House of Meetings, by Martin Amis, is a 2006 novel about two brothers who share a common love interest while living in a Soviet gulag during the last decade of Stalin's rule. This novel was written by Amis during a two-year-long self-imposed exile in Uruguay following the release and tepid reception afforded to his 2003 novel Yellow Dog. The writing of House of Meetings "precipitated (another) creative crisis" for Amis,[2] which Amis reflected upon in 2010:
 First edition cover | |
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Peter Mendelsund and Chip Kidd (US edition) |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape[1] |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 198 |
"You see those Posy Simmonds cartoons of people by the pool having cocktails and saying into the Dictaphone, 'On the second day, the last child died,'" he says. "And I was in Uruguay, with my beautiful wife and beautiful daughters, living a completely stressless life. So I had to do my suffering on the page and, Christ, did I do it. I was very nervous about that book."[2]
Plot summary
editThe novel centers on the modern-day (2004) recollections of the unnamed narrator/protagonist of his time spent in an Arctic gulag and the years that followed. The recollections are presented in the form of a memoir sent to the narrator's American stepdaughter, Venus. One of the primary plot elements is the complex relationship between the protagonist and his younger half-brother, Lev, who later joins him in the camp. Through many difficult revelations and trials, they eventually survive the harsh conditions of the camp and then must face a further challenge: re–acclimatizing to everyday life.
Literary significance and criticism
editThe novel's release was greeted with generally positive reviews; see, e.g., The Economist's October review.[3] In Literary Review, Sam Leith wrote: “Amis mistakes the nature of his own talent. His Dickensian comic mode is his strongest suit – gravitas or moral clairvoyancy his shortest. But Amis still fails more interestingly than most of his peers succeed.”[4]
Footnotes
edit- ^ House of Meetings Archived 2011-05-26 at the Wayback Machine at Fantastic Fiction
- ^ a b Martin Amis and the sex war[dead link], Times Online, January 24, 2010
- ^ "Comeback man". economist.com. 12 October 2006. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
- ^ "Sam Leith - A Wintry Tale". Literary Review. 5 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
External links
edit- "Breath was just another weapon": a review in the TLS by Bharat Tandon, September 2006.
- Tom Chatfield writes on Amis's House of Meetings for Prospect Magazine
Further reading
edit- Bentley, Nick (2014). Martin Amis (Writers and Their Work). Northcote House Publishing Ltd.
- Finney, Brian (2013). Martin Amis (Routledge Guides to Literature). Routledge.
- Bradford, Richard (November 2012). Martin Amis: The Biography. Pegasus. ISBN 978-1605983851.
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