The Information

By: Martin Amis

Narrated by: Steven Pacey

Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

How can one writer hurt another where it really counts? The answer: attack his reputation. This is the problem facing novelist Richard Tull, contemplating the success of his friend and rival Gwyn Barry.

Revenger's tragedy, comedy of errors, contemporary satire - The Information skewers high life and low in Martin Amis's brilliant return to the territory of Money and London Fields.

©1995 Martin Amis (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

couldn't finish it

After 7 hours of listening I gave up. I want a book to which I can listen while driving or doing household chores. The narration is excellent, however, the text itself is challenging at best. A rather simple plot, larded with high-flown physical explanations and numerous irrelevant "information" left me guessing whether it's outstanding literature or a failed attempt. Maybe this work demands the printed form, narrated it didn't work out for me.

Tedious and irritating

I'd never read Martin Amis before and chose this to remedy the gap in my reading. I really tried with this novel. I persisted for about 7 hours of it before giving up. None of the characters was remotely likeable, so I began to care less and less about them and what happened to them. The writing is irritating. For instance, "She was a woman. She knew so much more about tears than he did". This is followed by a long list of works of classical literature that she doesn't know "but she knew tears". There is also much irrelevant astro-physical information sprinkled at random through the novel. In summary, I found it pretentious. The narrator was good, but it must have been an uphill battle for him.