Английская Википедия:House of Meetings
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Infobox book
House of Meetings, by Martin Amis, is a 2006 novel about two brothers who share a common love interest while living in a Soviet gulag during the last decade of Stalin's rule. This novel was written by Amis during a two-year-long self-imposed exile in Uruguay following the release and tepid reception afforded to his 2003 novel Yellow Dog. The writing of House of Meetings "precipitated (another) creative crisis" for Amis,[1] which Amis reflected upon in 2010:
"You see those Posy Simmonds cartoons of people by the pool having cocktails and saying into the Dictaphone, 'On the second day, the last child died,'" he says. "And I was in Uruguay, with my beautiful wife and beautiful daughters, living a completely stressless life. So I had to do my suffering on the page and, Christ, did I do it. I was very nervous about that book."[1]
Plot summary
The novel centers on the modern-day (2004) recollections of the unnamed narrator/protagonist of his time spent in an Arctic gulag and the years that followed. The recollections are presented in the form of a memoir sent to the narrator's American stepdaughter, Venus. One of the primary plot elements is the complex relationship between the protagonist and his younger half-brother, Lev, who later joins him in the camp. Through many difficult revelations and trials, they eventually survive the harsh conditions of the camp and then must face a further challenge: re–acclimatizing to everyday life.
Literary significance and criticism
The novel's release was greeted with generally positive reviews; see, e.g., The Economist's October review.[2] In Literary Review, Sam Leith wrote: “Amis mistakes the nature of his own talent. His Dickensian comic mode is his strongest suit – gravitas or moral clairvoyancy his shortest. But Amis still fails more interestingly than most of his peers succeed.”[3]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1,0 1,1 Martin Amis and the sex war, Times Online, January 24, 2010
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite news
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite web
External links
- "Breath was just another weapon": a review in the TLS by Bharat Tandon, September 2006.
- Tom Chatfield writes on Amis's House of Meetings for Prospect Magazine
Further reading
- Английская Википедия
- 2006 British novels
- Novels by Martin Amis
- Books with cover art by Chip Kidd
- Novels set in Siberia
- Novels set in the Gulag
- Jonathan Cape books
- Страницы, где используется шаблон "Навигационная таблица/Телепорт"
- Страницы с телепортом
- Википедия
- Статья из Википедии
- Статья из Английской Википедии
