''Inside Story'' is an autobiographical novel by the English author

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

, published in 2020. It was Amis' final novel to be published before his death in 2023.

Synopsis

The book revolves around a fictionalized account of Amis' relationship with three central figures who have died:

Philip Larkin Philip Arthur Larkin (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. His first book of poetry, '' The North Ship'', was published in 1945, followed by two novels, '' Jill'' (1946) and '' A Girl in Winter'' (194 ...

Saul Bellow Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; June 10, 1915April 5, 2005) was a Canadian-American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the 1976 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only write ...

and

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British and American author and journalist. He was the author of Christopher Hitchens bibliography, 18 books on faith, religion, culture, politics, and literature. He was born ...

. Another central figure, Phoebe Phelps, is entirely fictional, and characterized by a mixture of hyper-sexuality and vulnerability reminiscent of previous female characters written by Amis (e.g. Nicola Six in ''

London Fields London Fields is a park in Hackney, London, although the name also refers to the immediate area in Hackney surrounding it and London Fields station. It is common land adjoining the Hackney Central area of the London Borough of Hackney. The p ...

'', Gloria Prettyman in '' The Pregnant Widow''). The novel begins with Amis welcoming the reader into his home. It is interspersed with sections in which Amis addresses the reader directly and discusses the art of writing. The final part of the novel describes the death of each of the three principal figures (Larkin, Bellow, Hitchens), followed by Amis himself bidding farewell to the reader.

Development

Amis first attempted to write a second memoir (his first being ''

Experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...

'') during his stay in Uruguay, between 2003 and 2006. It was provisionally called ''Life''. In 2005, having written about 100,000 words, he read the manuscript and decided it was "dead". He eventually developed a 30-page section of it which he did like into '' The Pregnant Widow'', and abandoned the project for several years. He was moved to try it again following the death of

: "when Christopher died I thought, 'Christ, they're all dead now'. I mean, Saul, Christopher and Philip Larkin, who is the other dominant figure. And I thought 'Well, that gives me a bit more freedom'". The addition of Pheobe Phelps, a completely made-up character, afforded more space for the imagination.

Structure and themes

The book is divided into an introduction ('Preludial'), five parts (the last three called 'antepenultimate, 'penultimate', and 'ultimate'), and two postscripts ('Afterthought' and 'Addendum'). A short story, 'Oktober', is included between parts 2 and 3. Parts 1 and 4 include interludes in which Amis discusses writing. Death is the main theme of the book. Amis reflects lengthily upon the death of Larkin, Bellow and Hitchens. He also visits the fictional character Phoebe Phelps in her crippled old age, and comments in a postscript on the death of his stepmother,

Elizabeth Jane Howard Elizabeth Jane Howard (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist. She wrote 12 novels including the best-selling series ''The'' ''Cazalet Chronicle''. Early life Howard's father was Major David Liddon Howard (1896–1958), a ...

. Amis also laments the approaching end of his writing life. He confesses that at seventy, writing another long fiction seems unlikely, and that he will probably write shorter works until he will eventually "shut up and read".

Reception

''Inside Story'' was for the most part favourably reviewed, though particular aspects of it were regularly critiqued. Several reviewers were baffled by the claim that it was a novel: "Martin Amis’s “Inside Story” contains so much autofiction, metafiction and just plain nonfiction (there’s an index) that one doesn’t know how to classify the book" Others felt the novel was somewhat recycled, with several ideas and character types appearing in previous novels and essays. As in other Amis novels, critics praised his singular style: "The great lines come flying at you, as always, volleyed out of the cleft of the book and into the magic space beneath your raised eyebrows."

Kevin Power Kevin Power (born 1981) is an Irish writer and academic. His novel ''Bad Day in Blackrock'' was published by The Lilliput Press in 2008 and filmed in 2012 as ''What Richard Did''. In April 2009 Power received the 2008 Hennessy XO Emerging Ficti ...

wrote that, as in Amis' best novels, ''Inside Story'' creates a feeling of intimacy with the reader. Recalling a line from Saul Bellow's ''

Herzog (; feminine ; masculine plural ; feminine plural ) is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to ...

'' - "Each man has his own batch of poems", Power summarizes the conundrum of the book's genre thus: "What is Inside Story? A novel? A memoir? Perhaps it’s simply an anthology – autumnal, summative – of Martin Amis’s poems".

References

{{Martin Amis 2020 British novels Novels by Martin Amis Jonathan Cape books British autobiographical novels Cultural depictions of Philip Larkin Christopher Hitchens