Rating: 
Summary: A great "success" on Amis' part...
Review: Let me just say that Martin Amis is probably not for everyone. His ecceedingly dark meditations on British Middle Class issues (think of it as the dark side to Jane Austen) may be either too disturbing or totally irrelevant to some readers. But for those who go in for dark irony in thick layers, and carefully constructed narratives, Amis is probably for you. *Success* chonicles a pivotal year in the life of foster brothers. Terry Service, a "yob", as well as a compelling, gittering pile of neuroses, self-hatred and self-pity who hasn't had sex in months is the adopted brother of Gregory Riding, rich, self-assured, attractive and completely heartless. Terry was adopted after watching his father kill his sister. Add to the antagonistic brew of the two "brothers", unreliable first-person accounts of the year, a decidedly insane sister and some rather biting role reversal, and the book turns out to be a real treat. It's fairly clear early on what is going to happen in the course of the novel, at least in the grand scheme of things, if not in the minutiae of the plot details. It's still a fun ride to watch Amis pull off the expected with incredible panache and some unexpected turns. Trust me, get through the first two chapters and continue reading, it's definitely worth it. What's also interesting is to read Amis' *MONEY* after reading this book. The main character in *MONEY* is like a mix of Terry and Greg (if that were imaginable). *SUCCESS* is a good introduction to the aesthetics of Amis, after this read *MONEY* or *THE INFORMATION*. Then you'll probably be ready for *LONDON FIELDS*.
Rating: 
Summary: Martins line
Review: Martin Amis has found the ideal forum to compliment his writing in Tina Browns latest attempt to prove that she has all the literary acumen of a Beverly Hills hair dresser, Talk magazine. Lets just hope for the sake of good writing that Suicide runs in Mr. Amis's family.
Rating: 
Summary: "All the bits that were me have been reshuffled yet again."
Review: Martin Amis's novel, "Success" is the venomous story of two vastly different men--foster brothers, Gregory Riding and Terence Service. Terence witnessed the murder of his sister when he was a mere 9 years old, and he was adopted by the upper-class Riding family out of a mis-guided sense of pity and social obligation. Terry--a 'yob'--has never managed to fit in amongst the shining glory of the perfect Riding dynasty. He's completely outclassed by Gregory, and Terry cannot compete with the bond Gregory shares with his skinny sister, Ursula Riding. Terry remains an outsider--and an inferior one at that. As the book begins, Gregory and Terence (Terry) share a tiny flat in London, and the nauseating intimacy forced upon them causes brooding resentments to fracture and twist their lives irreversibly. Gregory Riding is the princeling and heir apparent of the Riding fortune--except dad is slipping from eccentricity into utter madness, and soon there will be no fortune left to inherit. Gregory is handsome, snobbish, arrogant, and unpleasant. He works in a pretentious art gallery by day, and is an avid orgy attendee by night. Terry, in complete contrast, is homely, clumsy, messy, and a deadloss with women. The events are revealed in a sort of 'he said/he said' format. Gregory gives his version of events, and then Terry gives his version. The versions, are of course, never the same, although there is a teensy-weensy overlap. But where is the truth? That is for the reader to decide. "Success" is a strong indictment of the British class struggle (and the general in-advisability of taking a 'yob' into one's country mansion). Martin Amis truly is the Master of the Unreliable Narrator. Those with interest in this narrative form would do well to start with Martin Amis as a point of study. "Success" is a brilliantly constructed nasty little novel about some rather revolting people. The book deserves 5 stars for its perfect form, narrative flow, and sheer readability, and yet I disliked all the characters within its 220 odd pages. Ursula and the long-deceased Rosie Service float through the pages with ephemeral force, but they do not diminish or dilute the sheer nastiness and decaying rot of it all. If it is necessary for you to like the characters you read about, then I would advise you to look elsewhere, for you won't find anything here. If, however, you can accept 220 pages about obnoxious people who may or may not be what they appear, and if you are fascinated by human character and motivations, then this may be the novel for you. If you enjoyed "Amsterdam" by Ian McEwan, you will probably also enjoy this novel--displacedhuman.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah right...
