"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
In Night Train, Martin Amis has fixed his sights on the American female--with a difference. Mike is in fact a woman--a hulking, chain-smoking, deep-voiced alcoholic who comes complete with a squalid family background and a none-too-happy foreground. She even lives in a building next to the proverbial night train and can't survive without her tape with eight different versions of the R & B "hymn to the low rent."
Did this novel begin as narrative flexing, yet another test the hypertalented author--and number-one Elmore Leonard fan--wanted to pose to himself? If so, he has passed with flying colors. True, Mike's search occasionally pushes her up against pulp pathos, but mostly the genre keeps Amis true. "Police are pretty blasé about ballistics. Remember the Kennedy assassination and 'the magic bullet'? We know that every bullet is a magic bullet. Particularly the .22 roundnose. When a bullet enters a human being, it has hysterics. As if it knows it shouldn't be there."
Mike spends her time weighing the evidence, wishing it would point to murder, and letting us in on some current police realities. Whatever television tells us, in real life (not to mention postmodern crime fiction), there's no neat solution. Even that old standard, the good cop-bad cop approach, no longer works: "It's not just that Joe Perp is on to it, having seen good cop-bad cop a million times on reruns of Hawaii Five-O. The only time bad cop was any good was in the old days, when he used to come into the interrogation room every ten minutes and smash your suspect over the head with the yellow pages." With such discourses, Amis is stretching the rubber band of his book's realism. But in the end, all his fancy footwork doesn't stop us from admiring and pitying his heroine, and hoping she won't board the ultimate night train: suicide.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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Book Description Hardcover. pp. 175. 8vo. Light shelfwear; very good+ in very good+ dustjacket. Seller Inventory # 085030
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. Both the book & the dust jacket are clean, bright & unmarked. Author signed dedication on the title page. States: "First Canadian Edition". $26.95 on the flap. Inscribed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 1326 (Box 57)
Book Description [0-676-97112-1] 1997, 1st Canadian edition. (hardcover) Fine in fine dust jacket. 175pp. 8vo. First Canadian edition. Novel, one of mystery, betrayal, and deception, breakaway in its nature for Amis and remarkable. A fine / fine copy. Seller Inventory # 129349
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First printing of the First Canadian edition. Signed by Martin Amis on title page. 175 pages. Unclipped dust jacket is protected in a clear sleeve. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 402223
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st canadia edition signed. No Gift Inscription Or Highlighting Inside. The Dust Jacket Is In Very Good Condition, Signed "To Angela Martin Amis" By Author On Title Page. Not Price Clipped.- We ship from Canada and the USA. Specializing in academic, collectible and historically significant, providing the utmost quality and customer service satisfaction. For any questions feel free to email us. Seller Inventory # 043668