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| FICTION |
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Money
by Martin Amis
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| Published: |
1986 |
| Pages: |
368 |
| Publisher: |
Penguin Books |
Links:
Martin Amis resource
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Synopsis
A comic novel about a British director of advertisements that comes to America to begin a film, but, instead, mostly manages to stoke his incredibly comprehensive list of addictions.
Review
The narrator of Money, John Self, is primarily concerned with, what else, money. Not so much making it, as that seems to be second nature for him — he has a history of directing successful commercials, and the book follows his trips between London and New York to clinch financing for his first feature film — but with the horrible lifestyle that money has allowed him to develop. He needs a few drinks to deal with the many drinks he had last night; he needs to get his expensive, unsound sportscar (an Italian-made "Fiasco") to the shop again; he needs to refresh his stock of pornography; and he needs to accommodate the escalating demands of his cash-hungry girlfriend, Selina Street. In the moments between negotiating these compulsions, this shambling disaster of a man does, somehow, manage to wend his way unhappily through a group of particularly neurotic and deluded movie stars and producers.
Money is, to date, the Amis novel that has received the most unreserved critical praise — praise it well deserves. Sentence by sentence, it's hard to find other authors (aside from Nabokov, with whom he is often compared) that can string together words with as much energy as Amis, and his portrayals of characters are as coruscating and corrosive as ever, down to his wild talent for names (as seen in aging movie star Lorne Guyland, muscle-bound male ingénue Spunk Davis, and, of course, the Fiasco). Other novels of his, such as London Fields or The Information, may be arguably more memorable in their hilarity, but Money holds together most neatly as a story. Certainly one of the greatest living writers of the comic novel, Amis gives us a brilliant work that outrageously explores the nadir of the decade of greed and excess. (CNH)
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Synopsis
An engaging, astute, and now-seminal tract that traces rising job loss and persistent labor abuse to the growth of late capitalism's mega-brands, and describes how people worldwide are resisting.
Review
No Logo is a broad and thoroughly researched inquiry into the practices and effects of powerful, globally recognized brands — starting with the high-minded doublespeak of marketing executives and continuing all the way to the horrendous conditions of Third World sweatshops. Klein also sets up sides in this contemporary battle, discussing tactics ranging from the radical advertising, such as Suzuki's now-infamous "punk rock car" ad, to guerilla billboard subversion, embodied in the so-called Culturejammers practices.
According to Klein, the '80s saw a dramatic shift in the self-image of consumer goods companies, powered by new marketing strategies and eagerly picked up on by Wall Street. They began to think of themselves not as purveyors of tangible objects for consumption but as perpetuators of brands — brands such as Apple, Starbucks, Benetton, and Nike that will live on as their product lines continue to change.
Focusing on brands over goods may have been a boon for the management gurus, but it comes at a cost, especially for employees. Eager to spend more and more on advertising and marketing, as well as divest themselves from ownership of manufacturing sites, these multinationals routinely pay employees less than a living wage and refuse to offer full-time employment (Wal-Mart caps employees at 33 hours per week). Even worse are the sweatshops that Nike, Gap, and their brethren use in developing countries, where a living wage might mean paying only $0.87 per hour — but the hourly pay workers receive is only 20 or 30 cents.
But the most intriguing part of No Logo is Klein's account of the burgeoning resistance to the brands that have taken over our world. She not only profiles the Situationist-influenced Culturejammers, whose "headquarters" are at Vancouver's Adbusters magazine, but Carrie McLaren of Stayfree!, who admits that the intensity and ability with which she deconstructs advertising is at least in part due to an early career interest in the field. And finally, she recounts the small victories achieved by students in the anti-sweatshop movement — arguably the most important progress achieved by activists since the heyday of protests in the '60s. (ML)
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Synopsis
A play-by-play account of one of the most spectacular boom and busts in the history of finance.
Review
With a cast of characters that includes the world's biggest players in finance — including appearances by Buffet, Soros, Greenspan, and Corzine — Lowenstein tells the story of playing for money on the grandest scale. Picking up where Liar's Poker leaves off, he follows former Solomon Brothers' John Meriweather as he assembles a dream team of high-powered traders, Harvard professors, and Nobel Prize winners, who come together to build the biggest, baddest hedge fund ever seen.
In just a few years, the group generates billions in profit, using their secret and seemingly perfect models. But there's one thing they forget — to factor in the fallibility of humanity and its imperfect quirks. Ultimately leveraging massive positions with more than $100 billion in debit, they watch helplessly as the market confounds their predictions, and their Tower of Babel crumbles around them in a rapid, massive, world-shaking correction.
