| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||

› Find signed collectible books: '100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing The Right Curriculum And Approach For Your Child's Learning Style'
More editions of 100 Top Picks For Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing The Right Curriculum And Approach For Your Child's Learning Style:
› Find signed collectible books: '1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die'
For discerning bibliophiles and readers who enjoy unforgettable classic literature, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a trove of reviews covering a century of memorable writing. Each work of literature featured here is a seminal work key to understanding and appreciating the written word.The featured works have been handpicked by a team of international critics and literary luminaries, including Derek Attridge (world expert on James Joyce), Cedric Watts (renowned authority on Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene), Laura Marcus (noted Virginia Woolf expert), and David Mariott (poet and expert on African-American literature), among some twenty others.Addictive, browsable, knowledgeable1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die will be a boon companion for anyone who loves good writing and an inspiration for anyone who is just beginning to discover a love of books. Each entry is accompanied by an authoritative yet opinionated critical essay describing the importance and influence of the work in question. Also included are publishing history and career details about the authors, as well as reproductions of period dust jackets and book designs. [via]
More editions of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die:

› Find signed collectible books: '5001 Nights at the Movies'
Will ship immediately. Expedited shipping is available. [via]
More editions of 5001 Nights at the Movies: A Guide from A to Z:

› Find signed collectible books: '99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939'
In this book Anthony Burgess internationally acclaimed novelist and critic offers his list of the 99 best novels published in English since 1939. [via]
More editions of 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Agee on Film'
More editions of Agee on Film:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940'
More editions of Benchley at the Theatre: Dramatic Criticism, 1920-1940:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education Essays on Great Writers and Their Books'
"Michael Dirda may be as close to the ideal critic as we are likely to get."Annie Proulx
Surveying the dizzying universe of classic books, Michael Dirda, the Pulitzer Prize-winning literary essayist, proves himself to be one of the most engaging critics of our timeand great fun to read. Opening with an impassioned critique of modern reading habits, he then presents many of the great, and idiosyncratic, writers he loves most. In this showcase of one hundred of the world's most astonishing books, Dirda covers a remarkable range of literature, including popular genres such as the detective novel and ghost story, while never neglecting the deeper satisfactions of sometimes overlooked classics. Short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for criticism, Bound to Please is a glorious celebration of just how much fun reading can be. [via]More editions of Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary Education Essays on Great Writers and Their Books:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s'
More editions of Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Cinematherapy: The Girl's Guide to Movies for Every Mood'
What can take the edge off a bad day at the office better than a movie where the boss gets his (9-5)? And, of course, that close-up of Antonio Banderas, wet and naked in a cage, is the best cure for the break-up blahs known to modern science (Never Talk to Strangers). Now, for the first time, Cinematherapy acknowledges what women have known for years, and provides a sage guide to the best movie medicine currently available for whatever ails you, whether it's a sudden hormonal shift, a bad-hair day, or a full-fledged identity crisis. [via]
More editions of Cinematherapy: The Girl's Guide to Movies for Every Mood:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Collection'
More editions of The Collection:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Poems'
More editions of Complete Poems:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Constant Reader'
More editions of Constant Reader:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places'
Incisive, eloquent, crackling with ideas, this is a "mental-biography" of the award-winning fiction writer, Ursula K. Le Guin. She draws together essays, travel journals, lectures, informal talks and reviews spanning twelve years, for a fascinating peek into the mind of a remarkable woman. [via]
More editions of Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dorothy Parker'
Before there was Fran Leibowitz, there was Dorothy Parker. Before there was practically anyone, there was Dorothy Parker. When it comes to expressing the pleasure and pain of being just a touch too smart to be happy, she's winner and still champion after all these years. Along with Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, and the rest of the Algonquin Round Table, she dominated American pop lit in the '20s and '30s; like Ginger Rogers, she did it all backwards. Parker's held up well--maybe the best of all of them.
