From: Jim M
Category: Amis
Date: 7/19/99
Time: 11:27:12 AM
Remote Name: 195.11.50.206
'Lane', Jules is Martin's muse. She's all of ours' muse, actually. She's the greatest.
I personally think the very best thing in London Fields, by far, is the last line about the sun shining on Kim. Nothing else in any book has ever made me cry. It's an enormous pay-off after all the lovelessness of the novel. Samson says he failed in art and love. But strictly, he fails in neither. As you've convincingly said, an act of love makes him complete his art. Love makes him ultimately succeed in art, and therefore likewise succeeding in art makes him succeed in love. Or something far-fetched like that. I think the book isn't half as bleak as it pretends (as Samson pretends) it is. If he fails in art, then he's failed in sustaining his argument that love is dead, so therefore his failure can only be construed as a thoroughly optimistic one. Way to go, Sambo! I wonder if Craig was gonna get all that in his film?