For those not familiar with options, puts, calls, arbitrage, equity, bonds, and the ebbs and flows of global markets, Lowenstein can sometimes seem to be rambling on in a different language. He also sometimes builds a bit too much drama into the day-by-day ups and downs, as if each exchange were the poetic harbinger of the imminent collapse. That said, he successfully weaves insider lingo, storytelling flare, and methodical research into a fascinating high-stakes recount that opens up a world of global politics, power, greed, and determination — one driven by a cast which is collectively humbled by an organic, simple, and infinitely complex organism called the market. (MM)
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Synopsis
The chronicle of an Iowa artist who sold nearly everything he owned on eBay and then traveled across the country to meet the new owners.
Review
Returning from a stay in New York in August 2000, John Freyer realized that were it not for his job and an apartment filled with stuff in Iowa City, he might have remained in NYC. He decided he would give his notice, reduce his belongings to fit the trunk of his car, and go back. He listed a few things on eBay and then registered the website allmylifeforsale.com to catalog the rest. Throwing an inventory party, Freyer asked friends to select things to sell that they thought represented his life in Iowa City and by night's end, they had tagged 600 items — everything from his favorite shirts to rolls of unprocessed film to his sideburns.
He posted the items for auction on eBay, describing in witty ways how each had been obtained and what it meant to him. With each purchase, the buyer became part of his art project and the genealogy of the object. He wondered how his things were faring in their new homes and asked the high bidders for updates. Once the inventory was sold, Freyer set out on a road trip to visit his former possessions and meet the people who now owned them — such as to Portland, Maine, to make sure his saltshaker and salt were getting good use. That's how I met him, when he came to my apartment in Brooklyn for lunch and to discuss Songs in the Key of Life, the Stevie Wonder album that I had purchased.
From its beginning, Freyer's project garnered mass media attention — having been covered in everything from the New York Times to NPR — so it was no surprise when he came out with the book, which has since been optioned for a film. Freyer's an amusing storyteller and an exceptional do-it-yourself designer. This memoir stylishly chronicles the project, his personal past, and the people who now share his life. (PL)
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FEATURE
Project Gutenberg
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Great literature is an art form whose medium makes it relatively easy to disseminate and distribute. The paperback revolution saw the democratization of the printed word, just as the evolution of library systems the world over made great texts available to the masses at no charge. Now the Internet has brought us the next step in the free distribution of literature: Project Gutenberg. The 1971 brain child of then-undergrad Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg is now a tremendous online effort staffed by a passionate group of editors, proofreaders, and technologists who volunteer their time to digitize and make available to the Internet community all literary (and some definitely not-so-literary) works in the public domain. Last year it boasted the publication of its 10,000th e-text. They've got it all, from the English prose of Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde to Constance Garnette's Dostoevsky translation, as well as multiple translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. For fun on a slow day at work, we recommend seeing how much of Joyce's Ulysses you can print out before your boss takes notice. Also highly recommended is the creepy, computer-generated audio reading of Kafka's The Trial. Read and save as much as you like — the cost for these downloads is free. (BB)
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BOOK NEWS
A few notable bits of recent book news and information.
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New Poet Laureate hails from literary haven of Nebraska (Washington Post)
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Ted Kooser, a retired insurance executive, is the nation's new poet laureate.
(Interestingly, Wallace Stevens also toiled away in the insurance business before finding success as a poet.)
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Library of Alexandra discovered? (BBC)
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Archeologists have found what they believe may be the famed, almost mythical, ancient library in Egypt.
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Polish poet, novelist, and Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz dies (Guardian)
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Milosz defected from communist Poland in 1951 and promptly published the international bestseller The Captive Mind. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980.
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Radical left-wing terrorist turned novelist flees France (Guardian)
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A former terrorist from Italy, now a bestselling author living in France, loses his protection and is again on the run.
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Los Angeles becoming hot new literary locale (LA City Beat)
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New literary journals Black Clock and Swink help contribute to a burgeoning book culture that's peacefully coexisting with Hollywood.
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Joyce's grandson demands royalties on Ulysses (Independent)
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With the change in copyright law, Joyce descendant is trying to turn Bloomsday into payday.
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Rate opening lines of your favorite books (Opening Hooks)
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At this new site, you can browse and rate a list of the best opening lines from books, as well as suggest your own favorites. Top-rated thus far include David Sedaris' Naked and Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
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