Customer Reviews

The Rachel Papers

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Twenty may not be the start of maturity" asserts first-person narrator Charles Highway at the bottom of page one as he's about to leave his teens, "but, in all conscience, it's the end of youth." I discovered this book last year as I was about to leave my twenties, and I imagine it would have had a much more powerful impact on me had I read it ten years ago. That's not to say this book doesn't pack a punch for those already come of age. Part of that punch's force, I presume, is in semi-fruitless imagining of how I would have reacted back then.

Highway is hilarious in his cynical, pustule-ridden loathsomeness, and many a brooding young American or British intellectual with find aspects of him to identify with. He's blunt, he's crass, but he knows beauty when he sees it. He's also a schemer who manages to have enough sex to warrant several trips to the VD clinic--it's 1973, after all--but not to let that stop him. His pursuit of, attainment of and parting with the lovely Rachel of the title comprises an extraordinary pre-University summertime journey replete with references to famous English poets and sweaty bodily functions. The character he most reminds me of in another book is Philip Roth's Alexander Portnoy.

Amis does such an amusing job of drawing together the lofty and the base in this, his first novel, that I look much forward to his more widely-known works. "The Rachel Papers" will not appeal to everyone, but will achieve a special place in the libraries of angst-filled teens and their older selves.

Martin Amis went to Exeter College, Oxford and lived before that with his father in a village in Oxfordshire. Sound familiar, of course it's just like the plot in the book!. Martin Amis' first novel shows hints of true genius. The characterisation of the books sort-of-hero, Charles Highway is fascinating, and he dissects the typical foibles of an adolescent with skill and integrity. Other high points include the amazing vocabulary that the book is written with. The outstanding prose makes me (excuse me) laugh out loud every time I read it and almost makes up for some of the unconvincing aspects of the plot. Autobiographical? Yes. Self-Obsessed? Yes. Extremely funny? Definately. Worth Buying? Without a doubt. Some have said that to start reading Martin Amis, other books like Money or Success would be better. I disagree. The Rachel Papers is a brilliantly funny introduction to the writings of one of the strangest and most talented British Novelists.

This is an astonishing novel to be written by someone in their early twenties---the more so when you realise it was first published in 1973, at the height of English hippie-dom's prog-rock flowering. For this is essentially a punk novel written ahead of its time. It tells the story of Charles Highway's run-up to his twentieth birthday, as he falls for, then plans the seduction of, then abandons, the lovely, eponymous, Rachel.

But the first-person description of CH himself is really the core of the novel. Every twisted, nasty thought that any teenager has ever had is there in Charles, while he masquarades to himself and us as a polite, bookish, intellectual. In fact we are quietly led to believe what Charles believes of himself: that he is a cut-above the rest of the world---nasty but moral, calculating yet capable of love. It is only at the end that Amis lets us see the truth: that Charles is really just an intellectual fraud with no redeeeming features at all. He abandons the possibly pregnant Rachel with a callousness that even his much-hated father would have been incapable of. By contrast, Rachel ends up a far more noble charachter than we had any reason to believe when seen through Charles' overly self-regarding eyes.

In a sense this should be regarded as an early feminist novel. The male characters are so odious that it is hard to say a good word for them. (Though why, one wonders, have no female novelists plunged this far into the dark side of women's psyches?) But the question that must really be at the top of everyone's mind when they read this novel is: to what extent is this a portrait of the teenage Amis himself? The answer that most readers will probably come away with is, surely quite a lot. But that makes this novel a colossally brave affair, not just the clever, excoriatingly funny satire, that it seems on first read. A terrific book.

It's the turbulent early 1970's in Martin Amis' funny yet powerful coming of age novel, The Rachel Papers. The book opens with the lead character, Charles Highway, sitting at home the night before his twentieth birthday, pondering his existence. He is trying to understand who he really is -- what he's done with his life so far -- and where he wants it to go. He believes that once he turns a "monumental" twenty, the core of his life will change dramatically. To get a fix on the last few months leading to this auspicious moment, Amis uses the literary device of the diary. Charles reviews entries dating three months past to try and get the perspective he wants to move his life forward. The reader learns from the start: Charles Highway is nothing if not methodical.

