#72 Money, by Martin Amis (Vintage)

He’s often called the finest English writer of his generation, and Money is supposed one of his best works, so I was looking forward to reading my first Martin Amis book.

That said, I wasn’t coming into it without any preconceptions. You can’t read a newspaper – particularly the literary sections – without your eyes alighting on yet more accusations that Amis is ‘misogynistic’, so I was interested to see whether his words lived up to the hype. Of course, I was also interested to know whether he was any good...

I came away largely disappointed, in both respects. There’s no denying Amis is a fine writer, but I can’t say I enjoyed Money, a tale of excess in all pursuits, from financial matters to fast food and sex. The narrator and anti-heroic main character is so unsympathetic that you really don’t care what happens to him, even as he tries to extricate himself from various messes which are not entirely of his doing.

Then there is Martin Amis himself, a character in his own book, and a writer at that. I’ve really got little patience with writers who indulge in this kind of post-modern self-awareness (the main character is even called John Self, by the way). At its best, it’s tacky and pointless. At its worst, it’s cleverness for cleverness’ sake.

While his prose frequently soars, and there is much to admire in the descriptive assault he makes on readers, there is also a lot of ‘look at me, isn’t my writing clever’ in Money. But while some have criticised the unimaginative plot, I have to say that was the only thing which kept me turning the pages. Loathsome as I found Self, who knows the worth of everything but the value of nothing, I wanted to know the resolution.

On to the accusations of misogyny. Of course, it’s Self who is misogynistic – women are treated abysmally throughout (it’s noticeable that the one ‘happy’ relationship he discovers is instantly screwed up through his weakness) – rather than Amis, but it’s to such an extent, far beyond normal boundaries, that you can see how such questions are asked. And that’s just after reading one book.

This is the second book in a row during my challenge, after The New Confessions, to feature the making of a film which is destined never to be made, or at least in the way its director intended. And I wonder whether it’s a metaphor for this challenge, because I’m falling dangerously behind...

So, rating time:

#72 Money, by Martin Amis (Vintage)- 7/10

Next up: The Highest Tide, by Jim Lynch (Bloomsbury Publishing)

Click here for the full list of books so far, and their rating