House of Meetings

{{Infobox book |

| name = House of Meetings

| title_orig =

| translator =

| image = File:HouseOfMeetings.jpg

| border = yes

| caption = First edition cover

| author = Martin Amis

| illustrator = Peter Mendelsund and Chip Kidd (US edition)

| cover_artist =

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| series =

| genre =

| publisher = Jonathan Cape[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/edition/?isbn=0224076094 House of Meetings] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526011441/http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/edition/?isbn=0224076094 |date=2011-05-26 }} at Fantastic Fiction

| release_date = 2006

| media_type = Print (Hardback)

| pages = 198

| isbn =

| preceded_by =

| followed_by =

}}

House of Meetings, by Martin Amis, is a 2006 novel about two brothers who share a common love interest while living in a Soviet gulag during the last decade of Stalin's rule. This novel was written by Amis during a two-year-long self-imposed exile in Uruguay following the release and tepid reception afforded to his 2003 novel Yellow Dog. The writing of House of Meetings "precipitated (another) creative crisis" for Amis,[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6996980.ece?token=null&offset=36&page=4 Martin Amis and the sex war]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, Times Online, January 24, 2010 which Amis reflected upon in 2010:

"You see those Posy Simmonds cartoons of people by the pool having cocktails and saying into the Dictaphone, 'On the second day, the last child died,'" he says. "And I was in Uruguay, with my beautiful wife and beautiful daughters, living a completely stressless life. So I had to do my suffering on the page and, Christ, did I do it. I was very nervous about that book."

Plot summary

The novel centers on the modern-day (2004) recollections of the unnamed narrator/protagonist of his time spent in an Arctic gulag and the years that followed. The recollections are presented in the form of a memoir sent to the narrator's American stepdaughter, Venus. One of the primary plot elements is the complex relationship between the protagonist and his younger half-brother, Lev, who later joins him in the camp. Through many difficult revelations and trials, they eventually survive the harsh conditions of the camp and then must face a further challenge: re–acclimatizing to everyday life.

Literary significance and criticism

The novel's release was greeted with generally positive reviews; see, e.g., The Economist's October review.{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8023355 |title=Comeback man |accessdate=2007-08-12 |work=economist.com |date=October 12, 2006}} In Literary Review, Sam Leith wrote: “Amis mistakes the nature of his own talent. His Dickensian comic mode is his strongest suit – gravitas or moral clairvoyancy his shortest. But Amis still fails more interestingly than most of his peers succeed.”{{Cite web |date=2023-10-05 |title=Sam Leith - A Wintry Tale |url=https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-wintry-tale |access-date=2023-10-05 |website=Literary Review |language=en}}

Footnotes

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060929190044/http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25339-2377673,00.html "Breath was just another weapon"]: a review in the [http://www.the-tls.co.uk TLS] by Bharat Tandon, September 2006.
[http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?search_term=chatfield&id=7924 Tom Chatfield writes] on Amis's House of Meetings for Prospect Magazine

House of Meetings

Plot summary

Literary significance and criticism

Footnotes

External links

Further reading