The Pregnant Widow
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Martin Amis List Price: £18.99 Our Price: £10.38 You Save: £8.61 (45%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Hardcover 480 pages Release Date: 04 February 2010 Publisher: Jonathan Cape ISBN: 0224076124 Rating:   Sales Rank: 4467 | | Look for similar books by subject: | | Customers who bought this item also bought:
| | Customer Reviews: Save yourself six months (01 September 2010)This really isn't worth the bother. Incoherent and pointless, endless rambling dialogues and the dawning realisation that nothing of consequence will ever happen. I wish I'd given up after 50 pages. Pretentious twaddle (21 August 2010)I've never really wanted to read Martin Amis having heard his pronouncements on all sorts of things, many of which I find largely objectionable. However, I thought I should give him a a go, especially as the quotes I read in reviews from the first few pages indicated I was probably in the chosen demographic - you know, fifties, feeling it's all gone by "a bit quick" - "OY, THAT WAS A BIT BLOODY QUICK". I liked that bit. Sadly, my empathy with the novel ended there. Were these priveleged arrogant twenty-somethings in 1970 supposed to represent a generation? Well, I didn't recognise them. Spoiled brats who get off on talking dirty - or is that the author I'm talking about? I think there's one or two of the characters he intends to be "working class" - but he's obviously never actually met any of this tribe, as they really are just cardboard cutouts. The really annoying thing is Amis's showing off with erudite references every few lines - and then at the end, he lists them for you, in case you hadn't recognised them (ooh, was the Marxist historian REALLY Hobsbawm - I hadn't realised that Martin - cheers). And as for the plot - sorry, I must be thick - what exactly was the great come-uppance for the protagonist? And what was that whistle-stop tour of the years between 1970 and now (or was it 2003 - it seems to shift). Tedious, pretentious twaddle I'm afraid - or is that a teensy bit unsophisticated - well, I never had the benefit of a mind expanding summer on the Italian riviera with a group of Oxbridge educated bien-pensants, sadly. Wanky (22 July 2010)All the brilliance of Amis (use of English, thinks the reader has a brain, set in the real world we all live in) but sadly a lot of the self-conscious interruption of the flow of the narrative with thought associations for Eng Lit grads. Any book on gender relationships since the hippy eighties is so well worth a read too. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? (03 July 2010)Martin Amis was the first `rock star' of English letters and, sadly, he's followed the same career-trajectory as his guitar-bound contemporaries, albeit a decade or two later...I know this is hard to believe but in the early 1970s Rod Stewart was *cool*. Yes, really! He was Rod the Mod, the Ace Face - singer of era-defining tunes like `Cindie Incidentally', `Borstal Boys', and `You Wear It Well'. Then in the late 70s/early 80s, Rod lost `it' and descended into a sad parody of his former greatness . Amis is a fantastic author but if you've not read his previous work, don't start here. `Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?' was Rod's nadir. `The Pregnant Widow' is Martin Aimis' `Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?''. It really is *that* bad.... Where's the police? (23 June 2010)So I finished the book and then reread the reviews here. Wow. Tough crowd. No wonder Marty feels a little persecuted. His age, sex and height all get dragged into it. But these are nothing compared to his two major crimes. Firstly, it's not as good as Money. Let's be honest here, not much is as good as Money, almost nothing is as good as Money. Secondly, and it's a big one, he writes in a ...wait for it...Martin Amis style. Where's the police? I wish I could find these other writers that these reviewers must be reading, the ones who write better than Marty. I've looked. Martin amis is our best writer. Read all his books and pray he gives us some more. | |