This book is essential for any Parker fan, and an excellent way for new readers to make her acquaintance. It reprints her finest short stories and poems, some later articles, and all of her excellent "Constant Reader" book reviews from the Depression-era glory days of the New Yorker. The poetry, always light, has become brittle, sorry to say. But you've only to pick any story to be reminded that no middle-distance writer was better than Parker at her best. [via]
More editions of Dorothy Parker:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Edgar Allan Poe Essays and Reviews: Theory of Poetry, Reviews of British and Continental Authors, Reviews of American Authors and American Literatur'
The most complete collection of Poe's critical writings ever published, revealing his wit, uncompromising candor, and breadth of knowledge. Contains all his major writings on poetry, fiction, and the duties of a critic, along with his reviews of writers both known and unknown, and finally, his articles on a wealth of subjects, including South Sea exploration, geography, music, drama, cryptography, ancient languages, and modern critics. [via]
More editions of Edgar Allan Poe Essays and Reviews: Theory of Poetry, Reviews of British and Continental Authors, Reviews of American Authors and American Literatur:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales'
This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates an intense interest in aesthetic issues and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind. "The Fall of the House of Usher" describes the final hours of a family tormented by tragedy and the legacy of the past. In "The Tell Tale Heart", a murderer's insane delusions threaten to betray him, while stories such as "The Pit and the Pendulum" and "The Cask of Amontillado" explore extreme states of decadence, fear and hate. [via]
More editions of The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Stories:

› Find signed collectible books: 'For Keeps'
More editions of For Keeps:

› Find signed collectible books: 'For Keeps : 30 Years at the Movies'
More editions of For Keeps : 30 Years at the Movies:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Harlan Ellison's Watching'
Everybodys entitled to his own opinion, right?WRONG!!He or she is entitled to an informed opinionso if you dont like being argued with, if you dont like a total stranger telling you that your opinion is stupid, and youre fulla crap, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!Because this guy never learned how to lie, and he is either adored or printed on hate posters in Cheneys office, Ku Klux Klan dens, schlock producers bathrooms, and those idiot sites on the internet that truckle to ultra-maroon [via]
More editions of Harlan Ellison's Watching:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hatchet Jobs: Writings on Contemporary Fiction'
Since the publication of Hatchet Jobs, the groves of literary criticism have echoed with the clatter of steel on wood. From heated panels at BookExpo America in Chicago to contretemps at writers' watering holes in New York, voiceseven fistshave been raised.
Peck's bracing philippic proposes that contemporary literature is at a dead end. Novelists have forfeited a wider audience, succumbing to identity politicking and self-reflexive postmodernism. In the torrent of responses to this fulguration, opinions were not so much divided as cleaved in two with, for example, Carlin Romano contending that "Peck's judgements are worse than nastythey are hysterical" and Benjamin Schwarz retorting that "in his meticulous attention to diction, his savage wit, his exact and rollicking prose and his disdain for pseudo-intellectual flatulence, Dale Peck is Mencken's heir."
Now Hatchet Jobs, with its swinging critiques of the work of, among others, Sven Birkerts, David Foster Wallace, Philip Roth, Colson Whitehead, Jim Crace, Stanley Crouch, and Rick Moody, is available in paperback. [via]
More editions of Hatchet Jobs: Writings on Contemporary Fiction:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Housekeeping Vs. the Dirt'
More editions of Housekeeping Vs. the Dirt:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism'
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, Hugging the Shore is an enormously intelligent, witty collection of essays by John Updike. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist sheds keen light on everything from the first kiss to going barefoot to the world's greatest writers. First time in paper. [via]
More editions of Hugging the Shore: Essays and Criticism:
› Find signed collectible books: 'I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie'
A collection of more than 200 of Ebert's most biting, hilarious and sometimes savage reviews -- by what one web critic calls "the bad movie's worst enemy." [via]
More editions of I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's 1998 Movie & Video Guide: 1998'
Updated annually, the 1998 edition of Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide contains reviews of more than 19,000 movies, from 1914's Cabiria and Tillie's Punctured Romance to 1997's Con Air and Batman and Robin. The book lists each film's director and major cast members, tells whether it is in black and white or color, and provides the movie's running time. It rates each film from **** to BOMB, notes whether or not the movie was made in wide-screen format, and records its availability on videocassette and laser disc. The brief reviews that accompany this documentation are tersely written, filled with enthusiasm and humor. Maltin's indices of famous stars and directors make the volume a mini-encyclopedia. Every movie lover should have a copy of Maltin's text. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's 1998 Movie & Video Guide: 1998:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide'
If you buy only one film book in your life, this should be it. Maltin is the filmgoer's guide--the most compact, intelligent, and informative reference available. Alphabetized by title, each of its more than 19,000 entries lists year of release, running time, director, principal cast, and availability on video. Other guides may offer even more information, but Maltin's is distinguished by the quality of its reviews. Rating films on a scale from "****" to "BOMB," it offers a comprehensive introduction to the international cinema, covers the classics with the respect they deserve, unearths thousands of little-known gems, takes the wind out of the overrated, and laughs at the awful with appropriate good humor. If you want proof of Maltin's versatility, compare the reviews of The Battleship Potemkin, History Is Made at Night, Blue Velvet, and The Navy vs. the Night Monsters. Standard, crucial, great fun to read, chock full of trivia, and bursting with passion for the movies. --Raphael Shargel [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's 2003 Movie & Video Guide'
The newly updated edition-now with over 3,000 DVD listings-of the most authoritative film guide on the market. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's 2003 Movie & Video Guide:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1997'
With 300 new movie entries, 1,000 more on videocassette, and laser disc listings, an enlarged index of leading performers and directors, and an updated list of mail-order sources, the 1997 edition of this perennial bestseller continues to be a "must" for every movie buff's bookshelf. The popular reference contains more than 19,000 capsule film reviews, including 300 new entries. Maltin also lists his top 100 films for family viewing. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 1997:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 1999'
Widely acclaimed as the biggest, best, and most authoritative book in its field, "Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide" is the quintessential guidebook to the movies. The author has added some 400 new film entries, bringing the total to more than 19,000, and kept pace with video and laserdisc releases, adding more than 1,000 listings in those categories.
