Secure Your Copy Night Train (Vintage International) Articulated By Martin Amis Made Available In Book

you were pondering the meaning of life, were you Well, if you get to the point where you begin to think that death may be interesting, you are in league with the two main characters in Night Train.
One, the beautiful astrophysicist Jennifer has already taken her own life, The equally compelling, but homely woman detective on the case, Mike Hoolihan, is our narrator, Her haunting inquest takes the reader into the deepest darkest parts of the unknowable, Along the way, we are asked to contemplate why anyone would take a one way ticket on the night train Why would Jennifer, seemingly one who has everything youth, beauty, brains, a great job, friends, adoring parents, an attentive lover why would she choose to shoot herself in the head Why would she do it Why now Why a gun Why so violent Why choose to leave so many loved ones behind To what end Why

Why Why

Questions, getting at the facts, finding answers, these are what Hoolihan does.
She's a pro. Like a scientist, she's open minded, Not dogmatic. Doesn't adhere to convention. Maybe, just maybe, she wonders, the appropriate question is not why, but, why not Why not Why not do the unthinkable Jump into the emptiness Why not Why not The answer, it seems, depends on whether you believe suicide is a way in or a way out.
So, where does that leave our hard boiled cop Her unconventional answer comes rushing at you in the form of apage suicide note entitled Night Train.
Well written as one would expect of Amis but my gosh the subject matter, read esp at a time like this Covid was calculated to depress.
Whether the ruminations of the alcoholic narrator or the death by suicide, I tossed it away a couple of times only to skim finish it and rid myself of it.
I had a suicide in my immediate family and prefer to avoid the subject generally, I thought it was a crime thriller when I purchased it on line, A bold, good read, and something that changed my mind about Martin Amis I really didnt care for 'Money', A detective story noir that ends up being something much painful, Recommended. Readers should be aware that this book does NOT follow the format of traditional detective stories and is written in the viewpoint of a public detective in law enforcement.
Amis wrote the book with a female protagonist, Mike Hoolihan, who is horribly flawed and follows now real model, similar to Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in some sense but with a flushed out and defined backstory.
This book was written to explain how police procedure was ruined by television and what real world procedure was actually portrayed, Martin Amis's Mike Hoolihan was designed to tackle gender identity and norms, even hinting that she might be a lesbian, She goes throughout the entire book trying to figure out why her perfect friend, Jennifer Rockwell, committed suicide, but keeps bumping into red herrings and false leads.
Hoolihan gives personal details about her life throughout the book, and her background was just as screwed up as Rockwell's suicide/ murder.
There is an us and them mentality built into the novel because the police profession puts people in a position to see the dark side of human nature.
Hoolihan becomes so hardened by this at she just couldn't take it any,

ers who are giving this book poor ratings should be aware that this book is part in college curriculum, Some readers might need to re read the book several times to understand it, but at some point they would get a clear understanding what feeds police brutality and led to all these gruesome shootings in recent years.
This book is not a HBO's CSI plot, it is real world police procedure, No knight in shining armor, no dragon to slay, No clear good guys or bad guys, just characters whose moral compass is somewhere in between, I'm embarrassed to say this is the first time I have actually read a novel by Amis, We have a few copies of his books on our shelves but I have always been a little wary of them, feeling my need to read them was from a sense of 'literary duty' rather than for pleasure! However, I was set the Night Train as homework on a creative writing course and therefore I rose to the challenge and at onlypages, it did not feel like an onerous task!

The opening is very compelling.
The voice is direct and blunt,

I am a police and my name is Detective Mike Hoolihan, And I am a woman also, What I am setting out here is an account of the worst case I have ever handled,

The story continues with Mike clearly laying out all the information we need for the opening of a detective novel.
She tells us about herself, about the crime and the background information we need, Very quickly a clear tone of voice and style of prose is established, Mike's voice is not unpleasant, but it takes some warming to and although perhaps convincing as an american police officer, I was not entirely sold on its authenticity as a female.


