Best books...chosen by Benjamin Anastas
Benjamin Anastas’s Too Good to Be True is one of the most acclaimed memoirs of 2012.
Benjamin Anastas’s Too Good to Be True is one of the most acclaimed memoirs of 2012. Below, the Massachusetts-born novelist lists six favorite books by one of his literary heros, Martin Amis.
Money: A Suicide Note (Penguin Ink, $16). Open this relentless reality grab of a novel to any page and you’ll find Amis doing things to the language—and to early-’80s New York City—that you didn’t think possible. John Self, the most breathtaking lout in the Amis criminal lineup, is a vulgarian so complete that only Hollywood (and Selina Street, his live-in vixen) can outdream his appetite for wealth and all it buys.
The Pregnant Widow (Vintage, $16). The scene: a crumbling castle in Campania, Italy. The time: 1970. Keith Nearing, while lying poolside with his sexless English novels, must choose between Lily, his plain, newly awakened girlfriend, and Scheherazade, a beauty who draws crowds. This 2010 novel is a farce of the sexual revolution and a remembrance of lost time.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Experience: A Memoir (Vintage, $19). Probably my favorite Amis book: My copy has swelled from re-readings. Aside from the loving portrait of Kingsley Amis, who emerges whole, with all his flaws, Amis gets revealingly emotional about his sister, his children, and a cousin, Lucy, who was murdered by a serial killer.
The Information (Vintage, $17). The novel that launched an Amis backlash in the mid-’90s only gets better with time: Richard Tull, a book reviewer of no repute and a novelist of even less, follows his hugely successful frenemy Gwyn Barry on a U.S. book tour. “What happens when galaxies collide?” Nothing good for Richard.
Yellow Dog (Vintage, $15). The least loved book in the Amis canon has never recovered from its initial critical drubbing. That’s too bad: Underneath its broad satire of the British royals and the porno and the puns, this 2003 novel has some of Amis’s sharpest and most pitiless writing on childhood and innocence, violence and media culture. Definitely a mind-bending read, but worth every chapter (well, almost every chapter).
The War Against Cliché (Vintage, $20). Amis has been mucking around in literature’s garden since his early 20s, turning out reviews on everyone from J.G. Ballard to Robert Bly, from Iris Murdoch to Philip Roth to Don DeLillo. This collection is proof that he never wavers from his first commandment: Thou Shalt Never Be Boring as a Critic.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Taking aim at Venezuela’s autocrat
Feature The Trump administration is ramping up military pressure on Nicolás Maduro. Is he a threat to the U.S.?
-
Comey indictment: Is the justice system broken?
Feature U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan has indicted former FBI Director James Comey on charges of lying and obstructing Congress
-
Government shuts down amid partisan deadlock
Feature As Democrats and Republicans clash over health care and spending, the shutdown leaves 750,000 federal workers in limbo
-
Lou Berney’s 6 favorite books with powerful storytelling
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Dorothy B. Hughes, James McBride, and more
-
Elizabeth Gilbert’s favorite books about women overcoming difficulties
Feature The author recommends works by Tove Jansson, Lauren Groff, and more
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imagination
Feature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is more
Feature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
-
Keith McNally's 6 favorite books that have ambitious characters
Feature The London-born restaurateur recommends works by Leo Tolstoy, John le Carré, and more
-
Garrett Graff's 6 favorite books that shine new light on World War II
Feature The author recommends works by James D. Hornfischer, Craig L. Symonds, and more
-
Helen Schulman's 6 favorite collections of short stories
Feature The award-winning author recommends works by Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, and more
-
Beatriz Williams' 6 timeless books about history and human relationships
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and more