From: Celestina Groeberhorst
Category: Amis
Date: 8/17/99
Time: 12:53:00 PM
Remote Name: 129.219.247.97
*FEMALE OF THE SPEECHLESS* / BY ANONYMOUS / [FROM *THE OBSERVER*. OCTOBER 31, 1993.]
With the primeval regularity of a migrating barnacle goose, the Martin Amis Interview alighted upon *The Late Show* (BBC2). In a welcome break with tradition, however, the interrogation was conducted not by some simpering female, but as a *Face to Face* encounter with Jeremy Isaacs Esq. Mr Issacs is not easily overawed, save perhaps by Wagner and Sir Georg Solti, and so his questioning consistently registered close to zero on this column's Gushometer. In fact, only one query---'You write dazzlingly. Does it come easy?'---caused even a momentary flicker of the needle on this exceedingly sensitive instrument.
The interview was the best exploration I have seen of the Amis psyche. It was searching without being intrusive, and contained no questions about recent upheavals in its subject's private life. But it was, on occasion, very revealing. Did he like women, Isaacs asked at one point. 'Yup', replied Amis. 'Do you like women as people?' persisted Isaacs. For the briefest of instants one could see that Amis had been pushed off balance. 'Yes', he said. 'I mean I...', he faltered. 'I don't see ahm...apart from, you know...', he rambled. And then he got back on top and the perfectly formed sentences returned: '...in the realms of pathology one could feel otherwise'. But by that time the damage was done and the truth was out.