Editors Reads Verdict
Amis's most structurally complex novel — a murder mystery told backward, in which the victim engineers her own killing and the narrator is complicit. The nuclear dread of the late 1980s runs beneath the London scenes like a ground bass.
What We Loved
- The formal conceit — a victim who arranges her own murder — is executed with rigour and not merely deployed as a trick
- Keith Talent is one of Amis's greatest characters: a darts-obsessed petty criminal who is both monstrous and oddly sympathetic
- The nuclear dread of 1999 London gives the novel a historical specificity that transcends its postmodern framework
Minor Drawbacks
- The novel's length and formal self-consciousness make demands on the reader that not everyone will find rewarded
- Nicola Six as a character has divided readers — some find her agency compelling, others find her function as femme fatale retrograde
Key Takeaways
- → The postmodern novel can use its formal self-consciousness as a vehicle for genuine emotion rather than as a substitute for it
- → The nuclear dread of the Cold War era was not abstract but ambient — it shaped the consciousness of a generation
- → A victim who chooses her fate reframes the entire genre of the murder mystery
| Author | Martin Amis |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Pages | 469 |
| Published | January 1, 1989 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction |
| Difficulty | Advanced |
| Best For | Literary fiction readers who enjoy formal ambition and postmodern structure, and Amis readers who want his most complex and ambitious work. |
Nicola Six
Nicola Six is 34 and has always known she will be murdered before she turns 35. She has lived with this knowledge long enough to have made her peace with it and to have decided to engineer it — to choose the man, the time, the circumstances. She has the gift of knowing: she knows things that come true. This comes true.
Sam Young, an American writer in London on an exchange arrangement, witnesses the events and narrates them to us, with the awareness that he is watching something arranged. He has found Nicola’s diary. He knows the outcome. The novel is his account of the mechanics of a pre-arranged murder.
Keith Talent
Keith Talent is one of Amis’s greatest achievements: a man of comprehensive awfulness — he cheats at darts, defrauds his employers, beats his wife — who is also funny, and who has one genuine gift, which is darts. His relationship with Nicola, whom he plans to murder because she has led him to believe he should, and with Guy Clinch, the wealthy innocent who is also in love with her, is the novel’s triangle.
London Fields was published in 1989 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, which it did not win — reportedly because two of the judges objected to its treatment of women. It remains Amis’s most structurally ambitious novel.
Our rating: 4.1/5 — Amis’s most structurally daring novel; Keith Talent is worth the price of admission alone.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "London Fields" about?
London, 1999. Nicola Six knows she is going to be murdered. She has always known it, the way she knows other things: as fact. She chooses her murderer from among the men in her orbit — Keith Talent, a professional darts player and petty criminal; Guy Clinch, a wealthy innocent. Sam Young, an American writer, narrates what he witnesses. Amis's most formally ambitious novel — noir, apocalypse, postmodernism.
Who should read "London Fields"?
Literary fiction readers who enjoy formal ambition and postmodern structure, and Amis readers who want his most complex and ambitious work.
What are the key takeaways from "London Fields"?
The postmodern novel can use its formal self-consciousness as a vehicle for genuine emotion rather than as a substitute for it The nuclear dread of the Cold War era was not abstract but ambient — it shaped the consciousness of a generation A victim who chooses her fate reframes the entire genre of the murder mystery
Is "London Fields" worth reading?
Amis's most structurally complex novel — a murder mystery told backward, in which the victim engineers her own killing and the narrator is complicit. The nuclear dread of the late 1980s runs beneath the London scenes like a ground bass.
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