An Apologist for "The Rachel Papers"

March 27, 2023 2:05 PM

... this book is explicitly about being an insufferable, solipsistic teenager: a key part of its effect is that we’re locked inside Charles’s mind, just as Charles is. So it seems perverse to arraign Amis for not spending enough time on the other characters (a bit like complaining that Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is overly concerned with Stephen Dedalus). What surprised me, third time through, is how much we actually do find out about Rachel. from Teenage kicks by Claire Lowdon [TLS; ungated]
posted by chavenet (14 comments total)

Thanks for this.
I read The Rachel Papers when it came out - nearly half a century ago, now - when *I* was still a teenager, and I was shocked, amused, and dismayed by how similar I WAS to Charles Highway. And I too have been faintly embarrassed by my abiding affection for it.

[My review at the time: "A bookish teenager is trying to get into a posh university while being distracted by girls (specifically, by a girl slightly out of his league)? What's not to like?"]
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 2:56 PM on March 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I read Money, The Rachel Papers, and Dead Babies all in a row at one point. I enjoyed a kind of liveliness-- a moxie, almost-- about the voice and the imagery. His novels all reminded me of Kingsley Amis's shorter novels, but thankfully without the alcoholic self-pity. I can't help thinking the young Martin is in fact in some sort of conversation with his father, not an altogether friendly one. That thing Lowdon cites about "Nice things are dull..." I think is a takeoff on something from Lucky Jim: "“Nice things are nicer than nasty ones." I'm pretty sure there would be more if I were more of a fan of Kingsley, but I really find him absolutely putrid.
posted by BibiRose at 4:10 PM on March 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I definitely had a Martin Amis phase that lasted way longer than it should. He was was the first author I read who often had no sympathetic characters (or indeed reliable narrators), but whose writing style I still admired (this was a big leap for the bookworm-me who read primarily for comfort at the time). While Charles H is a jerk (we’re all jerks at his age) upon reflection out of all Amis’ novels, he’s one of the more likable of Amis’ characters. which i HOPE is the point (Amis has a grim view of people that is hard to dispute, and he knows of whom he speaks, being not-so-nice himself + extreme dad issues.) I once wrote a short story parody from the point of view of one of his most repellent characters because I could * relate*- which I think is his genius. Even those of us who think we are pretty nice or try to be, end up recognizing ourselves in the abhorrent people who populate his books. Or maybe it’s just me…
posted by mollymillions at 4:14 PM on March 27, 2023 [7 favorites]

London Fields is one of my favorite books.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:57 PM on March 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

No. It took decades to get the Amis relegated to a historical and slightly shameful curio.
We are not going through this again.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 4:58 PM on March 27, 2023 [10 favorites]

I will admit that I have completely bounced off books by both Amis father and son when I’ve tried to read them, but I found this review really interesting. It, and the discussion about the essay on the excellent TLS Podcast (which doesn’t require a subscription), have made me reconsider giving at least Martin a second chance.
posted by Kattullus at 11:49 PM on March 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I can't help thinking the young Martin is in fact in some sort of conversation with his father, not an altogether friendly one.

Kingsley once remarked that Martin's books didn't contain enough straightforward sentences like "They paid for their drinks and left". Martin replied that his dad's books contained far too many sentences like that. Fight! Fight! Fight! *

I can't remember which book it was now, but a newspaper reviewer once pointed out that several of Martin's novels centre round a missing girl somewhere in the plot. She saw this as echoing the troubled life and early death of Martin's sister Sally, something he later described as one of the very few genuine insights he'd ever gained about his work from a published review. The link simply hadn't occurred to him before.

* For what it's worth, I side with Kingsley on this issue, as I've always found Martin's relentless literary pyrotechnics distracting enough to make his fiction unreadable.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:01 AM on March 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

I feel as if people have also said the "missing girl" theme was related to his cousin Lucy Partington, who was murdered. Weirdly, he talks in his memoir about how he thought of Lucy when getting dental work done and being covered with one of those x-ray blankets. That really hasn't aged well, appearing to compare his dental work with a woman getting murdered.
posted by BibiRose at 6:34 AM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

It may be that my memory's at fault and that the review I'm thinking of mentioned Lucy rather than Sally. Apologies if so.
posted by Paul Slade at 9:01 AM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

That really hasn't aged well, appearing to compare his dental work with a woman getting murdered.

I tried to find the passage but failed, because my memory was that it wasn't a comparison, but rather a sort of involuntary association brought about by the feeling of claustrophobia? But possibly I am misremembering also.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:08 AM on March 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese, I'm sure you are right and I'm superimposing my feelings about Amis being a little bit self-important in general.

Back on the topic of missing girls: he also writes about a daughter by his ex-girlfriend, whom he only met when she was 19.
posted by BibiRose at 9:43 AM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

I read and enjoyed The Rachel Papers and I've read some other of Amis' novels (Money, Dead Babies, and London Fields) as well as his memoir Experience but the book of his I've enjoyed the most is The War Against Cliche. Say what you will about Martin Amis the author, Martin Amis the critic is quite good.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:41 AM on March 28, 2023 [6 favorites]

my memory was that it wasn't a comparison, but rather a sort of involuntary association brought about by the feeling of claustrophobia

That was my memory as well. Amis can be a jerk but I think he was misunderstood in this particular (perhaps single) case.

I went through a phase when I loved his work not just for its style, but also for its insight into the minds of certain kinds of obnoxious men/boys (and manboys). Of course, that was several decades ago, before I realized that I'd be forced to learn more about that kind of thinking than I ever wanted to know. Once that became clear, Amis, Updike, etc. lost any appeal as entertainment.
posted by rpfields at 3:04 PM on March 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

Interesting that some of you prefer Martin to Kingsley, Amis-wise. It never once occurred to me that anyone might!

I think Lowdon's right about The Rachel Papers, though. And while we're talking about books that sometimes get dismissed as misogynistic, I think Kingsley Amis's One Fat Englishman does a masterful job of distinguishing its perspective from its narrator's.
posted by tangerine at 6:37 PM on March 28, 2023 [1 favorite]