<![CDATA[House of Meetings]]>

false <![CDATA[House of Meetings]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167095463m/18826.jpg 18826 9 With The House of Meetings, Martin Amis may finally have written the novel his critics thought would never come. By taming his signature (and polarizing) stylistic high-wire act, Amis has crafted a sober tale of love and cynicism against the grim curtain of Stalin's Russia. The book's anonymous narrator -- a Red Army veteran and unapologetic war criminal -- and his passive, poetic half-brother, Lev, become pinned in a politically dangerous love triangle with the exotic Zoya, though their tactics (and intentions) are as divergent as their personalities. Swept up in the wave of Stalin's paranoid purges, the brothers are sent independently to Norlag, a Siberian internment camp where their respective fates are cast through their contrasting reactions to the depravity of the prison. Zoya and Lev share a night in "The House of Meetings," a room provided for conjugal visits with the prisoners, and the events of that night reverberate through the decades, the details of the liaison remaining concealed until the story's devastating denouement. Amis's main achievement is his depiction of the cruel realities of the Soviet gulags. Drawing heavily on his research for Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million, his half-history/half-memoir of political imprisonment and mass killing in Soviet Russia, Amis has created his own Animal Farm -- without metaphors to mask the blood, filth, and death of the camps. Amis vividly recreates the social structure of gulag life, as the inmates and guards sort themselves into distinct hierarchies and stations in their struggles to survive the rigors of the gulag. Here The House of Meetings may accomplish what Amis had intended for the unfocused Koba: to cast a searing light on an often overlooked episode of 20th century inhumanity, injustice, and murder. --Jon Foro 1457807 book 16 1 2007 House of Meetings total:500|5:70|4:175|3:183|2:52|1:20| 500 1723 803 103 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:41:14 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:41:14 -0800 2009 Martin Amis has long been frustrated by the lack of outrage at the atrocities committed by the Stalinist regime, which he equates with the Third Reich. (He explored Soviet Communism in 2002's Koba the Dread.) Building on extensive research, Amis attempts to bring the era to light in this ambitious t...

more...]]> 5 3 false false Mon Mar 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 13:34:01 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 13:48:05 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Aug 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 18:16:42 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 18:39:29 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Sep 07 08:51:47 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 08:52:51 -0700 2007 1 1 false false Mon Feb 18 12:22:47 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 11 17:18:12 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jan 22 08:12:02 -0800 2009 Tue Aug 04 06:55:29 -0700 2009 Koba the Dread were engrossing and beautifully written and his indignation at how the murder and enslavement of millions were largely ignored by Western lefties (like his father, Kingsley Amis) was passionate and moving. So I was quite exci...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Sep 30 04:03:05 -0700 2008 Thu Nov 27 07:09:05 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 27 11:42:21 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 22 21:36:07 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 27 11:41:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 17 11:45:02 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 17 11:51:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Mar 27 08:53:05 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 27 09:21:50 -0700 2008
This book is a memoir written by a war and prision camp survivor to his daughter.

Amis writes like delillo mixing nouns and verbs, which I love. He uses not borning metaphores. And the book is totally void of emotion....more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Jan 19 14:16:31 -0800 2008 Sun Jun 22 16:49:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 08:49:48 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 21 10:01:20 -0800 2008
The protagonist/narrator *de...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 14 19:35:35 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 18 22:06:47 -0800 2007
The story is absolutely bleak—the tale of two Russian brothers who “love” the same woman and are sent to the Gulag—and the main character completely detestable (he confesses to bein...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 09:04:12 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 24 09:13:30 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jul 11 13:30:30 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 01:29:07 -0700 2007
Five Things Regarding the Writing of House of Meetings:

1. "I'm very reliant on the unconscious mind to write, but it wouldn't do a damn thing for me. The book was imploring me to w...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Sep 09 18:20:29 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 18:20:41 -0700 2007
When I refer to House of Meetings as a pretty book I am not referring to the subject matter, plot or style of the book. I am instead referring to the lovely way that Martin Amis can string words together to make beautiful lyrical sentences, succinct and inv...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 14:10:23 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 14:20:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Oct 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 16:04:01 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 30 16:12:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 29 11:05:58 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 07:37:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 14 06:20:39 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 02:03:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=18826