First of all the above cover is from the first edition. Although I wish I had that version my edition of Money is the Vintage 21 series, i also had an old Penguin version , but pages were falling out of that so I had to buy a new one.
This is my third reading of Money, once in 1999 and another time in 2001 and I admit its the best one. As I have stated before, I am amazed at the amount of things I missed out before.
John Self is a modern man in every way. He is selfish, materialistic and a full on hedonist. After cutting his chops in advertising he decides to direct a semi autobiographical film. After finding a producer and the right actors, Self launches himself into American life in the most debauched ways possible.
When he returns to England though he is more reserved ( thus Amis is showing us the difference between Reagan’s America and Thatcher’s Britain) and spends his nights having glorious sex with his girlfriend Selina.
Good things never last and soon Self starts to find his world crumbling down nastily and in series of twists (plus one very surprising one) loses everything and returns to London as a man ready to redeem himself.
Money is difficult to explain , its prose is utterly spell binding. Every single sentence has a punch to knock you flat , light puns , memorable sentences , funny observations. They are all here in a labyrinthine linguistic glory. However Money is not unreadable. I feel we’ve all met people like John Self so we can relate to his modern worldview. As a satire on the human self it is positively eye opening and even provides digs at the literary establishment. Personally I think London Fields is a better novel but Money is the one (having read nearly all of Amis’ output) where Amis’ distinctive style emerges.
The Bobsphere 