Einstein's Monsters

Einstein’s Monsters  by Martin Amis

1990

Weight: 4.8 oz

Method of Disposal: Left at the MOJOs in Oakhurst GA

It was time to pick up a Martin Amis book again.  I was so surprised by how much I liked Night Train.  I had to see if any of the other books I had on my shelves were worth a damn.  The title got me too.  Martin Amis does have some great fucking titles.  I guess that is how I ended up with so many of his books in the first place. 

I read the preface and was impressed right away.  It is about living in a world with nuclear weapons.   To show how impossible the situation we have created is he writes:

                                What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  What is the priority target for nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons?  Nuclear weapons.  How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons?  By threatening to use nuclear weapons.  And we can’t get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons.  The intransigence, it seems, is a function of the weapons themselves.

And to represent how ridiculous the world leaders are in dealing with this issue:

                                At the multiracial children’s tea party the guests have, perhaps, behaved slightly better since the Keepers were introduced.  Little Ivan has stopped pulling Fetnab’s hair, though he is still kicking her leg under the table.  Bobby has returned the slice of cake that rightfully belonged to tiny Conchita, though he has his eye on that sandwich and will probably make a lunge for it sooner or later.  Out on the lawn the Keepers maintain a kind of order, but standards of behavior are pretty well as troglodytic as they ever were.

Oh.  Nevermind.  You would have to read it.  The only problem with this book is that the preface is so good and the stories really are not.  I was not impressed by them at all.