's trying to get made. Maybe that guy is giving him some material to use...) Self's addictions lead him to some chilling places, but the novel is also funny. You get Self's very literal reading of Animal Farm. You get him dealing with a quartet of deluded actors/actresses with ridiculous demands (some stuff here maybe cribbed from the time Amis worked on film Saturn 3). You get Self and Amis playing down their crying at the broadcast of the Princess Di wedding. I find Amis usually manages to render one genius character per novel, and Money benefits from that character being made the sole voice. (less)

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Oct 09, 2010 Mykle rated it 5 of 5 stars

UPDATE: Did I really not give this five stars? What the fuck was I thinking? I rate all other books on Goodreads in terms of as-good-as-MONEY, not-as-good-as-MONEY, and possibly-better-than-MONEY-in-some-ways-but-then-again-not-really.

I don't know what book I thought I was going to find out there, that was going to be an entire star better than Martin Amis' MONEY, but I haven't found it yet.

(If I ever do encounter such a mindbusting blockbender of a book -- I hear "Twilight" is good -- then I ma...more UPDATE: Did I really not give this five stars? What the fuck was I thinking? I rate all other books on Goodreads in terms of as-good-as-MONEY, not-as-good-as-MONEY, and possibly-better-than-MONEY-in-some-ways-but-then-again-not-really.

I don't know what book I thought I was going to find out there, that was going to be an entire star better than Martin Amis' MONEY, but I haven't found it yet.

(If I ever do encounter such a mindbusting blockbender of a book -- I hear "Twilight" is good -- then I may be forced to come back here and revise Martin Amis' MONEY back down to four measley stars, in order to give that new one five, since it's important that all books in my library someday be shelved linearly from "best" to "worst" so I can prioritize which ones to heat my house with. But that occurrence seems unlikely. For now: five stars. Consider my previous rating "pilot error.")

As an aside, tho, if any Goodreads Developers happen to be reading this: they should consider developing and releasing into the wild another star, a discretionary sixth star -- specifically, the power to harness such a star (in extraordinary situations only) for the purpose of reviewing those rare few books that are just thermonuclearly great. But this power should be granted only to certain users: only those users who have demonstrated consistently exceptional dedication, taste, subtlety, restraint and eloquence in their Goodreadsing. Myself, for example. Possibly others, too. But I would be willing to beta test this new star. Here is why:

Stars are excellent motivators. They are shiny, pointy, universally recognized as commemorative of achievement. Many Americans were trained at an early age to produce well-written text, or at least the correct answers to multiple-choice questions, in exchange for shiny adhesive decorative gorgeous gold stars. Did I mention shiny? certain individuals (hi!) are inordinately hypnotized by them, especially when wasted after a nice night rocking out, and I would like six of them to play with, please.

This new sixth star -- the initial sighting of which, like a tenth planet or a third leg, will send shockwaves of startled awe though the Goodreadsphere, and perhaps mark the dawning of a "new era" in Goodreads "history" -- ought really, I think, to be markedly different, better in every way, than the current barely-adequate "starter quintuplet" of self-similar, mildly drop-shadowed, vaguely Carl's-Juniory stars. The sixth star should be larger, with more bling. It should blink, or rotate, or respond to clicks in a trendy Web 2.0 fashion. Perhaps this new sixth star should be six-pointed, in order to symbolize the number six, as well as maybe Jewishness in some way. For instance: I could use this sixth start to review Joshua Cohen's Witz, if by chance I read that book and it turns out to be significantly better than Martin Amis' MONEY. That would be a great day for several different symbolic systems, if that were to happen -- although perhaps a melancholy one for Martin Amis. (But, BTW, if there are cultural sensitivity issues that might arise from Goodreads handing its first six-pointed star to a gentile (hi!) then I would totally understand, and a seven-pointed star would be totally acceptable instead, assuming it was sufficiently awesome.)
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Mar 13, 2013 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary

This book took me a LONG time to read, and the despicableness of the protagonist, John Self, had a lot to do with it. I just couldn't get past how disgusting and loathsome he was, and didn't understand why anyone would want to waste their time reading about such an unlikable character. After struggling through the first half, however, the second half gripped me and I found that I couldn't put it down.
Amis is an excellent writer, using witty, refined prose to describe a fairly abhorrent lifestyl...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 3 of 5 stars

