John's review
House of Meetings
by Martin Amis
John's review
House of Meetings by Martin Amis
John's review
rating:
recommended for: self-loathing Russophiles, Amisheads
A triangular love affair with the classic Amis triangle: the forceful psychopath, the gentle object of his "protection" and "scorn", and the woman who makes pretty bad decisions all around. It worked better in London Fields, Success, and pretty much everywhere. Add to that a view of contemporary Russia that is not accurate and one of Amis's irritating narrative structures (bouncing back and forth between the actual story and the main character's contemporary reflections on yacht travel and feral dogs, depending) and you get a book that's readable, at least, but not much else. Amis's sentences are actually restrained here, which is good--parts of the book have a new subtlety that I really do like seeing from him, and every sentence is still obviously slaved over for years, maybe--but even the really good sentences never manage to resolve into a clear, interesting plot. It's just Amis going through the narrative motions, albeit in Russia and with lots of wacky cli...more
