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Lionel Asbo: State Of England (2012)

by Martin Amis(Favorite Author)

3.3 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0307958086 (ISBN13: 9780307958082)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Knopf

review 1: I read this book as I was doing a study at the time on English Country Houses as a metaphor for the state of the nation and a book about a man who buys a country pile after winning the lottery entitled "Lionel Asbo: State of the Nation" seemed pertinent. It was useful to the study and shows nicely how the country house as a setting in literature continues to be a convenient box to shove all kinds of themes into. It was also a bit disappointing. I liked Des (what's not to like) mainly because the author intended we like him. I hated Lionel (what is to like?) mainly because the author intends we hate him. I could also see that Lionel was a kind of emblem for a certain aspect of England in our time. However, there was equally something I didn't like about this book as a... more work of fiction - it read as a bit artificial to me - Lionel was too much, and it was all a bit overkill. I kept waiting and waiting for justice to find Lionel, but it never did. Even when justice did catch up with him and he went to prison, Lionel was glad to be there, because it was a good place to sort his head out ("Prison, said Lionel. Good place to get you head sorted out. You know where you are in prison. Well yeah, thought Des. You're in prison." p. 123. I also kept waiting for the storyline to develop around the character who Lionel organised to be "sold" (his name escapes me, sorry) but it never did. The ending was unsatisfactory (probably because it wasn't neat enough for me). I know some people will say that there's something wrong with expecting a neat ending in a world which is less than satisfactory - but I do like to have that happy ending in fiction - as, even today, I think most people do. This wasn't for me - it was too bleak, too grubby and too messy. Still, it was an interesting spin on country house fiction.
review 2: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most Martin Amis fans will because it contains all the classic Martin Amis goods. It's got likeably sociopathic people, rich settings, slow-motion social trainwrecks, playful slang and elaborate, but beautifully precise, prose. And, at under 300 pages, it doesn't oblige you to tolerate any of this for so long that it gets on your nerves. I'd give it another star, if I were somehow recommending it to myself. However, to a general audience of fiction fans, I can't pretend the plot doesn't seem anachronistic by about 20 years or that most of the characters aren't thinly drawn and ultimately pointless to the story. less

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