Highway's journal also reveals that he is smart, cynical, open, charmingly devious and painfully insecure. The reader also learns that Highway has a complicated relationship with his family, whom he has little respect for and is more than willing to deceive. When his parents give him money to travel, he tells them he's in Spain. But in reality he's not far from their door -- partying in London. Rather than feel guilty about his deception, Highway casts a disapproving judgmental eye on his parent's private lives.

His father is openly sleeping with another woman -- and his mother, who has let herself age not gracefully -- doesn't seem to care. But what really irks Highway is that other than this misstep there's not much dramatically wrong with his family. There are the usual ups and downs, but that's not enough! Charles craves something to be angry at. He yearns for big sweeps of drama.

As the book moves along, the reader gets to relive Charles adventures in London which are focused mainly on a Boy Meets Girl theme. At one of the many parties he attends, Charles meets Rachel and it's boom -- instant attraction. But love isn't a simple matter -- and true to form -- Amis lets his characters play the game.

For the next month or so Charles pursues Rachel relentlessly. Despite his usual cynicism, he finds himself wanting her intensely. Of course, there are obstacles to overcome including Rachel's ex-boyfriend who is still on the scene. Amidst the generational backdrop of drugs, drink, sex, even a somewhat humorous diagnosis of the "clap" -- Charles Highway finally wins the love of Rachel.

But after getting the prize, for Highway,, the game is over; Charles becomes bored. He cheats on her with another girl -- and is caught. With Rachel out of his life, Charles sinks into a deeper reflection and eventually realizes two powerful truths. First, whether he likes it or not, he's like his father. (There goes the high ground!) Secondly, that in the end, he hasn't learned very much from the mind of a nineteen year old -- despite the whole trilogy of experience: love, sex and drugs.

Charles is an intellectual but he lacks spontaneity, real social skills and genuine self confidence. That's why when making plans to socialize he not only devises who, what, where, and when, but he feels compelled to plan in advance everything he will say and do. He thinks carefully, almost painfully self-consciously, about who he will be with and what they would want to talk about and what would he could do or say that would make him cooler in their mind.

Highway even sets his room up in an excruciatingly self-conscious, methodical way. Before a friend stops by he changes his room around displaying particular books and albums that he believes will impress his visitor. In every awkward way, Charles like a genuine chameleon tries to alter his personality and props so he can fit with whomever he is with in the moment. For example on the way to visiting his sister and her husband, Norman (who is from a `lower class') he practices a suitable lower class accent while on board a train to their home. His goal is to fit in -- no matter what it takes.

Martin Amis takes off the blinders in this truth-to-the-core, hilarious look at the highs and lows of coming of age in the wacky early seventies. Every character has an authentic voice to share -- and none more telling than the impossibly hard edged Charles Highway. Does Highway eventually find the road to love, redemption and self-knowledge? Read the book and find out. It's worth the trip.

Martin Amis grew up with a genius writer for a father. Even though Martin despised his father he took over his profession and added flair to it in his writing of The Rachel Papers at age 24.

In the Rachel Papers Martin writes about a nineteen year old boy who seems to have a similar life style to his own. The young mans name is Charles Highway and the entire book is a refreshingly original account of his experience reading his diaries and papers before he turns twenty. Just as Amis hates his father Charles loathes his and curiously enough he is very similar to his father as well. This could be a connection between the discovery that Amis made between himself and his father or just a coincidence, nevertheless Charles makes reference to his fathers burlesque behavior and his absence at home. Amis quietly voices his negative opinions of lower classes and Americans though Charles.

Charles has a habit of changing his way of speech to fit the styles and classes of the people he is with. This change in speech seems to be a theme in 20th Century British Literature that Amis follows with originality, making Charles obsessive in the way he controls his speech and mannerisms. A large portion of Charles's diaries feature a young woman named Rachel who Charles is fighting an American boy named Deforest for. He writes graphically about his sexual experiences with Rachel and other girls but this is an accurate portrayal of what a teenage boy is writing and thinking.

