About ten years ago I picked up an old copy of London Fields. Then I put it down again, somehow finding the sexual content distasteful. Weird. It's not like I was a prude or anything. Maybe I should take another look at it. Anyway, that's been my only experience with Martin Amis up until this week when I read The Second Plane.
And it's good.
What, I said it was a mini-review. Okay, fine. This is a collection of articles published in UK papers (and the odd short story) linked by the theme of 911, or more accurately, the theme of the rise of Islamism.
Amis has a few interesting things to say with a couple of puzzling tangents, such as a somewhat childish rant about the "pitiful contrivance" of the Americanism 911 (for September 11th, in case you weren't familiar). I mean, text-speak deserves such a response, but 911? It's the one thing the Bush administration gave the world that's of much use. (I mean the abbreviation, not the attack. Because that almost certainly wasn't the work of the Bush junta.)
Amis mentions his shock on returning to Britain after some time away that political centrism had shifted far to the left. Which I found interesting as we've been long aware of a similar shift in the US, where the centre has tipped to the right. Anyway, now that I've imparted that little gem, I'll wrap up. Like I said, it's good. What, more? Okay, a collection of pieces forming an engrossing diatribe against the violence of extreme religionism. Better?
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