From: Jezzaroona
Category: Amis
Date: 7/9/99
Time: 4:12:39 AM
Remote Name: 195.44.206.151
Re-reading *London Fields* the other day, I noticed more than ever before how much time Amis devotes to the subject of the babies. Marmaduke and his shit and his other ejecta *dominate* the novel. Reading all the passages in LF about bringing up baby in a large house on Landsdowne Road in Holland Park/Notting Hill (where he lived before the split) and thinking about the timing of LF in Amis life in terms of the ages of his kids leaves me with the sense that this is all pretty autobiographically derived stuff, that what Amis had been writing reflected on what he'd been directly experiencing.
And what is the dominant emotion in these passages? Bewilderment. "Christ - they do *that*!???" seems to be the overall reaction to the presence of babies. This bewilderment is still there as they grow up a little. In The Info. for instance. "Christ - they want to watch *what* on TV?!!!
Fair enough. But where does this all lead? What will happen when Louis and Jacob hit thirteen (or worse: *sixteen*). Will we have loads of domestic scenes with spotty, recalcitrant know-alls arguing with each other over which kind of pop music is better than another and which styles of clothes are "in" etc. etc. It's as if Amis will come up against Charles Highway again, but this time he's the ridiculous father (they all are aren't they?).
PS I bumped into an old friend-of-a-friend type person the other day who used to be the Amis' nanny (employed by Martin rather than of Martin if you see what I mean) - I can't believe I haven't maximised on this possibility earlier but it had slipped my mind. Well, I'm going to probe her for any info I can get and report back.