Rachel stars in the role of making Charles more down to earth, when they first meet Charles has to write down and organize all of his thoughts before he can act or speak. This is a very refreshing display of originality in character choice. Not only is Charles very different but there seems to be a humor about his personality, even Charles himself knows that he is alone in his writing and at times he is aware that it holds him back. For most of the book Charles is living with his sister who is married to a lower class man named Norman. The reader gets the sense that there is a character in Amis's life that is equal to Norman, a slob who has no common sense. Norman is introduced with a scene in which he cuts down a tree branch that he is sitting on, in order to have the dead branch removed. This is not the only hilarious scene that is written about, many others follow with a dramatic flair.

Other than having a cheating father Charles's family is quite normal, they have no huge skeletons in their closets and this Charles can not bear. Instead of excepting his family he continually puts them down, he sees his mother as a grotesque version of an `older' woman who lost all sexual appeal at menopause. His younger brother endured all kinds of disgusting yet funny punishments by Charles as a young child such as having his food spit in before meals.

Dispite Charles's need for drama he is extremely intelligent. He reads heaps of books ranging from fiction to auto-biographical and he is accepted to Oxford in the course of his diaries. Charles despite his IQ does not escape the theme of the `70's in which the book is set. Charles's best friend is a drug addict and when his parents give him a large sum of money in which to travel with after graduation from university he choices to stay in London and party. Charles uses his intelligence to escape his discovery by having a friend send a postcard he wrote from his vacation spot, Spain. Charles proves witty in this scenario and keeps up the appearance by convincing Rachel to tell her parents an elaborate lie in order to stay with him while her parents are away in France on vacation. After Rachel's parent return from holiday Charles becomes bored with Rachel and cheats on her. Charles losses some of his likeability at this point and the book seems to plato from here. The end of the book is a disappointment to say the least but the rest of the book is a very high-quality piece of writing.

The Rachel Papers was Martin Amis's first novel, from 1973, written when he was about the age of the book's protagonist -- that is, on the cusp of 20. Charles Highway tells his story on the night before his 20th birthday, which in his view makes him an adult. He is cramming for entry to Oxford. He's the son of a successful man who he mostly loathes. He is living in London, with his elder sister and her rather disgusting husband.

The story tells in flashbacks the history of his relationship with a girl named Rachel. He meets her at a party he crashes with a friend -- it turns out she's the one throwing the party, though he has no idea of that. He is smitten, and despite the presence of an American boyfriend, he tries to get her to go out with him, and haltingly succeeds. And so the tale goes ... several months of a fairly sweet (in context) relationship between two not terribly well-matched people. Charles is ferociously cynical (if much of that is a pose) while Rachel is sweet enough, pretty, but perhaps a bit dim. They have terrific sex but that seems their main connection. There are amusing scenes with both families, and plenty of further comedic details of Charles's life, in particular his dealings with the bumbling tutors at his cramming school. He also deals with the infidelities of his father and his brother-in-law. And finally of course with his concerns about where his relationship with Rachel is headed.

It's a very fine first novel. Very funny, in what was soon enough known as Amis's standard cynical manner. (Though not nearly so overblown and vicious as for example Money.)

The Rachel Papers, by Martin Amis, is a hilarious novel perfect for any teen with a raunchy sense of humor who is exploring his sexuality and identity. In it, Amis tells the story of Charles Highway, a young man on the eve of his twentieth birthday, as he looks back upon the journals and files he has kept over the years. These papers tell of his romances and sexual relationships, his coming of age as a sickly and callow academic. They range from his odd relationship with his sister's vulgar and vociferous alcoholic husband to his painful home life and his fascination with Rachel, a girl he meets at a party and becomes instantly enthralled with.

Charles spends much of his childhood ill and at home, reading and developing what he would consider a keen intellect: the ability to spout intelligent-sounding garbage should any woman wander within earshot. He uses this skill to become somewhat of an intellectual chameleon, constantly seeking affection, even if it means altering his entire system of beliefs and personality to suit whoever it is that he might be speaking to.

