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Martin Amis
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Money: A Suicide Note (Penguin Ink) Paperback – Deckle Edge, June 29, 2010

by Martin Amis (Author), Bert Krak (Illustrator)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,342 ratings
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One of Time’s 100 best novels in the English language—by the acclaimed author of Lionel Asbo: State of England and London Fields

Part of Martin Amis’s “London Trilogy,” along with the novel London Fields and The Information, Money was hailed as "a sprawling, fierce, vulgar display" (The New Republic) and "exhilarating, skillful, savvy" (The Times Literary Supplement) when it made its first appearance in the mid-1980s. Amis’s shocking, funny, and on-target portraits of life in the fast lane form a bold and frightening portrait of Ronald Reagan’s America and Margaret Thatcher’s England.

             Money is the hilarious story of John Self, one of London’s top commercial directors, who is given the opportunity to make his first feature film—alternately titled Good Money and Bad Money. He is also living money, talking money, and spending money in his relentless pursuit of pleasure and success. As he attempts to navigate his hedonistic world of drinking, sex, drugs, and excessive quantities of fast food, Self is sucked into a wretched spiral of degeneracy that is increasingly difficult to surface from.

Previous page
  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin Books
  4. Publication date
    June 29, 2010
  5. Dimensions
    1.1 x 5.1 x 7.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0143116959
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0143116950
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

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“Martin Amis’s vibrantly dark 1985 novel, Money, gave us a rollicking, repulsive picture of London and New York in the late 20th century, awash in cash, corruption, pornography, junk food, junk art, self-promotion and wretched excess of every imaginable variety. More than two and a half decades later that novel’s scabrous vision of a crude, rude world reeling from narcissism and acquisitiveness seems as potent as ever. Its hilariously awful hero, John Self, is an uncanny harbinger of the willful vulgarians who would gain even more ascendancies in the reality-show, greed-is-great era of the 21st century.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

 
“Savagely hilarious. It risks, it boils with energy . . . it even manages to shock.”—Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

About the Author

Martin Amis is the author of 13 novels, the memoir Experience, two collections of stories, and six nonfiction books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Bert Krak is a celebrated New York tattoo artist, known for his heavy lines and unique color palette. He owns and operates the Smith Street Tattoo Parlour in Brooklyn. He is also a painter, who works mainly with watercolors and liquid acrylics.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (June 29, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0143116959
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143116950
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.1 x 5.1 x 7.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,342 ratings

About the author

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Martin Amis

Martin Amis

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Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist. His best-known novels are Money (1984) and London Fields (1989). He has received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir Experience and has been listed for the Booker Prize twice to date (shortlisted in 1991 for Time's Arrow and longlisted in 2003 for Yellow Dog). Amis served as the Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester until 2011. In 2008, The Times named him one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Amis's work centres on the excesses of late-capitalist Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirises through grotesque caricature; he has been portrayed as a master of what the New York Times called "the new unpleasantness". Inspired by Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, and James Joyce, as well as by his father Kingsley Amis, Amis himself went on to influence many successful British novelists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including Will Self and Zadie Smith.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
1,342 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

bloom68
5.0 out of 5 stars Received quickly and in good shape.
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2024
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This book seems nearly out of print. Anyway — hard to find. Got it here quickly and in pristine shape.
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Moisio
4.0 out of 5 stars Satire or farce? Does it matter?
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2017
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I feel a little sheepish not giving this book five stars. Perhaps it's because of all the critical acclaim. I don't know. It has real merit, but for me much of it comes from its being an example of literary farce, which was not necessarily the author's intention, I fear.

Clearly, it's supposed to be funny, and it is! But the line between satire and farce is blurry. I found the narrator's hyperbole a bit of a stretch, and Amis leaned on it for most of the humor. As satire, it worked pretty well, but as farce it worked really well.

There were great character descriptions, mostly of the actors hired to star in the film ostensibly being produced by the narrator. But I found Amis' introduction of himself as a character off-putting.

Perhaps this review comes off as too finicky, but when an author is brazen enough to include himself as a character in what is nominally satirical fiction, his or her intention becomes decidedly more relevant. And I felt Amis intended this to be a satirical take-down of the film industry and a cultural moment in time. But some plot events were so implausible as to be only believable as farce.

Anyway, I should probably get over my quibbles and give Money the acclaim so many folks do, but I just didn't take to this book in the same way I did to some of his others.
7 people found this helpful
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Fast Served
3.0 out of 5 stars Antihero not my type
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
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I don't like the main character who is into pornography, rich foods, booze and prostitutes. I will finish the book, but I am not enjoying it or the main character's smart mouth. The sad thing is I found another of his books in the house. What was I thinking? Whoever recommended this author was off base.
Plus it was written by an Englishman back in the day, so many references go over my head.
2 people found this helpful
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Reading-Reading
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books of the 20th century
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019
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Simply one of the best books of the 20th century.