When he was interviewed in London on July 10, 2002 Martin Amis was asked if he has any ideal reader in mind whenever he writes. Part of his answer was:

"...I think one shouldn't pussyfoot, and just say that you write the stuff that you would like to read. So you write for yourself, no doubt about that. But I do have a sort of romantic idea of someone in their twenties, of a certain bent, and when they pick up a book by me, they think--as I have done on several occasions--'Ah, here is one for me....more When he was interviewed in London on July 10, 2002 Martin Amis was asked if he has any ideal reader in mind whenever he writes. Part of his answer was:

"...I think one shouldn't pussyfoot, and just say that you write the stuff that you would like to read. So you write for yourself, no doubt about that. But I do have a sort of romantic idea of someone in their twenties, of a certain bent, and when they pick up a book by me, they think--as I have done on several occasions--'Ah, here is one for me. Here is a writer who I'll have to read all of, because they're speaking directly to me, and they're writing what I want to read.' And sometimes you're doing the signing queue and a reader comes past and you sign the book, and there's a little exchange of the eyes, where you think, 'Ah, that's one of them.' So there is that ideal reader. And it's someone who's discovering literature and homes in on you. I'm aware of such readers."

I gave this book[which sometimes carries the title Money:A Suicide Note] 3 stars first, because I want to read about money [of having much of it and not having much of it:] and second, it made me want to go one reading more of Martin Amis [this was my second book of him, the first--Koba the Dread--I liked even better:]. But in didn't get more than 3 stars from me because I didn't feel it speak directly to me.

The principal protagonist, John Self, had a lot of money (spoiler alert takes effect here). With his money, he relentlessly indulged in his passions: good food, drinking, smoking, handjobs [masturbation, by himself or done by his girlfriend, hookers or any willing female:], blowjobs, sex [with his girlfriend, with a hooker, or with any willing female:], pornography [all kinds:], and his girlfriend [whom he knew does not really love him but hooks up with him only for his money:]. He also had another love interest, another female character who has her own money, and who may have loved him for what he is, but in the end he lost all these women.

Why did John Self have a lot of money? He was supposed to be in the tv commercial business, but you can't find a single sentence or paragraph in the book where you would find him . If his lunches, dinners and cocktails with some people could be considered "work", then that was his job: eating, dinking and talking. Thereafter, he simply gets tons of money.

How did he lose his money? That's for you to find out by reading the book. What did he do when he lost his money? He tried to kill himself but did not succeed. What was his life after this? Read the book.

Even with a lot of sex revolving around the still-moneyed John Self, you cannot find here any Harold Robbins-type of sex scenes. There is creativity and restraint in Martin Amis' language, yet the eroticism is still there. Pornography, but with a lot of class and language mastery. In this paragraph, if I may cite an example, you would wonder what John Self was doing, whether he was walking or what [I quote it first without its last and final sentence:]:

"As I walked home through streets the colour of oyster and carbon the air suddenly shivered and shook its coat, like a wet dog, like the surface of worried water. I paused--we all did--and lifted my face to the sky, as a slave or animal might lift its face, fearing punishment but risking it anyway. With banisters of sunbeams a lit staircase now lead straight to the blue heaven, far beyond the daily sky of empty eggtrays, full sinks, kitchen mists. 'Okay. Show me something,' I said, and wiped my face with my hand. Up in the clear distance basked a hollow pink cloud, a rosy cusp fastened by tendrils at either end, like a vertical eye, a vertical mouth. In its core lay a creaturely essence, meticulous, feminine...Dah--do I push that thought away? Issuing from my head, can pornography now shape the clouds and hold all sway in the middle air? Wait...the rose, the mouth, the glint. Come on, if that is what it looked like then that is what it looked like. I am probably not alone in supposing that I am shaped by how I see things."

What the hell John self was doing here? Walking, looking up the sky, and waxing poetic about the clouds? No. He was lying down. Right above his face was...well, no need to say what it was. Let me just give you here the last sentence of the above-quoted paragraph:

"And that cloud up there certainly looked like a pussy to me."

