Martin Amis' Money (Book Review)

Money, by Martins Amis... is a book I read when I was just 17 or 18 years old, as soon as it was translated to european portuguese - that should have been in late 1987, early 1988.

Today, Money is on the "mandatory" reading list of many, MANY universities! And I can't understand why. Don't get me wrong: it is a **superb** book that got me laughing out loudly in the night, many times - in fact, nearly every page. What I can't understand is why money made it to academia: it seems everyone is now finding references in it to all the classics, from Othello to the Merchant of Venice.

It certainly is because I was just 17 and even more ignorant than I am now, that I didn't spot any obvious erudite references in Amis' Money. Or maybe it is because such references aren't really there...

You see, this is a book starring John Self, someone who is being adapted to the movies and receiving loads of money for it. Unfortunately, John isn't much literate on financial matters and can't find other uses for dollars, other than heavy drinking and sex.
John Self sees himself like an athlete - a masturbation athlete, capable of and needing it several times a day. Just like with drinking, women and fighting. He has a good punch, but his best defence is running. Self advises you to, whenever given the chance, deliver the first blow with all the possible strenght, and then run away - that is a good advise.

John Self worries about you, the reader. Throughout the book, he'll try to educate you, often.

Money is a bit pornographic and that is one of the reasons I loved it, like all the teenagers fortunate enough to buy and read it, long before it became (anti-climax) an academic reading (!).
I kid you not. John Self is someone who beats women, pays for degrading sex acts, spends his days half-awake, half-asleep, half-drunk, half in the UK, half in NY. It is not an easy life. Surprisingly, the reader tends to identify with Self, and that is the book's greatest strenght. You might have nothing to do with Self, but when you laugh, you laugh because you picture yourSELF as Self. It is odd, but a fact.

Self will end up writing a suicide note and more I can't write.

Two key things about the book: 1) Selina is someone the reader will associate to the most voluptous woman he/she can remember of; 2) the "scene" at the opera remains the most comic I've ever read.
I clearly remember telling that sequence to all my friends. It happens when Self rents a suit for the opera and the suit starts to smell like vomit when he gets nervous. At some point he has to go to the WC, but can't find it, other than the one for handicapped persons... when he thought things couldn't get worst, he finds his clothes have no zipper...

Enough.

Money is a MUST READ. One truly UNFORGETTABLE book. Amis must be swimming in money from this alone.

You can buy this and/or related products here.

for european costumers:

title: Money: A Suicide Note (Penguin Modern Classics)
price: £7.19
url: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0141182393/arturmarques
ASIN: 0141182393
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for american costumers:

title: Money: A Suicide Note
price: $11.16 (USD)
url: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140088911/arturmarquesc-20
ASIN: 0140088911
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