It is in Rachel that Charles finds a reprieve from this obsession. He immediately has trouble categorizing her, and he soon learns that she is uninterested in the long speeches on paintings and poems he composes for her benefit. He finds in her a female counterpart that loves him for who he is and not the masks that he wears. Charles' relationship with Rachel builds as the two discover each other as emotional and sexual beings, but Charles struggles as he changes and begins to discover that Rachel is not perfect.

Charles' story comes to an unsettling end, especially in regards to Rachel and Charles' father. He manages to delay and repress his problems rather than bring them to a satisfying cadence, and the momentum of the book screeches to a halt in the final twenty pages.

Martin Amis taps into the teenage mind with this book that was widely and unfairly panned by critics and criticized by readers. For the intellectual, serious type, this novel could come off as a slightly vulgar book filled the musings of Amis' somewhat sophomoric sense of humor. In reality, however, The Rachel Papers is harmless, a light and enjoyable read that pokes fun at the insecure, horny teenager. Martin Amis presents a raunchy, often even obscene look at the male libido, concurrent to an American Pie or any other teen sex-comedy. The story at times gets somewhat gross and uncomfortable, as all of those movies can, but when it does it is not without cause. The teenage mind is a strange animal, one that Martin Amis captures well en route to creating a thoroughly amusing and enlightening story.

There's raw talent in this book; in some ways first books are the best. I'm thinking of: The Dangling Man, On the Road, Catch 22, Lucky Jim, A Catcher in the Rye.

What I like: the coming of age story, the playful writing, and the descriptive bits...and that scene involving recycling of a certain item: that was ahead of its time by at least ten years.

Author Martin Amis commences his promising literary career with a wacky, and unforgetable novel staged in Engalnd during the smashing 1970's. The book begins in the room of almost-twenty-year-old Charles Highway. As Charles lounges on his bed, wine glass and bottle in hand; he awaits the "monumental" age of twenty, he takes the few hours before he becomes a man to ponder the detailed and meticulously written journals that he has kept since his early literacy.

Charles speaks of the years leading up to the point of his twentieth birthday with a unique mix of sarcastic and graphic language that convey his judgemental and cynical attitude towards many aspects of life. His story appears well geared towards his sexual encounters and the continuous social "show" that he produces for every different person that he meets. After delving into his ambitions for college and the relationship that he carries with his rather disfunctional family, Charles soon meets Rachel. After wavering from sexual partner to sexual partner, he becomes enthralled with this new girl; the only one that seems unaffected by Charles hilarious social antics. The book then mainly covers Charles' obsession of wooing Rachel through methodically and scrupulously rehearsing each and every conversation that Charles predicts they will have.

Finally after working through the things that stand in the way, Rachel gives in to Charles' insistence and they begin a relationship that Charle's ultimately becomes bored with. Charles proceeds to cheat on Rachel and once she finds her way out of his life he realizes, that, ultimately (to his chagrin) he is like his father, and He also comes to the conclusion that he has learned nothing at all from his encounters with Rachel and through his entire teenage years.

Amis attempts preposteroulsy to enter the teenage mind of sex, drugs and love. He uses extremely graphic and hilarious language to create a believably overblown look into the years of adolescence. Charles displays a remarkable personality trait that requires him to change himself to impress the people that he meets and knows. Although it is quite a depressing truth I believe that this trait hits rather close to home in the uncertain and wavering years of teenagedom. Although it is clear that Amis makes the grade with originality and pure humor, the book is precariously close to a complete superflulous overexageration of the mind of the teenage boy. I feel that with the right sense of humor and a taste for an original novel, this book is right for you.

You should read this book. Though its not as good as some of Amis' later work, it is far better than anything that you have read lately. Come on now- put down that copy of Details and read something worthwhile for a change. Later, when you remember the wonder that is well-written fiction (as opposed to those trash romance novels / girly magazines that you read presently), you should read The Information. It too is very good. Possibly a bit over you head, though...