As a completist for some authors (Roberto Bolaño, Milan Kundera, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Haruki Murakami, Thomas Pynchon, George Perec, Philip Roth, ...) this little book by Martin Amis was still missing. It was originally published in 1987 and brings us five stories that are all related to nuclear power and the consequences of the arms race. We were in full Cold War at that time, and with Reagan as president, he wanted to play it hard. Not that Reagan features in Amis's stories, but nuclear destruction of the world was then very high on everybody's agenda.
The stories are more a kind of exploration of different situations, narrated with power and stylistic try-outs. Not everything works, possibly because at times the plot development is a little immature ("The Immortals"), or silly ("The Puppy That Could"). It lacks the acid cynicism and deep humanism that pervades his later work, but because it's Amis, the end result is still above the average.
No comments:
Post a Comment