Additional features include:
-- Updated and expanded indexes of leading performers and directors, listing their films reviewed in the book
-- Updated mail-order sources for purchase/rental of videocassettes and laser discs
-- Write-ups on every vintage film series, from Charlie Chart to Tarzan
-- Notes on widescreen films that are best seen in letter-box format
-- Leonard Maltin's selections of the 100 best films for family viewing
After 28 years in publication, "Leonard Maltin's 1999 Movie & Video Guide" continues to be the leading film guide on the market. More than four million copies have been sold. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 1999:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2000'
Film historian and critic Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2000 is incredibly extensive, offering summaries and ratings of movies from Aaron Loves Angela to Zuma Beach. Each movie gets a wry comment from Maltin (the 1981 teen sex comedy Private Lessons is summed up as "a mild piece of sleaze") and a rating from "****" to "BOMB." The Movie and Video Guide 2000 is also meticulously updated--Maltin and his editors are careful to note the bit part appearances of actors who later became stars, allowing you to keep an eye peeled for Charlize Theron in Children of the Corn and Ben Affleck in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you're looking for that movie that you can't remember the name of but you know Laurence Fishburne was in it, fear not--there's also a star index in the back. The book has several other thoughtful features: a guide to the old wide-screen formats like Panavision and Vistascope; a list of 100 must-see films of the 20th century; and grouped box listings of movies that belong to the same series but don't start with the same word, saving a great deal of flipping around. This book is both a fun browser's read and a valuable helpmate at the video store. --Ali Davis [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2000:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2001'
From Leonard Maltin, one of the leading authorities on American film, comes the latest edition of his enormously popular movie and video guide. Key features of this 2001 edition include:
-- Reviews of more than 20,000 films -- 300 new entries
-- Easy-to-read symbols indicating more than 15,000 films available on video -- including 1,000 new entries
-- Over 8,000 listings of films available on laser disc -- and more than 2,000 available on DVD
-- A revised index of leading actors and actresses
-- An updated list of mail-order sources for renting and buying videocassettes and discs
-- Maltin's exclusive list of the best family films of all time ... and much, much more. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2001:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2002'
Completely updated with new information-including 300 brand-new entries-this "indispensable" (New York Daily News) guide contains Maltin's exclusive list of the best family films of all time, an extensive index of stars, and thousands of videocassette, laserdisc, and DVD listings.