Review: The docile one with a surname of service? And the gay one called Riding? How banal can one get? Amis is so superficial and vacant and it's good for him that such people can be found in aboundance otherwise no one would be reading him. Thanks to the hype and his literary lackies he has acquired some sort of fame. Most of his books are rambling, monotonous, overindulging affectations of literature and this one is no exception. It's just that this one is by far one of the worst i ve managed to read because of the shear loathing and disgust for everything human that runs through it. Amis comes through as the dumb, bitter, misogynist closet homo writer. I really cant see the gothic in degradation and i dont particularly enjoy reading 150 pages literated with one humiliation after the other for the main characters. Seldom has a book made me feel physicaly sick but this one did more than once. It was a horrible, horrible decision to read it, and a dumber one to stick with it until the end. Its just that i had a sense of disbelief at how bad it could possibly be and wanted to plough through the end, it was even worse.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, intensely moving, gothic coming of age novel
Review: There is in the life of every man a year which is entered as a confused adolescent and is ended either as an independent fully formed adult, or as a broken human being. Promise, as perceived by others, has very little to do with the outcome. Promise, as perceived by the adolescent himself is also not the determining factor. Amis argues that what ultimately forms the man is the ability to cope with adversity and choose the few avenues that lead somewhere (not necessarily somewhere special), rather than be side-tracked into a dead-end by the need for transient success. From the first sentence this book keeps the reader riveted and directly involved. Every one of the twelve chapters, one for each month of that formative year, consists of two parts, a first part in which Terry Service tells the reader what is going on in his life and a second part in which his foster brother Gregory Riding takes his turn. The two compete fiercely for the reader's approval and understanding. Terry, insecure and convinced that he is marked for failure, tries to avoid, or at least delay, the disaster he assumes to be his inevitable lot. He succeeds and makes it into a sustainable, if not particularly exciting adulthood. Gregory, ever the spoiled brat and outright psychopath, lies to and deceives everyone including himself until that inevitable moment when everything in his life unravels fast and he runs home only to be faced with his family's financial bankruptcy and his father's death. Murders, suicide and incest give a gothic aura to the tale, but then no one should underestimate the horrors of that metamorphosis whereby the adult human male is formed. Yet the whole thing is made bearable by the protagonists' remarkable sense of humor and by a healthy dose of cynicism and denial. In places the book is hilariously funny, Terry's dialogue with his penis, for one. In other places it is intensely moving, particularly when under all the sibling rivalry, deception and envy, we see traces of decency and ultimately of genuine affection between the two foster brothers. This is a marvelous book and one cannot fail but notice that it would make a great movie. Leonardo DiCaprio and Joaquin Phoenix were clearly meant to star as Gregory and Terry. But then, who in Hollywood takes my advice? END
Rating:
Summary: Bonsai
Review: This early novel by Martin Amis is one of his best.The co-protagonist, office boy Terence Service, is so convincingly drawn that you wonder if Amis actually had a hot-wire into someone else's mind while writing Success. Service's descriptions of london are so poignant you want to actually go and see the place.
I think that this mental landscape/ urban landscape thing is what Amis does best. When it works, it works. But when it doesn't it's a disaster. For every truly great Amis novel there's a stinker like London Fields or dead babies. But Success, as far as I'm concerned,is easily as good as anything Dickens wrote (apart from Dombey & Son, perhaps)
Rating:
Summary: a great read
Review: This was my first try with Martin Amis, after hearing many terrible and wonderful things about him. (See previous review, another frustrated, unpublished writer, perhaps.) It's not often that I've found myself bent over laughing and yet seriously disturbed by the same book, but I found it here.
Rating:
Summary: One of his more accessible works
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers, I happen to enjoy Martin Amis. Occassionally his novels become convoluted or difficult to follow, however, this book is one of his most accessible. As is with most of his novels, the strength of this work is the development of interesting characters and the transformations that they undergo. This book is a fast, funny read and definitely worth picking up.
Rating:
Summary: One of his more accessible works
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers, I happen to enjoy Martin Amis. Occassionally his novels become convoluted or difficult to follow, however, this book is one of his most accessible. As is with most of his novels, the strength of this work is the development of interesting characters and the transformations that they undergo. This book is a fast, funny read and definitely worth picking up.
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