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Distributor: Random House, Inc. Availability: On Sale Date:Oct 27, 2020 Carton Quantity:12 $36.00 CAD
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Catalogues
Inside Story
By (author):
Martin Amis
9780735281301
Hardcover
English
General Trade
FICTION / Literary
Oct 27, 2020
$36.00 CAD
Active 6.46 x 9.61 x 1.13 in | 1.8 lb 560 pages 20 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT Knopf Random Vintage Canada Knopf Canada
Active 6.46 x 9.61 x 1.13 in | 1.8 lb 560 pages 20 ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT Knopf Random Vintage Canada Knopf Canada
- Description
- Author Bio
- Reviews
Martin Amis’s dazzling autobiographical novel of a unique literary life seen through the lens of friendships, family, sex and love, is wise, warm, heartbreaking and funny: the heart-to-heart testimony of an incomparable writer.
This is the portrait of an extraordinary life lived by a great writer. Martin Amis leads us through boisterous romantic entanglements and literary friendships, the encompassing ties of family to generously revealing details about how to write (from the master of prose style), and finally to the intimate sorrow of a death closely felt.
Inside Story had its birth in a death—that of the author’s closest friend, the beloved thinker and writer Christopher Hitchens. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic conquests and the latest literary gossip (not to mention ideas, books and where to lunch), Hitchens was Martin’s wingman and adviser, especially in the matter of the alluringly amoral, unforgettable Phoebe Phelps—an obsession Martin must somehow put behind him if he is ever to find love, marriage, a plausible run at happiness. We meet the literary giants who influenced him—his father Kingsley Amis, his hero Saul Bellow, the weirdly self-finessing poet Philip Larkin, and significant literary women, from Iris Murdoch to Elizabeth Jane Howard.
Moving among these greats to set his own path, Martin’s quest is a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to be a husband and father, how to grieve, and how to die? In his search for answers, he surveys the horrors of the twentieth century, and the still-unfolding impact of 9/11 on the twenty-first, and considers what all this has taught him about how to be a writer.
The result is a love letter to life and to the people in his life, which is simultaneously a wonder of literary invention—wise, meditative, heartbreaking, funny, and as engaging as a novel—that achieves a new level of confidentiality with readers.
Story Locale: New York; London; Jerusalem; Saint-Malo
This is the portrait of an extraordinary life lived by a great writer. Martin Amis leads us through boisterous romantic entanglements and literary friendships, the encompassing ties of family to generously revealing details about how to write (from the master of prose style), and finally to the intimate sorrow of a death closely felt.
Inside Story had its birth in a death—that of the author’s closest friend, the beloved thinker and writer Christopher Hitchens. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic conquests and the latest literary gossip (not to mention ideas, books and where to lunch), Hitchens was Martin’s wingman and adviser, especially in the matter of the alluringly amoral, unforgettable Phoebe Phelps—an obsession Martin must somehow put behind him if he is ever to find love, marriage, a plausible run at happiness. We meet the literary giants who influenced him—his father Kingsley Amis, his hero Saul Bellow, the weirdly self-finessing poet Philip Larkin, and significant literary women, from Iris Murdoch to Elizabeth Jane Howard.
Moving among these greats to set his own path, Martin’s quest is a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to be a husband and father, how to grieve, and how to die? In his search for answers, he surveys the horrors of the twentieth century, and the still-unfolding impact of 9/11 on the twenty-first, and considers what all this has taught him about how to be a writer.
The result is a love letter to life and to the people in his life, which is simultaneously a wonder of literary invention—wise, meditative, heartbreaking, funny, and as engaging as a novel—that achieves a new level of confidentiality with readers.
Story Locale: New York; London; Jerusalem; Saint-Malo
A RIPPING GOOD READ: Long-time Knopf Canada author Martin Amis’s best novel in recent memory. A kind of spiritual sequel to Martin’s beloved and groundbreaking memoir Experience.
SELF-REVEAL: Martin’s novel is indeed his own story; the book is full of both gossip and a deep understanding about himself, his weaknesses and strengths as a father and as a son, as a writer, a lover and a friend.
STARRING CAST FOR ENGLISH MAJORS: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Hitchens, Saul Bellow, and other significant literary figures are players in Martin’s story. His intimacy with them and his consideration of the writing life will draw an audience that cares about literature and how the sausage is truly made.
“[Amis’s] most beautiful book…We soar through time at terminal velocity, toward a destination that, on the best of days, terrifies. Books like this one slow us down…Amis has been called a bad boy for decades now, but so few who’ve written about him, whether in amity or discord, have bothered to notice the overriding imperative of his art: to be circumspect, to be generous, to be good-humored, to be kind” —Tom Bissell, The New York Times Book Review
“Inside Story is a book of gloriously unchecked preoccupations: sex, Saul Bellow, literature, sex, Philip Larkin, anti-Semitism, aging, smoking, sex, Christopher Hitchens, terrorism, suicide. Did I mention sex?…Amis’s recollections of flirting and seductions in 1970s London are like strikes of lightning, vivid glimpses of a young writer on the make…Fans will revel in the excess and piling up of Amis’s sentences, which are both wired and ruthlessly controlled.” —Taylor Antrim, Vogue
“Warm, generous and deeply moving, whether on the subject of fatherhood, love or friendship (particularly with Christopher Hitchens). This is not only the best book Amis has written in years; it is up there with Money and London Fields as the finest work he’s produced.” —Alex Preston, The Observer
“Now 71, this once-young buck of the British literary scene cannot help but look death, mortality and the meaning of life squarely in the face. And he does so with a singular panache and much offhanded wit…[Inside Story] caps Amis’ estimable literary career with cheeky candor and more than a touch of razzle-dazzle.” —Robert Weibezahl, BookPage
“Brilliant…Abounds with entertaining anecdotes…[Amis] explores the rich terrain of how matters of the heart (and loins) inform art…Stylistically, Inside Story is most reminiscent of Dylan’s Chronicles, a master artist following his muse to create a genre-defying and career-defining work.” —Bill Kelly, Booklist (starred review)
“Hitchens lived his life as extravagantly as he loved it, and Amis’s elegant tribute to his friend is a monument to both of them.” —Kyle Smith, The New Criterion
“Deeply engaging…Resembles Sebald’s influential genre-straddlers with the inclusion of photos…The book is almost everywhere 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 Reviews (starred review)
“Consistently intelligent and compulsively readable…Amis again proves himself to be as savvy a thinker as he is a writer as he 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)
“One of the best qualities of the book is its regard for the reader… Inside Story contains wonderful considerations of what it is to be a writer, the importance of reading while writing, and writing while reading. It offers, in a way, what Amis’s parents gave him: an insight into the lives of writers…His love for literature is earnestly shared [and] a lifetime of scholarship is reflected in the quality of the writing.” —Sinead O’Shea, The Millions
