Heavy Water and Other Stories

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Two Stories
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Heavy Water and Other Stories
ISBN
0-224-05126-1

Heavy Water and Other Stories is a collection of nine short stories by Martin Amis. It was first published in 1998 by Jonathan Cape.

Two Stories

The collection includes "Denton's Death" and "Let Me Count the Times," which comprised Amis's Two Stories, published in 1994.[1]

Stories

  • "Career Move" (first published in The New Yorker 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.
  • "Denton's Death" (Encounter, 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'.
  • "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
    bouncer
    .
  • "Let me Count the Times" (Granta, 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 Statesman, 1978) in which a working-class woman takes her mentally handicapped son on a Mediterranean cruise.
  • "The Janitor on Mars" (The New Yorker, 1998) in which a robot makes contact from Mars and reveals the shocking truth of mankind's place in the Universe.
  • "Straight Fiction" (Esquire, 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.

Audio

A recording of "What Happened to Me on Holiday"—read by Martin Amis—is included in the 1998 audio collection The New Yorker Out Loud.[2]

Reception

The book was widely praised upon publication.

References

  1. ^ "Two Stories by Martin Amis".
  2. ^ Kelly Everding, Rain Taxi, Vol. 3, No. 1., Spring, 1998
  3. ^ Scott, A. O. (31 January 1999). "Trans-Atlantic Flights". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  4. ^ Jones, Russell Celyn, The Times, "Not Such Light Reading," 24 September 1998.
  5. ^ Shone, Tom, The Times Literary Supplement, "Heavy Water," 25 September 1998.
  6. ^ Cusk, Rachel, The Evening Standard, "Heavy Water," 21 September 1998.
  7. ^ Dirda, Michael, The Washington Post, "Heavy Water and Other Stories," 14 February 1999.

External links