"A book you must buy." (Esquire)
"Head and shoulders about the rest." (The New York Times) [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2002:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2003'
With over 19,000 reviews, including more than 14,000 video entries and 13,000 DVD and laserdisc listings, this work, by the film critic of television's "Entertainment Tonight", aims to be one of the most complete and up-to-date reference works on the subject. Features include: an up-to-date list of mail-order sources for buying renting videocassettes and discs; an index of leading performers; official motion picture code ratings; exact running times - a guide for taping and for discovering which movies have been edited; and reviews of little-known sleepers, foreign films, rarities and camp classics. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2003:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2004'
Leonard Maltin is a film critic and resident film buff on USA television's "Entertainment Tonight". This guide presents his insightful criticism and provides an up-to-date listing of movies. It contains more than 18,000 reviews, including over 300 new entries, with over 13,000 video and 8000 DVD and laserdisc listings. It also includes an updated index of leading performers and a list of 50 films you "really ought to see". [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide 2004:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1996'
Featuring more than nineteen thousand entries, this comprehensive film guide encompasses capsule movie reviews, identification of movies available in video, a listing of top family films, cross-references to performers and directors, ratings, and more. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 1996:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide, 1995: The 25th Anniversary Edition'
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide, 1995: The 25th Anniversary Edition:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2005'
More than 18,000 capsule movie reviews, with more than 300 new entries. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2005:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2006'
Entertainment, Pop Culture, Cinema [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2006:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2007'
On the Signet list for more than thirty years, and still the one to beat. Completely updated and expanded to include more than 17,000 entries, this is the one that has become standard. [via]
More editions of Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2007:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Music Lust: Recommended Listening For Every Mood, Moment, And Reason'
More editions of Music Lust: Recommended Listening For Every Mood, Moment, And Reason:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide'
At last, the honest-Injun, 100%-MST3K-sanctioned guide to the 120 episodes of this extremely cool, Peabody Award-winning show. Contains multitudinous synopses, tidbits, photos, wisecracks, and descriptions of some of the most disgusting things ever seen on screen by the MST3K writers. You know you want it, so get it while it's hot! [via]
More editions of The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Never Coming To A Theater Near You: A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Movie'
More editions of Never Coming To A Theater Near You: A Celebration of a Certain Kind of Movie:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 a Personal Choice'
More editions of Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 a Personal Choice:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Nobody's Perfect: Writings from the New Yorker'
In an aside that reads like a declaration of intent, Anthony Lane writes that he never quite thrilled to the battle pitched between mainstream and art cinemawhich is to say that he glories in highbrow and lowbrow alike, and respectfully suggests that the ideal literary diet consists of trash and classics . . . books you can read without thinking, and books you have to read if you want to think at all.
In almost ten years as a critic for The New Yorker, Lane has not only written an indispensable column on the latest movie releases, great and small. He has also turned his gaze upon subjects as various as Evelyn Waugh, Shakespeare, the glory of cookbooks, and the fine art of the obituary. Whether he is examining Alfred Hitchcock or astronauts, to read him is to be carried along on a current of urgent inquiry (What is the point of Demi Moore?), wry reflection, and penetrating wit. An essay on The Sound of Music leads him to consider not only singing nuns but the comedy of our cultural memories (For all our searchings and suppressings, the past comes unbidden or not at all); his now infamous pieces on the best-seller lists both celebrate the exultantly bad prose of Judith Krantz and deride the marshes of the middlebrow, where serious novelists lumber around with too many ideas on their back. His writings on the poetry of Matthew Arnold, A. E. Housman, and especially T. S. Eliot showcase his erudition, dispensed with a piercing insight into human folly. In his survey of events as disparate as Oscar night, a Walker Evans retrospective, and the craziness of a Chanel show in Paris, the acuity of Lanes intellect is matched by a quality of heart that is his alone, and by a willingness to be carried away. His writings remind us of what criticism can achieve at its best.
