The Pregnant Widow

I came to Martin Amis via Christopher Hitchens. Since Hitch was, arguably, the most well-read person on the planet, I had lofty expectations. For my first foray into Amis-Land, I will simply say that I am whelmed. Not overwhelmed. Not necessarily underwhelmed. Just whelmed. The lion's share of The Pr......more

An enigmatic novel about the so called sexual revolution from a male perspective. Most of it is set in an Italian castle in the summer of 1970 where Keith, the narrator, is trying to mastermind the seduction of the beautiful Scheherazade despite the presence of his girlfriend. There are some very fu......more

Another through-the-roof masterpiece from Martin Amis. It's distressing how consistently he turns them out. I have only read The Pregnant Widow once, and have settled on the following thoughts to share for now. 1. Those of us used to the usual Amis verbal fireworks will have to wait. He wants a slowe......more

Martin Amis’s The Pregnant Widow is the first book I’ve finished in 2016 (I wanted to write “this year” then I remembered that once I had started a review with “this summer” and later, while re-reading it, I had to investigate to learn what summer I was talking about ☺ ) and what a good beginning it......more

2.5 Se esistesse una macchina del tempo e Jane Austen, invece di pascolare per il Somerset, avesse potuto fare una gita nel 1970, probabilmente questo romanzo l'avrebbe scritto lei, battezzandolo qualcosa tipo Scopate e Pregiudizio, Uccelli e Sentimento o Titsfield Park. Se invece il salto nel tempo......more