London Fields by Martin Amis
Amis' Sixth Novel Classically Post-Modern
Martin Amis' 1989 London Fields is much more than a murder mystery. Exploring its use of language, its powerful setting, and its fascinating characters.
Now here’s a strange thing - a book that everyone should read, but that you will only read once.
An Intense Read
Alright, so that’s not exactly the truth, but after reading London Fields, after steeping yourself in the world of Nicola Six, Keith Talent and Samson Young, you will probably need a long time to clear your head. Or to take a nice long bath. Or both.
Amis’ text, his sixth novel, and longest work to date, is rich with dense grotesquery, with a turn of phrase that pollutes your psyche, that sees you walking around for days after putting the word horror before everything: “Horrorpuddle, Horrorwashing-up”. It is an intense, and deeply involving read. Its characters linger over you, driving you to question, not only the actions of others, but of yourself: “Am I real? Am I merely a projection of what I want others to see? How can I tell?” Amis seems to accuse you, to involve you, to be constantly asking you: “Why do you want to read this? Why do I feel the need to write this?” Throughout it all, you feel the shadowy cloud of the coming millennial apocalypse looming.
Much More than a Murder Mystery
So why read this book? Why read this murder mystery that is, in so many ways, more of a ‘Whydoit?’ than a ‘Whodunnit?’? And the answer? Because it is extraordinary.
Amis, whose father Kingsley famously disliked his son’s work describing it as: “Breaking the rules, buggering about with the reader, drawing attention to himself,” is at his best in this classically post-modern work. Drawing on ideas that have surfaced throughout his works, it is considered by many to be his finest work. It is sensational - you will quite literally feel dirty. But it is not filth, squalor, or dirt of the physical variety that comes through in this powerful incarnation of the sheer wealth that is the English language - it is psychological.
This novel will draw you in. It will make you doubt yourself in every imaginable way, re-imagine the conclusion a hundred times, and you will never guess the truth that is to come.
The Truth About London Fields
The truth is: you won’t be able to put this book away and never read it again. It will draw you back.
The truth is, as the book has no shame in pointing out, that the truth is only the world we make for ourselves. Take, for example, Keith Talent, the petty-criminal who takes everything on television as solid fact. Or Nicola Six, the ultimate manipulator, the woman who wants to be murdered.
You will go back to London Fields, because you must, because you always must. There will always be something new, and you will always read it differently because you have changed. Towards the end of this novel, one of the characters writes: “It doesn’t matter what anyone writes any more.” But when you read London Fields, you cannot but disagree.
Martin Amis, London Fields (1989) Vintage
ISBN 0-09-974861-4
