Amis Bookshelf--3
 

 

Books favorably reviewed or recommended by Amis, 1983-present (click on the title to purchase the book from amazon.com):

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Amis's personal list of the best Nabokov, in rank order (from his 15 April 1999 talk "Nabokov and Literary Greatness"):

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Lolita (Everyman edition with introduction by Amis)

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Despair

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King Queen Knave

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Pnin

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Laughter in the Dark

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Pale Fire

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Transparent Things

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The Eye

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Nabokov's Dozen

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Speak Memory

Nabokov Collections:

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Vladimir Nabokov: Novels and Memoirs 1941-1951 : The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, Speak, Memory an Autobiography Revisited (Library)

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Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1955-1962: Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, Lolita : A Screenplay (Library of America, 88)

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Vladimir Nabokov: Novels 1969-1974: Ada or Ardor : A Family Chronicle, Transparent Things, Look at the Harlequins! (Library of America, 89)

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The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

 

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Other Amis recommendations:

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Collected Poems, by Peter Porter ("humour again playing its critical part amid the complexity and pain"--The Observer, 4 December 1983: 25).

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The Quantity Theory of Insanity, by Will Self ("I admired [its] turbulent comedy, . . . originality . . . sheer braininess"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).

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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, by Jung Chang (". . . made me feel like a five-year-old. This is a family memoir that has the breadth of the most enduring social history"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).

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U and I, by Nicholson Baker (". . . very funny, very honest, and ridiculously gripping"--The Observer, 1 December 1991: 28).

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Riding the Rap, by Elmore Leonard (reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, 14 May 1995: 7)

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Independence Day, by Richard Ford (recommended as summer reading in the Sunday Times, 6 August 95: 76).

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Konin: A Quest, by Theo Richmond (recommended in the Sunday Times, 6 August 95: 76). As Amis notes, the book is "about one city cleansed of jews by the Nazis in the 1940s. The survivors are now all dying and historiography has to take a step back and look at it once more."

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The Moor's Last Sigh, by Salman Rushdie (chosen as "my novel of the year" in the Sunday Times, 19 November 95: 71).

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Oswald's Tale, by Norman Mailer (reviewed in The Sunday Times (London), 10 September 1995: 1-2)

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Palimpsest, by Gore Vidal (reviewed in The Sunday Times (London), 22 October 1995: 7/1)

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Crash, by J.G. Ballard (re-reviewed in conjunction with the release of David Cronenberg's film adaptation, The Independent on Sunday, 10 November 1996: 8-9)

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Underworld, by Don DeLillo (reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, 5 October 1997: 12-13)

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The Actual, by Saul Bellow (reviewed in The Observer, 17 August 1997: 14)

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A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe (reviewed in The Guardian, 9 November 1998: 10)

 

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