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The Information

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About this listen

 How can one writer hurt another where it really counts? The answer: attack his reputation. This is the problem facing novelist Richard Tull, contemplating the success of his friend and rival Gwyn Barry.

Revenger's tragedy, comedy of errors, contemporary satire - The Information skewers high life and low in Martin Amis's brilliant return to the territory of Money and London Fields.

©1995 Martin Amis (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Witty Comedy
All stars
Most relevant
but Pacey butchered some pronunciations of names (like Jorge Luis Borges).
I found the book less interesting and funny than Money or London Fields but hey, maybe I'm too young to read about midlife crises yet.

Well read

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Although 'The Information' isn't Amis's finest 17 hours 20 minutes (it's overlong, weirdly structured, and - even by MA's usual standards – self-indulgent), it's still absolutely packed with brilliant writing and snigger-out-loud black comedy. Crucially, Steven Pacey is the *perfect* narrator to bring all this brilliance out in the most vivid form.

I hereby request that Steven Pacey is forthwith enlisted to read Amis's critical/journalistic writings ('The War Against Cliche', etc.)

Amis + Pacey = A Match Made In Heaven

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Thoroughly recommend. Full of pathos, a satirical romp. You either love Amis or you don't.

A great listen

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A sweaty epic of writerly envy and hubris set in Londons gut, narrated to glorious perfection

So funny, so nasty. Achingly brilliant

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Martin Amis will not be everyone's cup of tea. His is a deeply pessimistic view of the world. His characters are weak, pathetic and generally unlikeable misfits and fate is cruel to them. In "The Information", the two main protagonists are authors who were students at Oxford together; one is a commercial success but a very poor writer, the other is profoundly unsuccessful and writes extremely obscure books which no-one reads of buys, and who scrapes a living writing reviews of books almost as obscure and deadly as his own. Their relationship is suffused with jealousy, deception, suppressed rage and hate. On this platform Amis writes a dark and savagely funny tale with some truly hilarious set-pieces satirising the publishing world. His fascination with low life is as strong and brilliantly expressed as ever, but the low life characters and incidents seem almost periphery to the book, and do not easily slot into the narrative - the book's only real weakness - in contrast to my favourite Amis book "London Fields".

The narration by Stephen Pacey is nothing less than a tour de force. He brings out all the fantastic invention and colour of Amis' prose, he depicts the characters brilliantly, and he seems to almost relish the savage humour - the book is laugh out loud funny at times. You could almost believe that the book was written for him to narrate, so at home is he with Amis' style.

Warmly recommended - particularly if you are already an Amis fan. His books are superbly suited to being read out loud, and even if you have read the book before, your appreciation of the author's skill and the book will be greatly enhanced.

a dark and savagely funny book

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