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Fiction ChronicleNovember 2003 Tickling your catastrophe by Max Watman A review of Yellow Dog, by Martin Amis; And Now You Can Go, by Vendela Vida; The Effect of Living Backwards, by Heidi Julavits; The Furies, by Fernanda Eberstadt & The Fortress of Solitude, by Jonathan Lethem. Id like to dispense straightaway with what I like about Martin Amis and move on to the meatier stuff. His secondary life’s project—his primary one being himself—can be seen as an attempt to write out how harassing the daily details of life can be. I like his characters’ endless confrontation with the banal gone crazy. That’s why, in The Information (1995), Richard-the-not-well-known-novelist’s paisley pajamas are soaked in sweat, that’s why he fears his mail, that’s the whole thing about lugging the Hoover. His wife says: “Could you nip round to the electrician and pop the Hoover in?” And it is torture, not only because “Richard’s nipping and popping days were definitely over” but also because the Hoover becomes the luggable metaphor for all that he has failed to achieve. He is convinced that Beckett never had to nip around the corner and get his vacuum cleaner fixed. ( ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 22 November 2003, on page 59 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Tickling-your-catastrophe-1657
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by Max Watman Reviews of "The View from Castle Rock: Stories," by Alice Munro; "Talk Talk," by T.C. Boyle; and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," by Marisha Pessl. by Stefan Beck On The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco & Cain by José Saramago. by Stefan Beck On The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Slim by Jonathan Coe, Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell & The Pale King by David Foster Wallace. by Stefan Beck On Freedom, 03, A Visit from the Goon Squad & Dogfight, A Love Story.
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