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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not a masterpiece, but a lot better than most bestsellers., February 17, 2003
Be warned: this book is not everybody's cup of tea. An appreciation of black, irreverent humour is absolutely essential if you want to enjoy this novel and it is no wonder that a lot of people find it infuriating and outrageous. Everybody does seem to agree, however, that it is very well-written.First of all let me tell you what the book is about. Protagonist Richard Tull is a pretentious, but sensationally unsuccesful novelist - plus a chainsmoker and an alcholic with a harrowing midlife crisis. His novels are so unreadable that nobody makes it past page 10 without developing at least one mysterious ailment. So when the bland, improbably inoffensive novels of his dim friend Gwyn hit the bestseller lists and Gwyn gets the celebrity, wealth and trophy wife that go with beststellerdom something snaps in Richard. He now has only one goal left in life: [getting even with] up Gwyn". Contemplating the several ways he can go about doing this, Richard runs into Steve, a {morally challenged}, sadistic drugdealer and as it happens not only his only fan but also the only reader able to make it past the first dozen or so pages. Of course this is a set-up for disaster, but of the comic not the tragic kind. So, all this sounds like fun. And it is, several passages are downright laugh-out-loud funny, especially if you read them in context... But the book is also dark and pessimistic. The London that provides most of its background is a crowded city full of filth and violence. Neither Richard nor Gwyn is likeable. The publishing world is a scream. And human is life is nothing, absolutely nothing from a cosmic point of view, as the author keeps pointing out. The low-life characters such as Steve, 13 and Darko are unconvincing and superfluous. But is the book depressing? Not to me; the exuberant wit, the great writing and the incisive original thinking save it from itself. Not a masterpiece, not even the best Amis ("Money" is better), but definitely a great deal more worthwhile than most bestsellers.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant and Infuriating (But Read It Anyway), September 10, 2002
The name Martin Amis seemed to be everywhere in the nineties and I felt grossly uninitiated for not having read him. I can now say I have, having completed THE INFORMATION, and I now understand why he is simultaneously reputed to be brilliant and infuriating. THE INFORMATION is the story of a failed novelist who had published promisingly early on, who is not ready to admit his later work is unreadable, preferring to view himself as the victim of a frivolous culture that is embracing the frivolous (his take) fiction his best friend is producing. He decides, as he turns forty, to take the best friend down, beginning with mind games, then descending into darker tricks, especially as he hooks up with a hood, a menacer-for-hire. Along the way, his friend's synthetic star just keeps rising and his keeps sinking. Why this is brilliant: 1) Amis plays the ladder of comedy for all its rungs and worth. It's nice to see the classic bones underneath. 2) It is witty throughout and laugh out loud funny in places. 3) The satiric picture of the publishing world on both sides of the Atlantic is scathing. 4) Amis is enviably literate, spurting well-placed allusions everywhere. 5) More about classic bones: he revisits the complicated relationship of author, voice, and narrator in creative fiction and experiments in occasional scenes where he steps before the reader as himself and makes connections to bigger themes. 6) He does a touching though unsentimental job of portraying children. Why this is infuriating: 1) Few of his characters are sympathetic (but then few in Vanity Fair were, either). 2) Amis is enviably literate: when he does the riff on Little Dorritt, you want to just throw in the towel, you can't compete, you might as well live in a cave. 3) There is a slight unevenness in momentum across the book, perhaps intentional, perhaps the result of writing this work across several years. 4) There are scenes, as there are in Tom Wolfe's novels, where you want to say, OK, I know what you can do, you've done that, get on with it. The best thing about this book: it's alive! It's not solemn, hands-at-its-side, perfunctory literary fiction. If it is messy in places, so be it.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
In Retrospect, January 7, 2005
In terms of maturity, "The Information" is more developed than either "Money" or "London Fields." This is not to say that it is necessarily a much better novel. Just like saying "The Last Tycoon" is better than "The Great Gatsby" or "Tender is the Night." It is labored in parts,... and difficult perhaps for non-artists to grasp.
A knowledge and background in literary-cultural criticism and book reviewing is helpful. Amis uses terminology and chains of thought which may not be immediately recognizable to some readers. His protagonist's professional (=personal) angst arises from the critical notion that a bestselling author has a responsibility proportionate with her/his influence & status as a public figure. This standard could just well apply to film producers, directors & screenwriters; newspaper and magazine publishers, editors & columnists; tv and radio talk show hosts; politicians; judges; college administrators, etc.
F.R. Leavis, one of the influential founders of modern literary criticism, famously said that although we can't (objectively) judge literature, we are capable of judging life and for the practical purposes of discussion, they can be treated synonymously. This standard applies even to the science fiction & science fantasy genre of creative writing. So, the critic has broad license to venture out and comment on a wide array of issues; one who is wise and discerning can mold opinion now and again.
My hope is that Amis writes a sequel. Like a modern Don Quixote, Richard Tull is more sympathetic than Richard III (I hope!) and deserves to be expanded upon. What happens to him and 'The Little Magazine' in the new century, assuming Sebby didn't get to him.
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