So well written, so HILARIOUS. Yes, there are some fireworks and old literary devices, such as Amis appearing in the end, but it's all irony upon irony.

I started reading it again after not reading it for many years and immediately started laughing. It's just too good. Anyone who thinks Amis is racist/homophobic/misogynist reading this confuses the morals of the writer with the characters -- and with satire.

There are such brilliant scenes in this: Self going to the opera in a tight tuxedo and getting the story all wrong, looking for something to turn him on in Martina's pristine home and finding art books and underwear catalogs, "not not smoking" in the back of the cab, dealing with actors' egos in a film.

Beneath all that, a lot of truth. And even, at the end, compassion for the fat, disgusting, so un-PC protagonist ...
9 people found this helpful
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Samuel A. Lessin
2.0 out of 5 stars All pomp, zero bloody circumstance
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2022
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Blah blah blah, look at me, I'm Martin Amis and I can say in 363 pages what any other human on the planet can say in about twelve.
One of the most worthless books on which I have ever wasted my time. Just buy and read any other book, ever written, and it will almost certainly be a better experience than this crap.
2 people found this helpful
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Jonathan
4.0 out of 5 stars It is an alluring dream, is it not?
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2006
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John Self, named such by Amis to represent all of humanity, is a man whose world is controlled by money and sex. Afraid of what life might bring him if he freed himself from his addictions, he succumbs instead to the mantra that just a little more money will fix your problems, that it seems to be working for everyone else so it will work for you too. Like all members of a capitalist system about which Amis seems to be prophesying, Self believes deep down that once he hits the money, his problems will disappear, his obesity, his loneliness, his addictions, and all the rest.

The problem is he already has the money. He has had the money, spent the money, and still has the money. Money is not the issue. The mindset of the people in his world is that if he would "relax, . . . sink a couple of thou into [his] backhand, . . . quit smoking, drink less, eat right . . . go to high-priced health clubs and fancy massage studios . . . undergo a series of long, painful and expensive operations" then he (and you, the universal Mr. Self) will be ready for success in today's society. It is an alluring dream, is it not?

Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
12 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars BAD MONEY
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2020
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Devoid of any real plot, this novel spins its wheels in a muck of profane nonsense. Unlike his father’s picaresque and lovable “Lucky Jim,” Martin Amis’ loser John Self (lead character) is a self-absorbed hedonist bereft of any redeeming value – much like the novel. Kingsley Amis must be turning over in his grave. One star.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Prompt delivery & excellent condition for Martin Amis' book, "Money"
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023
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I was very happy with the prompt delivery of this book and its excellent condition. I'm just discovering Martin Amis as an author, but so far I'm really impressed with his writing style & subjects.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Graham Almond
5.0 out of 5 stars it’s the language
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
Beautiful writing is as welcome as it is rare. I read the book 30 years ago and remember a confusing narrative. Rereading it was a treat: the words leap off the page.
2 people found this helpful
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Alvaro Casagrande
2.0 out of 5 stars Rarely interesting
Reviewed in India on July 12, 2019
Verified Purchase
When about one-fifth through, I gave up. This book looks interesting but is one of the worst I have read. Gruesome descriptions of a hedonistic lifestyle with few real insights. No real plot.
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ハッブルちゃん
5.0 out of 5 stars 欲しかった本がすぐ手に入った。しかも適切価格。
Reviewed in Japan on October 27, 2022
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マーチン・エイミスのマネー（Money）は日本語に訳された単行本がなく、必要箇所について自分で訳してみたかった商品です。アメリカのアマゾンを探したりしましたが、タイトルが"Money, money"だったり別の書籍を買いそうになったりして困ってました。日本からわずか１～２日で入手できてうれしかったです。
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Marie Macri
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, witty, pure genius.
Reviewed in France on November 6, 2016
Verified Purchase
This is a very clever book, one of my all time favorites. Witty. Perfect. Has inspired me to read all of Amis' work.
The other comment for this book is off-topic, the consequent one star rating should be ignored and deserves to be deleted.
One person found this helpful
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Daniel Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantástica
Reviewed in Spain on December 19, 2015
Verified Purchase
Una de las mejores novelas de fin de siglo. La prosa avanza al mismo ritmo al que el protagonista se entrega a un viaje interior frenético.
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