Arguably the most gifted reviewer at work today, Anthony Lane sets the standardas a reader, as a critic, and as an observer of life. Nobody's Perfect is a must for fans old and new. [via]
More editions of Nobody's Perfect: Writings from the New Yorker:

› Find signed collectible books: 'On Writers and Writing'
More editions of On Writers and Writing:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Penguin Guide To Jazz On Cd'
This work is a leading guide to recorded jazz, full of information and often trenchant criticism. For this edition, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have reassessed each artist's entry and updated the text to incorporate thousands of additional CDs. The book contains artist biographies, full line-ups, recording information along with details of labels and catalogue numbers, authoritative critical ratings, and full index of artists. The book should be of interest to aficionados and jazz novices alike. [via]
More editions of The Penguin Guide To Jazz On Cd:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Cd, Lp and Cassette'
Where can you find the definitive Miles Davis collection? Which Benny Goodman recordings are the most sought after? For what label did Jack Teagarden lay down his finest work? All the answers can be found in this definitive guide to jazz recordings from Dixieland, through Bebop, to the latest young stars. Designed as a counterpart to Ivan March's established classical music guides, it features critical assessments, musical and biographical details, full line-up details, label/number details, an authoritative rating system, and a special section for anthologies and "Various Artists" collections. [via]
More editions of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Cd, Lp and Cassette:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc'
What was the line-up at John Coltrane's Village Vanguard sessions? What is John Zorn's most important contribution to contemporary jazz? When was Jelly Roll Morton recorded for the Library of Congress? Where can you find a complete set of Ella Fitzgerald's many songbook recordings? Leading critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton answer these and a myriad other questions in The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD -- the most comprehensive critical guide to jazz recordings available. Updated with revised artists' entries and thousands of additional CDs, the fourth edition includes:
-- listings for over 10,000 discs
-- musical and biographical details
-- full line-ups
-- accurate label and number details
-- authoritative critical ratings [via]
More editions of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on Compact Disc:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'
The leading guide to recorded jazz, now extensively revised
Music fans have been turning to this established reference through seven editions as a source of intelligent and insightful criticism. Fully updated to incorporate thousands of additional recordings, the eighth edition features artist biographies, detailed recording information with labels and catalog numbers, reliable and authoritative ratings, the authors' personal selection of the essential recordings for every collection, an index of artists, and more. [via]
More editions of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings:
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Perfect Vacuum'
.1 a"In a perfect vacuum, Stanislaw Lem presents a collection of book reviews of nonexistent works of literature - works that, in many cases, could not possibly be written. Embracing postmodernism's "games for games' sake" ethos, Lem joins the contest with hilarious and grotesque results."--BOOK JACKET. "Most of the "reviews" target the postmodern infatuation with antinarratives by lampooning their self-indulgence and exploiting their mannerisms. Lem exposes the limits of postmodern fiction, showing how its studious self-consciousness frequently conceals intellectual paucity. Beginning with a review of his own book, Lem moves on to tackle (or create pastiches of) the French new novel, James Joyce, pornography, authorless writing, and Dostoevsky, while at the same time ranging across scientific topics, from cosmology to the pervasiveness of computers."--BOOK J [via]
More editions of A Perfect Vacuum:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Polysyllabic Spree'
More editions of The Polysyllabic Spree:

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Portable Dorothy Parker'
More editions of The Portable Dorothy Parker:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung'
Vintage presents the paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs--the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s--edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rack critics, Greil Marcus. Advertising in Rolling Stone and other major publications. [via]
More editions of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung:
› Find signed collectible books: 'Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung : An Anthology'
Vintage presents the paperback edition of the wild and brilliant writings of Lester Bangs--the most outrageous and popular rock critic of the 1970s--edited and with an introduction by the reigning dean of rack critics, Greil Marcus. Advertising in Rolling Stone and other major publications. [via]
More editions of Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung : An Anthology:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Screen Burn'
More editions of Screen Burn:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Twisted'
More editions of Twisted:

› Find signed collectible books: 'Twisted Flicks'
More editions of Twisted Flicks:
› Find signed collectible books: 'The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000'
In Martin Amis's War Against Cliché, a selection of critical essays and reviews published between 1971 and 2000, he establishes himself as one of the fiercest critics and commentators on the literature and culture of the late 20th century. (He has already established himself as one of the most controversial and original novelists writing in English with novels such as Money and Time's Arrow.) In his foreword to the book Amis ruefully admits that his earlier reviews reveal a rather humorless attitude towards the "Literature and Society" debate of the time. Yet this only adds to the fascination of the collection, as Amis gradually finds his critical voice in the 1980s, confirming his passionate belief that "all writing is a campaign against cliché."
In the subsequent sections of the book, this war leads to some wonderfully cutting and amusing responses to whatever crosses his path, from books on chess and nuclear proliferation to Cervantes' Don Quixote and the novels of his hero Vladimir Nabokov. Praise for his literary heroes is often fulsome: J.G. Ballard's High-Rise "is an intense and vivid bestiary, which lingers in the mind and chronically disquiets it." But his literary wrath is also devastating in its incisiveness: Thomas Harris's Hannibal is dismissed as "a novel of such profound and virtuoso vulgarity," while John Fowles is attacked because "he sweetens the pill: but the pill was saccharine all along." Often frank in its reappraisals (Amis concedes to being too hard on Ballard's Crash when reviewing the film many years later), some of the best writing is reserved for his journalism on sex manuals, chess, and his beloved football. The War Against Cliché will provoke strong reactions, but that only seems to confirm, rather than deny, the value of Amis's writing. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of The War Against Cliche: Essays and Reviews 1971-2000:
