Critique: Money by Martin Amis (Spoilers)

This book! This book! How fantastic is this book? (Rhetorical question). Awesome! Martin Amis, you are a God. To prove this: Martin Amis puts himself in a book written in somebody else's point of view. And it isn't stupid.

So this is Money: John Self, moviemaker, is living in straight-up debauchery. I'm talking porno, sadomasochistic sex, greed, lots and lots of drink, and as the narrator clarifies, "Unless I specifically inform you otherwise, I'm always smoking another cigarette." But all these things at this particular moment are converging, and John Self is destined for a wake-up call.

There's not much of a plot, save for John trying to make a movie whilst dealing with all the psychos in his circle. He deals with a skeezy girlfriend, a skeezy financier, a skeezy father, skeezy colleagues, and his skeezy self. That being said, he don't need no stinkin' plot. Amis is the thinking man's writer. He delivers ambitious, extravagant prose. You will be doing double-takes through the whole book. You will never catch a break, because he deprives us of our ease of reading. If you don't like or appreciate that sort of writing, don't pick this book up.

I put writing above plot. If you can construct an intriguing sentence, I'll forget about a so-so plot. But let me tell you, mister, I cannot forgive dull, sloppy writing just because you got a great story. Here's the deal with Amis and plot: his writing is so complex, requires so much reader involvement, that it would be too much to have both. Nothing should take away from his talent, which is a clever sentence. I feel as if an intricate, "moving" plot would seem superfluous next to his on-the-fly wit.

Amis has been criticized for depicting the gratuitous and obscene ALL THE TIME. He's the "Bad Boy of British Fiction." But, Christ, he does it so brilliantly. I was reading and thinking, "God, this is such boy fantasy," but I cannot for the life of me find anything remotely cliche about Money. In theory, it should be typical, but it's everything except.

Also, I love the narration in Money. It's in first person (from the point of view of John Self), who talks to us like he would his therapist. Again, in theory, talking to your readers would be totally lame, but Amis turns it into a strength. I will say that, because of the POV, Amis's wit gets the better of him. I love love love it - as stated above - but I don't necessarily believe the wit coming from John Self.

Anyway, this review is all over the place. I told you it would require more thought, and I just don't have it in me. But I want to put down something about this book. It's one of the best I've ever read for sure. Go out and get it - highly recommended. I feel like I can't do it justice; this review sounds like a bunch of gibberish, but just take my word for it. You won't be sorry.