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May 17, 2013 Lynne King rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: definitely-to-read, literature, uk-fiction, abandoned

I made an unwise choice here. I was swayed by the good reviews I read and naturally assumed the book would be excellent.

I didn't like the character of John Self at all. I found him empty in "spririt", didn't go with his life style, neither was I taken with the form of the writing, as it lacked, to me, any sense of art or beauty. So the book has been despatched to the "clouds" in Kindle to enjoy eternity in the ether.

Normally the reviewers are very good and I can be persuaded to follow their way...more

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Oct 24, 2012 soul rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

В първата 1/3 от книгата богат арогантен дебелак от рекламния бизнес снове между Лондон и Ню Йорк, подготвяйки първия си филм и се опитва да задържи една жена до себе си. За разнообразие се пуска и на всяка срещната (почти без успех) и някакъв го тероризира по телефона. Непрекъснато говори за пари, яде по 7+ хамбургера, пърди, бие се, повръща, прави си чекии, оригва се, пие литри алкохол и т.н. Обаче нито може да пие като Буковски, нито да пише като него и затова не знам (въпреки някои интересни...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Martin Amis's well known character John Self of Money (1984) reminds me of the protagonist in Lights Out In Wonderland (DBC Pierre) and the characters of The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas) in that they are unlikable people. Perhaps Money was the modern template for such characters? I’m certain there are earlier works with these types of characters, Wikipedia tells us:

(Martin Amis) … has thus been portrayed as the undisputed master of what The New York Times called "the new unpleasantness." (Stout, Mir...more Martin Amis's well known character John Self of Money (1984) reminds me of the protagonist in Lights Out In Wonderland (DBC Pierre) and the characters of The Slap (Christos Tsiolkas) in that they are unlikable people. Perhaps Money was the modern template for such characters? I’m certain there are earlier works with these types of characters, Wikipedia tells us:

(Martin Amis) … has thus been portrayed as the undisputed master of what The New York Times called "the new unpleasantness." (Stout, Mira.” Martin Amis: Down London’s mean streets”, The New York Times, 4 February 1990.*1 Influenced by Saul Bellow , Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce, as well as by his father Sir Kingsley Amis.

To follow the trail of unlikable characters I would need to go back and read a lot of novels, however, the difference for me between the characters of The Slap, Lights Out In Wonderland and Money is that John Self is a character that you cannot but help to grow fond of and I was compelled to go on his ride with him, Lights Out in Wonderland has this to some extent, The Slap does not, as clever and closely written and I’m sure commendably exhausting to spend so much head time with those characters, I felt alienated from The Slap’s characters. Amis draws you in with John Self’s first person voice and meta-fictional attention to the reader, wishing he could have our opinion on his suit, ‘I wish you were here to tell me it looked okay’ and showing concern for us as human beings, are we ‘okay’, giving us advice on the meaning of life and parenting in a non patronizing but advisory-from-experience nature. The confessional nature of the telling of the story puts the reader in the position of a kind of parental guardian. John Self is brutally honest with us and knows he is not perfect and doesn’t make allowances so we happily and with concern for him go along for the ride.

Money demonstrates that it is not a likable character readers and critics look for in a book – it’s great writing with style and wit and this is evident in the recognition and awards he receives still. The Times named him in 2008 as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Money’s humour - I more than once chuckled stupidly while reading – is complex, there is comedy in John Self’s constant addressing of the reader, there is comedy in John Self’s voicing his opinion on, and dialogue with the character Martin Amis, and there is comedy in the one liners and the self deprecating Martin Amis style.

This book being over 25 years old has been reviewed and analysed time and again and has ridden the tests of critics addressing the sweeping themes on humanity: greed, debauchery, suffering and honesty, (which is still relevant today), and expressing issues of plot, mysogynism and on the placing of himself as a character: asking if this is a device used to make sure we as readers are clear that the character John Self (with the name ‘Self’) is clearly not in any way autobiographical because how could it be with the character of ‘Martin Amis’ in the book.
My own meaningless opinion about this book is it is a great read with style, wit, intelligence, fun and great meta-fiction and the placing of Martin Amis as a character blissfully allows for dialogue with a constant undertone of humour.

