I don’t know what makes Inside Story a “novel” because it reads like what I’m fairly sure it is: a memoir. Maybe because, at times, Martin Amis adopts novelistic devices like third person perspective or because he was covering himself in relating the numerous conversations from decades past and wasn’t sure if the words he was attributing were accurate - maybe even some of the details about the people were made up? But I’m gonna give Amis the benefit of the doubt and treat this as nonfiction with a nominally stylistic veneer of fiction, ie. belonging to the genre of Truman Capote’s Nonfiction Novel.
Another giveaway is that Inside Story is a lot more jumbled and unfocused than any of his other novels I’ve read. It’s mostly about Amis’ memories of his literary father, the Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow; his actual authorial father Kingsley Amis’ friend, the poet Philip Larkin; his close friend, the essayist Christopher Hitchens; and his not-famous ex-girlfriend Phoebe Phelps. But there are a lot of tangents along the way: thoughts on suicidal ideation; the history of the novel; the state of Israel; a loving eulogy to his stepmother, the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard; 9/11; numerous tips on how to write; and myriad thoughts on writers in general.
Your enjoyment of the book will largely depend on how much you want to hear about Bellow, Larkin, Hitchens and Phelps. For me, I was there for Hitchens and Amis made me intrigued in Phelps, though Amis is a good enough storyteller to make Bellow and Larkin not uninteresting to read about at times. And his musings on the various other topics mentioned above weren’t boring either.
That said, there wasn’t much compelling about the Bellow sections until the end, when Bellow succumbed to Alzheimer’s, and even that was similar to anyone else dying of that terrible disease: tragically sad. Larkin too was another writer whose life wasn’t that exciting and felt slightly depressing to read about. I was surprised to find out that Larkin’s dad was a huge fan of the Third Reich though!
I’ve never been a fan of poetry but Amis clearly is and he quotes poems effusively throughout. Fine, but it didn’t make me appreciate the medium any more and I thought they didn’t illustrate his points any clearer (I find they rarely do). Amis also overdoses on footnotes - holy fucking christ, there are extensive footnotes in this book! I don’t mind the occasional footnote but there are too many here. Also, if you’ve read any guides on writing, Amis’ thoughts on writing aren’t going to blow your mind - besides gaining some insight into how he does it/his stylistic preferences, there’s not a lot of practical advice here that you won’t find in any how to write book (though I appreciate this isn’t the point of this book).
As a fan of Hitchens’ it was illuminating to read about Amis’ long-standing friendship with him, from their magazine days in the ‘70s to the very end in 2012 when Hitch died of oesophageal cancer (which Larkin also died of). Amis brings Hitch to life vividly and his words sounded exactly like his voice (if you’ve read his essays or seen any footage of him, you’ll know what I mean). The conversations were always witty, thoughtful and enjoyable to read. I didn’t realise Hitch had gay tendencies when he was younger but it’s not that unbelievable either.
Phoebe Phelps was an engaging character. Amis writes her very personably and she led an eventful life. She ties into some stuff involving his parents and Larkin but the supposed revelation was never convincing. Still, despite not being as famous as Bellow or Larkin, she was more fun to read about than either, and she obviously made a big impression on Little Keith (Hitch’s nickname for Amis) so it’s not hard to see why he’d include her in a book about this period of his life.
Inside Story is full of anecdotes on Bellow, Larkin and Hitchens, as well as Amis himself, and if those are writers you’re interested in, this one’s for you; if you’re not, you’re probably not going to get much out of this one. I thought the Hitchens/Phelps parts were more fascinating than not, the Bellow/Larkin stuff more boring than not, and the rest of it was a mix of both. I’m not sure this needed to be as long as 560 pages and the footnotes took the piss but, while not a must-read for most, this wasn’t a bad novel/memoir either.
Another giveaway is that Inside Story is a lot more jumbled and unfocused than any of his other novels I’ve read. It’s mostly about Amis’ memories of his literary father, the Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow; his actual authorial father Kingsley Amis’ friend, the poet Philip Larkin; his close friend, the essayist Christopher Hitchens; and his not-famous ex-girlfriend Phoebe Phelps. But there are a lot of tangents along the way: thoughts on suicidal ideation; the history of the novel; the state of Israel; a loving eulogy to his stepmother, the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard; 9/11; numerous tips on how to write; and myriad thoughts on writers in general.
Your enjoyment of the book will largely depend on how much you want to hear about Bellow, Larkin, Hitchens and Phelps. For me, I was there for Hitchens and Amis made me intrigued in Phelps, though Amis is a good enough storyteller to make Bellow and Larkin not uninteresting to read about at times. And his musings on the various other topics mentioned above weren’t boring either.
That said, there wasn’t much compelling about the Bellow sections until the end, when Bellow succumbed to Alzheimer’s, and even that was similar to anyone else dying of that terrible disease: tragically sad. Larkin too was another writer whose life wasn’t that exciting and felt slightly depressing to read about. I was surprised to find out that Larkin’s dad was a huge fan of the Third Reich though!
I’ve never been a fan of poetry but Amis clearly is and he quotes poems effusively throughout. Fine, but it didn’t make me appreciate the medium any more and I thought they didn’t illustrate his points any clearer (I find they rarely do). Amis also overdoses on footnotes - holy fucking christ, there are extensive footnotes in this book! I don’t mind the occasional footnote but there are too many here. Also, if you’ve read any guides on writing, Amis’ thoughts on writing aren’t going to blow your mind - besides gaining some insight into how he does it/his stylistic preferences, there’s not a lot of practical advice here that you won’t find in any how to write book (though I appreciate this isn’t the point of this book).
As a fan of Hitchens’ it was illuminating to read about Amis’ long-standing friendship with him, from their magazine days in the ‘70s to the very end in 2012 when Hitch died of oesophageal cancer (which Larkin also died of). Amis brings Hitch to life vividly and his words sounded exactly like his voice (if you’ve read his essays or seen any footage of him, you’ll know what I mean). The conversations were always witty, thoughtful and enjoyable to read. I didn’t realise Hitch had gay tendencies when he was younger but it’s not that unbelievable either.
Phoebe Phelps was an engaging character. Amis writes her very personably and she led an eventful life. She ties into some stuff involving his parents and Larkin but the supposed revelation was never convincing. Still, despite not being as famous as Bellow or Larkin, she was more fun to read about than either, and she obviously made a big impression on Little Keith (Hitch’s nickname for Amis) so it’s not hard to see why he’d include her in a book about this period of his life.
Inside Story is full of anecdotes on Bellow, Larkin and Hitchens, as well as Amis himself, and if those are writers you’re interested in, this one’s for you; if you’re not, you’re probably not going to get much out of this one. I thought the Hitchens/Phelps parts were more fascinating than not, the Bellow/Larkin stuff more boring than not, and the rest of it was a mix of both. I’m not sure this needed to be as long as 560 pages and the footnotes took the piss but, while not a must-read for most, this wasn’t a bad novel/memoir either.
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