Dead Babies - Martin Amis

This is a brutal book - a a weird story of a house of freaks, posh kids gone astray and other weirdos. Apparently it has been made into a film but whether the film is any more succesful than any other Martin Amis conversion to the screen is debatable because even if the drug and booze induced mayhem of the book is more acceptable now than thirty odd years ago, it is still a little insane and odd. The book is not the best by Amis but it is strangely alluring and in Keith the mighty midget it has one of my favourite characters in fiction - a really horrific little oddball whose peculiarities I won't waste. Just read and enjoy. ...

This is one of my favourite Amis titles (although I have read them all) for its black, black humour and twisted ending - it tells the story of a weekend at the Appleseed Rectory. The five housemates are expecting a visit from three American friends - mad, drug-taking nutters, basically - and a fourth visitor turns up unexpectedly. The weekend goes downhill from there, with attacks on rampant cows, visits to a bizarre existential theatre and much sex and drug taking. As the main characters' personalities come to the fore, the reader realises that they actually don't sympathise (or relate) to any of these nutcases, and at the end of the book you are quite glad you ...