Book Obsessions and Recommendations

Martin Amis – The Information

Last year I got really obsessed with Martin Amis. Aside from devouring his novels, I began watching interviews, documentaries, and trying to find first editions of his books (that I could afford) . To me, he’s one of the last cool figures of the old literary world. I want to recommend two books: a memoir and a novel.

The Information was the book Amis received his record-breaking advance for—£500k, the largest any British fiction writer had ever received at the time. The literary world hated him for it, which is ironic considering the subject of the book.

The novel is a black comedy about envy, failure, and literary ambition. It follows Richard Tull, a once-promising writer now sidelined to obscurity, who becomes obsessed with sabotaging his old university friend Gwyn Barry’s career—a bestselling author of corny mainstream fiction.

Martin Amis – Experience (A Memoir)

I was suffering from a recurring wisdom tooth problem. Every few months the pain would flare up, then after a few days vanish. I went to see a private dentist and the cost he quoted for removal was nuts. I told my friend I’m gonna try to survive on painkillers until I strike it rich and can afford dental work. He laughed and said:

“Go read Martin Amis’s memoir—he had the worst toothache problems in that book.”

He was right. Amis was plagued with the worst teeth and toothaches and took that advance for The Information to a top dentist to have his entire mouth fixed.

But Experience is about far more than dental woes. Amis writes about growing up in the shadow of his famous father, Kingsley Amis; about love, friendship, fame, and the tragedies that shaped his life—including the disappearance and murder of his cousin.

The book is full of Amis’s trademark wit and dazzling style, but it’s also vulnerable and searching. What hit me so deeply, after being such a fan, was realising that behind the ever so stylish, public persona was someone trying to make sense of loss, love, family, and the strange business of being a writer.

Elizabeth Wurtzel – Prozac Nation

I grew up Generation X, and now in my forties I look back so fondly on that era: alternative rock, MTV, independent films, Seinfeld, hanging out in record stores and the video store. Back then, big record shops often had a cool book section stocked with cult writers like Hunter S. Thompson, William Burroughs, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Charles Bukowski, etc.

They also carried the new Gen X icons like Douglas Coupland, Bret Easton Ellis, Jay McInerney—and that’s where I discovered Elizabeth Wurtzel.

I was immediately drawn to Prozac Nation because of the cover. Wurtzel was strikingly beautiful, reminding me of Fiona Apple, and of course the title was incredible. As a mildly depressed eighteen-year-old, I was sold instantly. The book became a defining document of Gen X melancholy and medication.

Raw, unfiltered, and unapologetically messy, it’s about depression, yes—but also ambition, self-sabotage, and the crushing pressure to seem “okay.” I had never read someone express these feelings. I also think Wurtzel deserves far more respect than she gets. Her second book, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, is excellent, as is her later memoir More, Now, Again.

Donna Tartt – The Secret History

To me, this is the perfect novel.

Every time I open it, I’m floored by the writing. I’m still so obsessed with this book. It casts a spell on you. I know so many people who keep re-reading it or, like me, buy different editions of the book to re-read. It’s like Donna started her own book cult and definitely spawned the DARK ACADEMIA trend that ran on Tumblr.

The Secret History is a genius inversion of the campus novel, replacing earnest coming-of-age with an icy exploration of beauty, intellect, and evil. Set at a small Vermont college, the book follows a clique of eccentric classics students whose devotion to their enigmatic professor and to the rigours of ancient Greek thought becomes both intoxicating and murderous.