Golden Oldies

I have a shelf of novels in the dining-rom that I call Golden Oldies, substantial books that I’ve really enjoyed, where I’ve deliberately sought out hard-back copies so that I can enjoy re-reading them. One of the side-effects of Covid has been to drive me back to this, to see if what I once thought was terrific still grabs me in the same way. The results have been very mixed.

There was a time when I really thought Martin Amis’ Money was terrific. So witty, so smart. Yes, the central character is repulsive, but we don’t have to like everything, and so long as the writing is good…Not any more. There are moments when he really turns on the pyrotechnics, bravura paragraphs where I can see what all the fuss was about, but overall I lost interest, and ended up just not going to the end - which hardly ever happens.

Jay McInerney’s Brightness Falls, on the other hand, was sheer joy all over again. Another fast-talking, witty young man with an American slant, but tackling a serious theme (money, as it happens, and the image of success) and serious, complex view of a marriage over time. After the Amis disappointment, I feared that I might have been carried away by juvenile excitement, but if that’s the case then the symptoms remain identical - I loved it all over again. There’snowt so queer as folk.