The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000 Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000 Book

In Martin Amis's War Against Cliché, a selection of critical essays and reviews published between 1971 and 2000, he establishes himself as one of the fiercest critics and commentators on the literature and culture of the late 20th century. (He has already established himself as one of the most controversial and original novelists writing in English with novels such as Money and Time's Arrow). In his "Foreword" Amis ruefully admits that his earlier reviews reveal a rather humourless attitude towards the "Literature and Society" debate of the time. Yet this only adds to the fascination of the collection, as Amis gradually finds his critical voice in the 1980s, confirming his passionate belief that "all writing is a campaign against cliché". In the subsequent sections of the book this war leads to some wonderfully cutting and amusing responses to whatever crosses his path, from books on chess and nuclear proliferation to the novels of his hero Vladimir Nabokov and Cervantes' Don Quixote. Praise for his literary heroes is often fulsome--JG Ballard's High-Rise "is an intense and vivid bestiary, which lingers in the mind and chronically disquiets it"--but his literary wrath is also devastating in its incisiveness. Thomas Harris's Hannibal is dismissed as "a novel of such profound and virtuoso vulgarity", whilst John Fowles is attacked because "he sweetens the pill: but the pill was saccharine all along". Often frank in its reappraisals (Amis conceded to being too hard on Ballard's Crash when reviewing the film many years later), some of the best writing is reserved for his journalism on sex manuals, chess and his beloved football. War Against Cliché will provoke strong reactions, but that only seems to confirm, rather than deny the value of Amis' writing. --Jerry Brotton Read More

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  • Amazon

    Paperback. Pub Date: 2002 Pages: 528 in Publisher: Like John Updike VintageEbury. Martin Amis is the pre-eminent novelist-critic of his generation The War Against Clich-is a selection of his reviews and essays over the past a quarter -century. It contains pieces on Cervantes. Milton. Donne. Coleridge. Jane Austen. Dickens. Kafka. Philip Larkin. Joyce. Waugh. Lowry. Nabokov. FR Leavis. VS Pritchett. William Burroughs. Anthony Burgess. Angus Wilson. Saul Bellow . Philip Roth. Shiva and VS Naipaul. Kurt Vonnegut. Iris Murdoch. Norman Mailer. Gore Vidal. Don DeLillo. Elmore Leonard. Michael Crichton. Thomas Harris - and John Updike. Other subjects include chess. nuclear weapons. masculinity. screen censorship. juvenile violence. Andy Warhol. Hillary Clinton. and Margaret Thatcher.

  • Foyles

    Like John Updike, Martin Amis is the pre-eminent novelist-critic of his generation. The War Against Cliché is a selection of his reviews and essays over the past quarter-century. It contains pieces on Cervantes, Milton, Donne, Coleridge, Jane Austen, Dickens, Kafka, Philip Larkin, Joyce, Waugh, Lowry, Nabokov, F. R. Leavis, V. S. Pritchett, William Burroughs, Anthony Burgess, Angus Wilson, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Shiva and V. S. Naipaul, Kurt Vonnegut, Iris Murdoch, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, Michael Crichton, Thomas Harris - and John Updike. Other subjects include chess, nuclear weapons, masculinity, screen censorship, juvenile violence, Andy Warhol, Hillary Clinton, and Margaret Thatcher.

  • BookDepository

    The War Against Cliche : Paperback : Vintage Publishing : 9780099422228 : 0099422220 : 07 Mar 2002 : Like John Updike, Martin Amis is the pre-eminent novelist-critic of his generation. Naipaul, Kurt Vonnegut, Iris Murdoch, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Don DeLillo, Elmore Leonard, Michael Crichton, Thomas Harris - and John Updike.

  • Blackwell

    War Against Cliche is a collection of essays. Like John Updike, Martin Amis is the pre-eminent novelist-critic of his generation. The War Against Cliche is a selection of his reviews and essays over the past quarter-century. It contains pieces...

  • Waterstones

    ''War Against Cliche'' is a collection of essays.

  • TheBookPeople

    This is a stunning collection of essays.

  • 0099422220
  • 9780099422228
  • Martin Amis
  • 7 March 2002
  • Vintage
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 528
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