London Fields (novel)

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London Fields is a black comic novel by British writer Martin Amis, published in 1989.

Title London Fields

Author	Martin Amis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Black Comedy
Publisher	Vintage
Released	1989
Media type	Print (Hardback, Paperback)
Pages	470 pages
ISBN	ISBN 0-09-974861-4

Regarded by Amis's readership as possibly his strongest novel, the tone gradually shifts from high comedy, interspersed with deep personal introspections and occasional musings on astrophysics, to a dark sense of foreboding and, eventually, panic as the deadline or "horrorday" — the climactic scene alluded to on the very first page — approaches.

Amis explains the title of the novel in his preface, although somewhat obscurely. London Fields is a park in Hackney, north-east London, but the novel is set in west London, like most of Amis' work. The narrator, Samson Young, who is suffering from cancer, tells us he played in London Fields as a boy, and wants to return there, but he never actually does. It is not clear whether his presence in London was originally based on a wish to revisit old haunts, but this seems likely.

The park in which Young walks with various characters — Nicola Six, Guy Clinch and Keith Talent — is almost certainly not London Fields, since Hyde Park would be more convenient, and he states that he "never will" go back to the park of the title.

It has been suggested that Damon Albarn of the band Blur took inspiration from reading London Fields when writing the lyrics to Blur's third album Parklife.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 External links 2.1 Essays 2.2 Reviews

[edit] Plot summary

Samson Young, the narrator of the novel, is a failed non-fiction writer, slowly dying of cancer (probably leukemia). On a visit to London he meets the anti-heroine, Nicola Six, in a pub, along with Keith Talent, a small-time crook and wannabe professional darts player, and Guy Clinch, a moneyed upper-class banker who is bored with life. Later, Six leaves her diaries in a litter bin outside the flat where Young is staying (it belongs to Mark Asprey, a wildly successful English writer, who is probably an oblique reference to Amis himself). The diaries tell Young that Six is plotting her own murder for the early hours of November 6th, her 36th birthday. Young, normally unable to write good fiction, realises he can simply document the progress towards the murder to create a plausible, saleable, story and enters into a strange relationship with Six where he regularly interviews her and is updated on the "plot".

The novel proceeds on the basis that Talent, the known criminal, will be the murderer, with Clinch as the fall guy necessary to provoke him into killing (and, incidentally, unwittingly provide funds to help Talent avoid loan sharks and further his darts career to ensure he appears in the Sparrow Masters final the day before the planned murder). However, there is a genuinely shocking twist at the finale, which is not even the expected twist - Amis cleverly hints at a false ending, in one of Young's terrifying dreams, simply to confuse the reader.

The story is set against a backdrop of environmental and social degradation and the looming threat of nuclear war (referred to as "The Crisis"). There is an element of sacrifice and salvation in that the Crisis ends with the final death of two of the participants. The characters are unusual but most are sympathetic in their own way - even Talent, who has virtually no appealing features except his "fierce brand loyalties", a complete lack of colour prejudice when it comes to women, and an obsession with TV and darts. Young is a morally ambiguous character who redeems himself at the end. The only truly malignant character is the unseen Asprey, who manipulates the others from afar, either for amusement or in order to pass off Young's story as his own - this is left in the balance.

What makes the work interesting is the way in which the author enables the characters to evolve into independent life forms, complete with feelings like fear and hope; fear of the "The Crisis" and the hope to survive it.The Crisis' is the term used to refer to the nuclear war that is haunting the world of "London Fields" which is in turn the broad canvas on which the plot evolves. The characters, especially Nicola Six manage to develop the ability of "Thinkability", which is the term used by Amis himself in the introduction to 'Einstein's Monsters'. The work takes time to address the concerns shared by contemporary humanity.

[edit] External links

[edit] Essays

• Narrative and narrated homicide in Martin Amis's Other People and London Fields (Brian Finney)

[edit] Reviews

• Review by Jason Picone (2002)