Inside Story

Listed in the Literature category on Art In Fiction, Inside Story (2020) by Martin Amis is an autobiographical novel describing a unique literary life.   This is the portrait of an extraordinary life lived by a great writer. Martin Amis leads us through boisterous romantic entanglements and literary friendships, the encompassing ties of family to generously revealing details about how to write (from the master of prose style), and finally to the intimate sorrow of a death closely felt.   Inside Story  had its birth in a death--that of the author's closest friend, the beloved thinker and writer Christopher Hitchens. From their early days as young magazine staffers in London, reviewing romantic conquests and the latest literary gossip (not to mention ideas, books and where to lunch), Hitchens was Martin's wingman and adviser, especially in the matter of the alluringly amoral, unforgettable Phoebe Phelps--an obsession Martin must somehow put behind him if he is ever to find love, marriage, a plausible run at happiness. We meet the literary giants who influenced him--his father Kingsley Amis, his hero Saul Bellow, the weirdly self-finessing poet Philip Larkin, and significant literary women, from Iris Murdoch to Elizabeth Jane Howard.   Moving among these greats to set his own path, Martin's quest is a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to be a husband and father, how to grieve, and how to die? In his search for answers, he surveys the horrors of the twentieth century, and the still-unfolding impact of 9/11 on the twenty-first, and considers what all this has taught him about how to be a writer.   The result is a love letter to life and to the people in his life, which is simultaneously a wonder of literary invention--wise, meditative, heartbreaking, funny, and as engaging as a novel--that achieves a new level of confidentiality with readers. “Brilliant . . . Abounds with entertaining anecdotes . . . [Amis] explores the rich terrain of how matters of the heart (and loins) inform art . . . Stylistically, Inside Story is most reminiscent of Dylan’s Chronicles , a master artist following his muse to create a genre-defying and career-defining work.” —Bill Kelly, Booklist (starred review) Martin Amis is the author of fourteen previous novels, the memoir Experience , two collections of stories, and seven nonfiction books. He lives in Brooklyn. Buy Now from Amazon Buy Now from Bookshop