"My Oxford." My Oxford. Ed. Ann Thwaite. London: Robson Books, 1977.
A brief autobiographical account of Amis's undergraduate career at Exeter College, Oxford.
"A Tale of Two Novels." The Observer (19 October 1980): 26. Amis's
account of his discovery that Jacob Epstein's novel Wild Oats (1979) plagiarized
significantly from The Rachel Papers.
"The Sublime and the Ridiculous: Nabokov's Black Farces."In Vladimir
Nabokov: A Tribute. Ed. Peter Quennell. New York: William Morrow, 1980, pp. 73-86
(originally published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1979). Amis analyzes four of
Nabokov's novels, which he categorizes as "black farces": King, Queen,
Knave, Laughter in the Dark, Despair, and Lolita. A superb essay, full of
indirect commentary on Amis's own fictional preoccupations and procedures.
"Oh, the Enterprise is Sick." The Observer (29 July 1984): 22. Amis
occasionally substituted for Julian Barnes as television critic for The Observer;
here he reviews an ITV program about "Crime, Inc.," which "is, of course, a
story about the great disorders formed by money." In the column, Amis also discussed
Captain Kirk, Al Capone, and a program called "Cricket: The Fourth Test."
"Inside Charles's Marriage." The Observer (27 October 1985): 29.
"Broken Lance." The Atlantic 257 (March 1986): 104-106. Ostensibly a
review of the reissue of Don Quixote (translated by Tobias Smollett), this is the
first in a series of essays for The Atlantic in which Amis reconsiders classic
works of literature.
"Ronbo and the Arms Habit." The Observer (13 April 1986): 28.
"Teacher's Pet." The Atlantic 258 (September 1986): 96-99. Amis uses
the occasion of a new edition of James Joyce's Ulysses to reconsider the status
of Joyce's most famous novel. Excellent on Joyce's greatness--and excesses.
"Updike's Version." The Observer Review (30 August 1987):
15-16. Half-interview, half essay, in which Amis takes the measure of Updike's achievement
and literary status.
"Miss Jane's Prime." The Atlantic 265 (February 1990): 100-102. A
reconsideration of Pride and Prejudice that manages to say something new about
Austen's best-known novel while articulating Amis's view of the artist's social role.
"H is for Homosexual." Hockney's Alphabet. Drawings by David Hockney.
New York: Random House, 1991, pp. 23-24. A short (two page) rumination on homosexuality,
emphasizing Amis's own evolving attitudes.
"Lolita Reconsidered." The Atlantic 270 (September 1992):
109-120. Reprinted as the Introduction to the Everyman edition of Lolita
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), v-xxiii. One of the best essays yet written about
Nabokov's masterpiece, which also happens to be Amis's favorite novel. Full of insights
into Nabokov's art--and Amis's.
"Don Juan in Hull." The New Yorker (12 July 1993): 74-82. Acute
analysis of the politics of Philip Larkin's reputation.
"The Heat of Wimbledon." The New Yorker (26 July 1993): 66-70.
Professional tennis as an aspect of the human comedy: an account of the 1993 Wimbledon
Tennis Championship.
"At the Wide-Open Open." The New Yorker (4 October 1993): 173-8.
Here Amis does for the U.S. Open Tennis Tournament what he earlier did for Wimbledon.
"My Imagination and I." In Power and the Throne: The Monachy Debate,
ed. Anthony Barnett (London: Vintage, 1994): 79-80. Amis's four-paragraph contribution to
this anthology of political and cultural commentary on the monarchy contains a "sex
dream" he had aboutthe Duchess of York.
"Blown Away." The New Yorker (30 May 1994): 47-49. A discussion of
movie violence and concerns about its relationship to the real thing.
"Travolta's Second Act." The New Yorker (Feb. 20 & 27 1995):
212-17. Ostensibly a profile of the actor John Travolta, the real subject of this essay is
the representation of contemporary masculinity in the work of David Mamet, Elmore Leonard,
Quentin Tarantino--and Martin Amis.
"Buy My Book, Please." The New Yorker (June 26 & July 3, 1995):
96-9. Amis takes The Information on the road for his American book tour--during
the O.J. Simpson trial.
"The Games Men Play." The New Yorker (14 August 1995): 40- 47. This
time Amis focuses on the men's game, and the leading players of 1995: Andre Agassi, Boris
Becker, Thomas Muster, Pete Sampras.
"Tennis Personalities." The New Yorker (5 September 1994): 82. A
short, stinging critique of the cult of "personality" in professional tennis. A
slightly revised version of this essay was published in the 29 June 1997 Observer.
"A Chicago of a Novel." The Atlantic Monthly (October 1995): 114-27.
A long appreciation of Saul Bellow's The Adventures of Auggie March in which Amis
sets out to defend his opening claim: "The Adventures of Auggie March is the
Great American Novel."
"Jane's World." The New Yorker (8 January 1996): 31-5. A loving
tribute to the imperishable art of Jane Austen, posing as a rumination on various film
adaptations of her novels.
"My Ad." The New Yorker (9 September 1996): 98. A one-page
"Shouts and Murmurs" column about Amis's alter-ego: "The Tennis
Monster."
"Unembarrassable." The New York Times Magazine (8 June 1997): 44-5.
As part of a cover story "How the World Sees Us," Amis is quoted on the American
love of personal disclosure. "I'm as puzzled as everyone else over here about the
American habit of seeking advice on every aspect of one's private life. In England, we
thrive on our own inhibitions; they're all we can truly call our own. Among the English,
it's considered self-pitying to air difficulties, but Americans are unembarrassable"
(14).
"The Sporting Scene." New Yorker, 16 June 1997: 38. A
one-page "Talk of the Town" piece about the profound handicap overcome by the
British tennis player Tim Henman: "he is the first human being called Tim to achieve
anything at all."
"The
Mirror of Ourselves." Time Magazine, September 15, 1997. An essay on the
death of Diana, Princess of Wales ("She takes her place among the broken glass and
crushed metal, in the iconography of the crash, alongside James Dean, Jayne Mansfield and
Princess Grace").
"Books I Wish I'd Written." The Guardian (London), 2 October 1997:
T18. This essay contains important information about the reading that shaped the
imaginative landscape of Night Train: Elmore Leonard, James Ellroy, and David
Simon, whose non-fiction book Homicide Amis calls a "masterpiece, . . . a
600-page cathedral of illumination: investigative sociology taken to its highest level,
and rendered with unfailing intelligence and panache."