‘I feel strangely protective of little Martin here: in a way, I would hate to damage him, or to see him damaged. But on another level, on another night, I can hear myself – I can smell myself – giving Martin the pasting of his life, a real bad one, roused, blind with nothing mattering. I sense he senses this sometimes, this stickiness between us. I scare him, for all his talk. Yes, he’s clever, and I wish I had his articulation, but I sussed him for a wimp, right from the start.’ Pg 239

You would not tolerate John Self in your real life for a minute but he was great to follow around for a while and I think I am going to miss him.

Money by Martin Amis was first published in 1984

*(1) Stout, Mira. "Martin Amis: Down London's mean streets", The New York Times, 4 February 1990.(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Patrick Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The film Chinatown is an intriguing assertion of authorship by a master storyteller. I'm not talking about Robert Towne's screenplay, brilliant though it is, but about the film Roman Polanski made from it. Not only is the film terrific, it's also an argument in favor of the director as the singular lord, the Author, if you will, of a film. Think back on the movie for a moment, and you'll recall that there are two characters that Jack Nicholson's Jake can never quite lick. One is the vile Noah Cr...more

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Dec 11, 2012 [P] rated it 3 of 5 stars

It’s not very often that I praise or defend Charles Bukowski. I think his work [Post Office, aside] lamentable guff, and his supporters [his ardent supporters], er, somewhat challenged. And yet, one thing you could say about Chuck is that he knew his limitations, he knew what he could do and [admirably] stuck to that. He was like that friend of yours who understands his type, is happy with the girls he attracts, and doesn’t try shooting for ones totally unsuited to him or out of his league. Mart...more It’s not very often that I praise or defend Charles Bukowski. I think his work [Post Office, aside] lamentable guff, and his supporters [his ardent supporters], er, somewhat challenged. And yet, one thing you could say about Chuck is that he knew his limitations, he knew what he could do and [admirably] stuck to that. He was like that friend of yours who understands his type, is happy with the girls he attracts, and doesn’t try shooting for ones totally unsuited to him or out of his league. Martin Amis, on the otherhand, is the kind of friend who would spend an entire night trying to chat up a hardcore lesbian.

He is a writer who seems to have no understanding of what he is good at, and what, indeed, he sucks at. And believe me, when he sucks he really fucking sucks. At its worst his work is almost offensive, not morally but artistically. Nearly every Amis novel I have read has impressed me, and bamboozled me with its shitiness, in equal measure. Take Money, which contains, in places, prose to die for. There were times when reading this book that I was prepared to sacrifice a goat to it, and dance around a copy while smeared with its blood.

The principle strand of the plot is fine too. John Self is in New York in order to make a movie; he is an overweight boozer, with an obnoxious streak, who is gunning for the American Dream but likely to have a coronary before he even gets his foot on the ladder. He is, I must say, one of Amis’ least ridiculous characters. The people who populate his work are cartoonish to say the least, but Self feels almost kosher, almost like a real person.

Money is, as Martin’s novels almost always are, also very very funny. Indeed, he is as talented a comic writer as I have ever read. The real jewel this time around is Lorne Guyland, an aging once-star who is on board to appear in Self’s movie. There is no sense of subtle characterization, of course, but his ranting demands for script changes, and desperate desire to convince everyone that he is a still-virile superstud had me doubled up with laughter. For these reasons, I simply cannot give Money less than 3 stars, and it pains me not to be able to bestow more on it.

And yet, it would be remiss of me not to probe in slightly more detail some of the, er, issues I have with the work. My first quibble is a minor one in the greater scheme of things, but I can’t let it pass without comment. I said in my review of Bret Easton Ellis’ Lunar Park that a writer ought never to include himself as a character in his novel, which is, unfortunately, what Amis does here. Unlike Ellis in Lunar Park the author is present only fleetingly, but that is almost more irritating than if he had been a major character. One can’t help but wonder, what is the point? Is it clever? Emphatically, no. Is it funny? Daring? No, twice no. Why, then? Ego, my friends. Ego: that insatiable little imp! Interestingly, Kingsley Amis [Martin’s father, of course] also objected to Martin appearing in Money.

