Heavy Water and Other Stories
Encyclopedia
Heavy Water and Other Stories is a collection of nine short stories by Martin Amis
. It was first published in 1998 by Jonathan Cape
.
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
. It was first published in 1998 by Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
.
Two Stories
The collection includes "Denton's Death" and "Let Me Count the Times," which comprised Amis' Two Stories, published in 1994.Stories
- "Career Move" (first published in The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
in 1992) in which the literary world is inverted; screenplay writers such as Alistair struggle to have their work published in small magazines, whilst poets such as Luke are courted by Hollywood publishing conglomerates and fly first-class around the world. (online text)
- "Denton's Death" (EncounterEncounter (magazine)Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...
, 1976) in which the protagonist sits alone in his squalid room and ponders his forthcoming assassination at the hands of three hired killers using a 'machine'. (online text)
- "State of England" (The New Yorker, 1986) set at a fee-paying school, the narrator using a mobile phone to communicate with his estranged wife and reflecting on his up and down career as a bouncerBouncer (doorman)A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
.
- "Let me Count the Times" (GrantaGrantaGranta is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centers on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and make real." In 2007, The Observer stated, "In its blend of...
, 1981) in which a man has an obsessive and increasingly intense affair with himself and his imagination which gradually takes over from his relationship with his wife.
- "The Coincidence of the Arts" (1997) in which an English Baronet becomes entangled with an American chess hustler and aspiring novelist and has an unexpected affair with a silent Afro-Caribbean woman.
- "Heavy Water" (New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, 1978) in which a working-class woman takes her mentally handicapped son on a Mediterranean cruise.
- "The Janitor on Mars" (1997) in which a robot makes contact from Mars and reveals the shocking truth of mankind's place in the Universe.
- "Straight Fiction" (EsquireEsquire (magazine)Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
, 1995) in which everyone is gay, apart from the beleaguered though increasingly vocal 'straight' community.
- "What Happened to me on Holiday" (The New Yorker, 1997) in which death rears its head in the life of a young boy.
Reception
The book was widely-praised upon publication.- In The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, critic A.O. Scott wrote that "the publication of Heavy Water, a gathering of nine stories, most of them published in this decade, nearly half in The New Yorker, provides a good opportunity to state plainly what has been apparent for some time: Martin Amis is the best American writer England has ever produced." Scott praised Amis' "reckless bravado and his terrifying cleverness, both of which are abundantly evident." Commenting on the strict premises (swapped literary reputations, reversed norms), he wrote, "Some of the most interesting stories seem to have been written on a dare, or as entries in a contest to see who could get the best results from the worst ideas." - In the London TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Russell Celyn Jones found the stories demonsrating Amis' "maturation," and called the book "highly inventive, inimitably stylish and funny, exhibiting a wider voice range than in anything he has done so far." - In The Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
, Tom ShoneTom ShoneTom Shone is a British film critic and writer. He was the Sunday Times film critic from 1994-9 and has written for Slate, the New Yorker, the New York Times and the London Daily Telegraph....
wrote, "As this collection demonstrates, Amis's own sentences could not be more different: whipping through the gearbox with seamless ease. Amis has famously said that his ambition is to write the sort of sentences that no other guy could write. The same thing applies to his work as applies to that of every other guy; when he is writing well, his sentences appear to have written themselves." - In the Evening StandardEvening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
, Rachel CuskRachel Cusk-Biography:Rachel Cusk was born in Canada in 1967 and spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles before finishing her education at St Mary's Convent in Cambridge. She read English at New College, Oxford, and has travelled extensively in Spain and Central America. She is the author of six novels....
found, "As Amis's commitment to his writing has deepened, so its critical treatment has grown more facetious. As he has become more meticulous, so his critics have grown lazier." - Michael DirdaMichael DirdaMichael Dirda , a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.-Career:Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the...
, in the Washington Post, called the stories, "Funny, sexy, disturbing, tantalizing, sharply satirical, even wistful."