Before I met him
Blah Blah so now I feel it's not fair that I haven't talked about JULIAN BARNES, who is sort of this rival of Martin Amis's even though his writing is not at all similar, thankgod
In a way I think Barnes is better, more consistent and more universally appealing1 so please if you're looking for author recommendations, read Barnes first:
* A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters - clever, great idea and well-done. This was a set-text for one of the English courses [that I didn't take] at uni
* Talking It Over - the first Barnes novel I read and I loved it, I chose to read it because it was mentioned in a short story I liked by Emily Perkins.
* Flaubert's Parrot, Cross Channel, Staring At The Sun, The Porcupine are all good
well, don't read these first:
* Before She Met Me and England, England are okay but missable
* Love, Etc2 is the sequel to Talking It Over and it stinks. When I finished this I was angry at the crappy disappointingness
* I haven't read Metroland but the film was kind of okay except when (spoiler) he dumps the French girlfriend and I was all BUDDY ARE YOU ON CRACK
* I think I've read Arthur & George but I just can't remember
1see The Information by teh Amis, where the Obviously Meant To Be Amis Narrator is Totally Fucking Livid that his Obviously Meant To Be Barnes Colleague's books are more popular than his
2Love Etc is also a song by the Pet Shop Boys and a perfume from The Body Shop
In a way I think Barnes is better, more consistent and more universally appealing1 so please if you're looking for author recommendations, read Barnes first:
* A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters - clever, great idea and well-done. This was a set-text for one of the English courses [that I didn't take] at uni
* Talking It Over - the first Barnes novel I read and I loved it, I chose to read it because it was mentioned in a short story I liked by Emily Perkins.
* Flaubert's Parrot, Cross Channel, Staring At The Sun, The Porcupine are all good
well, don't read these first:
* Before She Met Me and England, England are okay but missable
* Love, Etc2 is the sequel to Talking It Over and it stinks. When I finished this I was angry at the crappy disappointingness
* I haven't read Metroland but the film was kind of okay except when (spoiler) he dumps the French girlfriend and I was all BUDDY ARE YOU ON CRACK
* I think I've read Arthur & George but I just can't remember
1see The Information by teh Amis, where the Obviously Meant To Be Amis Narrator is Totally Fucking Livid that his Obviously Meant To Be Barnes Colleague's books are more popular than his
2Love Etc is also a song by the Pet Shop Boys and a perfume from The Body Shop