A more serious issue with the book is the tiresome criminal caper that ultimately serves up the lame, preposterous, twist at the end. I’m on record in criticising Amis’ preoccupation with criminals, and, more specifically, with the apparent need to crowbar some kind of mystery-thriller element into, if not all, then, certainly, his most revered, work [London Fields, Money and The Information]. You know the phrase too many cooks spoil the broth? Well, too many plots spoil the book. Amis’ plots always strike me as a weird form of self-harm, or self-sabotage.

In conclusion, while Money contains many laudable elements it is also prone to Amis’ usual errors of judgement. His goodwill-sapping insistence on postmodern pyrotechnics [faulty, disappointing pyrotechnics; fireworks that sputter and die, sparklers that won’t ignite], and overstuffing his work with distracting subplots, is akin to the writers of The Simpsons suddenly deciding that Homer isn’t funny enough to be the focus of the show and that Lisa ought to be the real star. And just imagine, people, how truly awful that would be. (less)

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Jan 03, 2008 Alanna rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: humans

There's one line in here that is possibly the funniest sentence I've read, ever, and my thinking that sure makes me a lousy feminist, but if you've read "Money" and you have any sense of humor you know exactly of which line I speak... not as moving as "Time's Arrow" but with just as much to say about the twentieth century, this novel has helped to cement my admiration of Amis, his alleged conservatism notwithstanding. I'd like to play chess with him, even though I don't know how.

(Hi Schmoopy)

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Apr 07, 2009 R. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2006

The trials and tribulations Amis had in penning the script for Saturn 3 thinly disguised as a novel.

What's a Saturn 3? It, along with Mars Attacks, is (are?) Amis' gift(s) to the silver screen.

And speaking of Tom Jones, there is a very ridiculous Tom Jones joke in Yellow Dog.

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Jan 04, 2013 Dermot Mccabe rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

Disappointed. I expected to be really impressed. I had this notion that Martin Amis was one of the best writers currently writing. This book did not engage me. I felt, at times, that the author was flaunting the central character as a real shit and almost daring the reader to somehow resist empathising with him. I did not empathise at any stage with John Self. he was a shit to begin with and a shit at the end. It was therefore a chore to keep reading. I didn't really care what happened to him.
I...more

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Jan 03, 2013 Will rated it 3 of 5 stars

"California, land of my dreams and my longing.

You've seen me in New York and you know what I'm like there but in L.A., man, I tell you, I'm even more of a high-achiever - all fizz and push, a fixer, a bustler, a real new-dealer. Last December for a whole week my thirty-minute short Dean Street was being shown daily at the Pantheon of Celestial Arts. In squeaky-clean restaurants, round smoggy poolsides, in jungly jacuzzis I made my deals. Business went well and it all looked possible. It was in t...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Troy Parfitt rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Money, it's always the money."

John Self isn't a very nice guy. He's a money-man who spends his time between London and New York doing what money-men do: making money. Or so we think. John drinks too much, watches too much pornography, gets too many massages, and winds up in too many fights. He's hedonism personified, with a touch of violence, so details are a little fuzzy. Are those contracts he's signing? Are his friends really his friends? Does he know what he's doing? We're not sure and neit...more "Money, it's always the money."

John Self isn't a very nice guy. He's a money-man who spends his time between London and New York doing what money-men do: making money. Or so we think. John drinks too much, watches too much pornography, gets too many massages, and winds up in too many fights. He's hedonism personified, with a touch of violence, so details are a little fuzzy. Are those contracts he's signing? Are his friends really his friends? Does he know what he's doing? We're not sure and neither is he. John fronts for B-movies and has to deal with flaky actors. He has a girlfriend named Selina and knows she's gouging him, but he's too pathetic to find someone else. Selina, by the way, isn't very nice either. No one is, and there's nobody to root for, but you keep reading anyway, bemused by John's hidebound worldview, his complete absence of culture, and his deep-seeded misanthropy. In short, our hero has no redeeming qualities, yet you want to know what happens to him, sometimes feel sorry for him, and hope he doesn't get what's coming to him. Why?

The book is fascinating because it's pushing 400 pages and, besides a few plot twists, not much happens. It's true that 50 pages could have been shaved, but things don't stay dull for long, oh no. There are rewards for pressing on. Amis knows you're being patient and where he's taking you. On p. 359, John, who's begun reading novels at the behest of a new love-interest, says, "Toward the end of a novel you get a floppy feeling. It may just be tiredness at turning the pages. People read so fast - to get to the end, to be shot of you. I see their problem. For how long do you immerse yourself in other lives? Five minutes, but not five hours. It's a real effort."

But it's not a real effort to read this book. It's witty, dark, hilarious, and exceedingly well-written. Amis is an incredible writer who creates culture where none exists, who paints scenes that few living writers can. And the awkward, deadpan humour is fantastic; very British, very funny. Some parts were so comical I reread them and laughed twice. Money might be the best postmodern novel out there. It's humorous, but serious; you laugh out loud, but it's deeply disturbing. And so it should be.

You've probably heard that Amis writes himself into this novel. His father, Kingsley Amis, also a novelist, tossed the manuscript across the room (and never read the book) when he'd seen what young Martin had done. But young Martin did it with great effect. Amis's character occasionally enters to perplex John Self even more; Amis (the character) is there during John's demise; he tries to warn John, but John won't listen. He only listens to money.

This was my third Amis novel. I read The Rachel Papers and Night Train, which were good, but Money is in a different league, and I've heard London Fields is even better. It must be something. I don't think Amis is known as a humourist; he should be. He's possibly more literary than anyone alive, yet the guffaws, intertwined with the darkness, just keep coming. Six stars.

Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World
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Nov 24, 2012 Mikael Kuoppala rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Martin Amis's fifth novel "Money" is a chaotic depiction of the breakdown of an identity as well as a brutal analysis of the absurdity of modern western lifestyle of indulgence and empty hedonism. The novel reminded me of Charles Bukowski's brilliant writing with its hectic, intense narration and thematic directness. There is a plot, but the narration is still basically a sequence of nonevents that flow over the nearly overwhelmed reader with full force. The storytelling is truly unique with an...more Martin Amis's fifth novel "Money" is a chaotic depiction of the breakdown of an identity as well as a brutal analysis of the absurdity of modern western lifestyle of indulgence and empty hedonism. The novel reminded me of Charles Bukowski's brilliant writing with its hectic, intense narration and thematic directness. There is a plot, but the narration is still basically a sequence of nonevents that flow over the nearly overwhelmed reader with full force. The storytelling is truly unique with an odd yet compelling language forming wild, complex but easily flowing sentences.

It's really odd how the protagonist, John Self, serves as the only point of view as well as the narrator of the story, but is still intangible. He feels real and alive- at least in a sense- and the feeling of being inside a character's psyche is one of the main points of the novel. This combined with a clear personal arch should make him a character you feel like you get to know, but I still have no idea about who he is. And the fact that this didn't bother me at all during the reading process- on the contrary in fact- is truly a testament to Amis's ability to write.

At its very core this book is about our culture and its degradation under materialism. Now, 30 years after "Money," we still have a lot of discourse about the unavoidable fall of our lifestyle of consumption and excess, but the point of view is more ecological and pragmatic. "Money" sees our lifestyle's death as an unavoidability in itself, unconnected with natural resources or even the eventual release of the tension caused by inequality.

Money is exposed like a cancer that replaces cultural tissue, leaving only malignant growth where there once was human life. Currency is seen as a tool that has turned into the most worshiped god; we used to want power, happiness, closeness and security, but now we want only money. The idea reminded me of Michel Tournier's story "The Fetishist" where a man with an obsessive fetish for underwear develops an obsessive fetish for the dirty bills he uses to buy the underwear with. Through John Self Amis depicts the result of this process as applied to everything imaginable. And it feels very plausible, even familiar. The novel is almost eerie in places where Self momentarily sees money as a personified entity, a sadistic creature enjoying people's complete submission to its will.

"Money," like many truly excellent works of fiction, is filled with contradictions that only serve to animate the story further. It's almost naturalistically brutal and urgently opinionated, but at the same time it can be seen as a satire; a story from an alternate reality where everything is comically twisted. But is it simple anti-capitalist left wing propaganda with a comic twist? Propaganda, maybe. Simple, definitely not. And it all really works. This is pure substance, every single sentence, and it's a thought provoking and compelling read that won't leave you cold.(less)

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Sep 29, 2012 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

This is a hard book to review. 'Money'. I'll probably have to let the whole thing soak. It was brilliant, nimble, sharp, hard, completely balls-out-nuts and pornographic (not really in the PORNporn way, but in the MONEYporn way--yeah, folks, listen to the book you won't understand till you listen to it).

If you put 'Money' together with Gaddis' JRand Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities and then sprinkle it all with the vibe and intensity and amorality of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow you begin to...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Jean-marcel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read about seven of Amis's books now, and I'm pretty sure that this one is my favourite. here all the filth and vileness that Amis depicts has a really clear purpose and direction, the journey the narrator makes is extraordinarily well paced, there are many outright funny bits and some uncomfortably funny stuff too. Amis continues his tradition of writing the most unerotic sex scenes known to literature, and basically making the focus of his story a despicable lout whom you want so badly to...more I've read about seven of Amis's books now, and I'm pretty sure that this one is my favourite. here all the filth and vileness that Amis depicts has a really clear purpose and direction, the journey the narrator makes is extraordinarily well paced, there are many outright funny bits and some uncomfortably funny stuff too. Amis continues his tradition of writing the most unerotic sex scenes known to literature, and basically making the focus of his story a despicable lout whom you want so badly to hate but whom you end up feeling sorry for by the end. I found myself relating to John Self probably more than any other Amis protagonist...ought I to be disturbed by that?

As usual with Amis, there's some post-modern metafiction stuff going on, with Martin Amis himself being a very minor character in the book, and John Self himself occasionally showing flashes of true lucid clarity and intelligence you'd normally be skeptical of such an unrepentently illiterate, sad, frustrated filthmonger being able to come up with even if he were forced to stay sober for a year. The descriptions of Self's personal habits are hilarious, but the parts that tickled me most were his meetings with the various washed up movie stars, which were so pointed and dead on that they might just colour your impressions of blockbusters and their "leading lights" for the rest of your life. There's a clever double vision happening with the narrative, as the USA chapters alternate with the English ones, the American excursions being delirious, wild flights of fancy filled with real and imagined excess, while the "returns home" are grey, depressed, full of stinking pubs and zombie people and empty pornography. I think this mad bipolar way of looking at life ends up contributing much to why I feel so strongly about this one and end up empathising with Self in startling ways. Amis has hit on something pretty profound here that's difficult to articulate, but it has to do with the Trojan horse of modern western life, the illusion of money, and the need to break out of one's narrow, boxed-in world and heed the tantalising, alluring promise of being able to replace it with a ridiculous dream. For a while, john Self lives that dream, and he even attempts to find redemption through it, in a bumbling, clumsy way. It is these efforts, while crawling through the mud, to make himself into a better person, that are ultimately heartbreaking, and when the dream is punctured, there's still the return to Earth, and somehow John Self is not the same person he was at the outset. Maybe things will be better for him now...maybe. (less)

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Apr 07, 2012 Margarida rated it 2 of 5 stars

Uma história em torno do dinheiro e da importância que lhe dão. De vidas boémias e promíscuas. De sexo, prostituição, alcóol, droga, filmes, pornografia...

Este é um romance escrito no início dos anos 80 e é um longo monólogo sobre dinheiro, sobre o que a busca de dinheiro, abundância de dinheiro e falta do mesmo fazem à personagem principal, John Self. Ele é um realizador de publicidade de relativo sucesso que é convidado para produzir um filme intitulado inicialmente "Dinheiro Limpo" e posterio...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first of Amis' so-called "London trilogy" although much of its impetus comes from his fascination with New York (one shared by a number of his Oxford contemporaries and their London associates - e.g. Hitchens, Gully Wells, Anna Wintour - who moved here at the time). New York is presented in all its most lurid early 80s glory, with 24-hour booze and pornography to satisfy the most gluttonous. We also observe the ascendance of money which took place on both sides of the ocean at the time and n...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Cato rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: inesperadamente-bueno

No puedo creer que lo haya terminado en tres días, y mucho menos que me haya gustado. Y vaya que me costó trabajo en algunas partes. Es un libro que, en principio, debí de odiar. MONEY cuenta la historia del cineasta John Self, alcohólico, drogadicto... bueno, en realidad sería más rápido enumerar a qué no es adicto... y su eventual suicidio (y no, no estoy spoileando nada, el libro se subtitula 'A suicide note').

No se dejen engañar por la premisa (como yo). La verdad es que es un libro desagrad...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Few books on my list have been more difficult for me to review than this one. Many have placed "Money" among the most important books of the last fifty years. No one who reads this book can doubt Martin Amis' ability to write rich, powerful prose. Moreover, he has created a disturbing and powerful narrative voice, one that has as little respect for himself as he has for others. And that is the rub--at least for me. I found this a very slow read. I even considered putting it aside uncompleted, ev...more

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Feb 09, 2011 Marcelo rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I ended up liking this a bit more at the end than in the first 150 or so pages, but the fact is that it takes about half the book to get moving, and I was this close to giving up more than once and move on to something else. I get the point of this first half, but I think at times Martin Amis can fall too much in love with the way he writes and ends up weaving this circular pattern that is basically pointless, other than to show how well Amis writes (and while you can argue that the whole point...more

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Jan 09, 2011 Tortla rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: schooly, started-but-then-put-aside, writing-on-writing

I didn't care for the protagonist (based on the one chapter of this I read, which is probably all I'll ever read of this book because frankly I didn't care for the plot, either). He was too hedonistic and misogynistic and egotistical and generally unlikeable. I guess the character was well-developed and believable in his overwhelming disgustingness, but it wasn't particularly comforting or enjoyable to read. Even with the nifty references to Englishness which I got to feel worldly and London-nos...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Syzygous Zygote rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a very smart bit of literature, and Martin Amis's prose is a pure delight to read. The narrative is indulgently postmodern and very sophisticated; the entire novel is a giant, dizzying hall of mirrors. I saw crazy funhouse reflections of the narrator in many of the main characters, which gave me a very strange feeling of having seen just one character from a million different angles at the end. Amis's own cameo is clever and another funhouse mirror, and the script being written in the bo...more

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May 21, 2009 Paul Burry rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Standing in the nordic nook of the kitchen, I can gaze down at the flimsy-limbed joggers heading south towards the Park. It's nearly as bad as New York. Some of these gasping fatsos, these too-little-too-late artists, they look as though they're running up rising ground, climbing ground. My generation, we started all this. Before, everyone was presumably content to feel like death the whole time. Now they want to feel terrific for ever. ... I peer through the spectral, polluted, nicotine-sodden...more

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Aug 31, 2011 kathryn rated it 3 of 5 stars

the main character is gross, but it is set in the 80s in ny...so it has that going for it.

in the end-it, and the main character, grew on me. i mean, he is still pretty vile, but i liked the book. and boy can this martin amis character WRITE!

...With a flinch, I looked up: still no weather. sometimes, when the sky is as grey as this-impeccably grey, a denial , really of the concept of colour-and the stooped millions lift their heads, it's hard to tell the air from the impurities in our human eyes,...more

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Feb 27, 2008 Morgan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is another one of those hard livin', rules be damned books that make me think to myself the whole time, "Ok, dude, I get it- you like to get all fucked up and bone skanks, you self destructive pile of crap- I get it."

It was still somewhat enjoyable, but I just felt so tense the whole time, thinking to myself, "I could never live this way, not in a million years."

There were, however, several truly funny lines in this book. Several.

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About Martin Amis

Martin Amis is an English novelist, essayist and short story writer. His works include the novels Money, London Fields and The Information.

The Guardian writes that "all his critics have noted what Kingsley Amis [his father] complained of as a 'terrible compulsive vividness in his style... that constant demonstrating of his command of English'; and it's true that the Amis-ness of Amis will be recog...more

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Quotes from Money

“Oh Christ, the exhaustion of not knowing anything. It's so tiring and hard on the nerves. It really takes it out of you, not knowing anything. You're given comedy and miss all the jokes. Every hour you get weaker. Sometimes, as I sit alone in my flat in London and stare at the window, I think how dismal it is, how heavy, to watch the rain and not know why it falls.” — 48 people liked it

“You can kill time in a number of ways but it always depends on the kind of time you're fighting: some time is unkillable, immortal” — 23 people liked it

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