Hoolihan knows the victim Jennifer Rockwell which perhaps complicates the case a little, The first part of the novel is set out in diary form and at times Hoolihan speaks directly to Jennifer as she summarises key findings of the crime scene which creates tension and makes the writing feel very vivid and full of impact.


Jennifer, you killed yourself, It's down.

The novel is divided into three parts, Partis called Felo de se which translates as suicide of the felon and here details are unveiled about Jennifer, I liked the sub heading The Psychological Autopsy and Amis' exploration of suicide and the night train

Suicide is the night train, speeding your way to darkness.


There's some straight talking from Mike as she shares her knowledge and experience of suicide with a list of Don'ts.
There's a lot of them and there is an edge of black humour there too, The list ends with the ominous statement:

Don't be Jennifer Rockwell, The question is: But why not

I learnt a new word during Mike's interview with the professor consternated, I will be aiming to use it in my conversation at some point this week!

I did feel that Amis left me behind a little bit towards the end of the novel.
The reader does have to pay attention, particularly with the different forms of punctuation or lack of employed as Amis switches between dialogue, contemplation, lists and facts.
The ending left me with questions than I had started with and I was torn between enjoying the ambiguity of it and feeling a little confused.


It was an interesting read and I am glad that I persevered with it but I think I need to read it again, and then probably again to fully absorb it.
I liked aspects of the prose but I did find it a bit demanding to read this style over a sustained number of pages.


There's no doubt that Amis deserves the literary accolade he gets and there's no doubt that he is a gifted writer.
There is plenty to admire in this short book and plenty to acknowledge in terms of literary fiction, I'm not sure I will pick up another of Amis's titles for a while although I would be interested to see something written from a male point of view to see how he portrays his male characters.
its a great noir read that sucks you deep into whats happening, at times it was hard to put it away to read something else, but i had to read it a second time in one go that time to begin to understand it, that was despite a course with a very finde college lecturer,
in a few years i will definitely read night train again because i am sure there can be got out of it than i already have.
the end left me not only with a frightening feeling for human despair and failure but also surprised that there wasnt, a lot of details are spread all the way through the story and they all interconnect,

but beware, its heavily fixed on the narrators point of view, the novel also has scene of detailed descriptions of wounds and violence, its one of those that try to push its reader towards the deepest pits in human character and succeeds, Ordered this after watching Out of Blue, Different but glad to have both seen and read, Doesn't really work for me, A very male author writing from the perspective of a hard nosed female cop, I finished it but why not just read Dead Babies, Money, or his new one Lionel Asbro from Amis This guy is quite a writer.
If you have no place to go and nothing better to do then you can read Night Train the way one takes a Sunday Drive.
Sure it's witty and short enough to keep one's interest but it is pretty evident that it has no destination or purpose.
This must be Amis' desultory genre buster, sort of like Mailer with Dead Men Don't Dance, but Mailer did a better job.
I'm not sure whether Amis' has much respect for the genre or not, And what is this, I am a police, all about Good read I found the style forced, the voice of the main character unconvincing and the whole book really irritating.
I also dont buy the idea it is playing with, the reason, the motivation, its an intellectual play on something that just feels improbable.
Human motivations are much limited than we would like to think, Or the author would like to play with, This is a typical detective story complete with the lingo of hard private investigators and police, and the death of a woman who seems to have everything to live for, which is chalked up to suicide.
Not my favorite book of all time, but worth a quick read, . Great read! Detective Mike Hoolihan has seen it all, A fifteen year veteran of the force, shes gone from walking a beat, to robbery, to homicide, But one case this case has gotten under her skin,

When Jennifer Rockwell, darling of the community and daughter of a respected career cop now top brass takes her own life, no one is prepared to believe it.
Especially her father, Colonel Tom, Homicide Detective Mike Hoolihan, longtime colleague and friend of Colonel Tom, is ready to put the case down, Suicide. Closed. Until Colonel Tom asks her to do the one thing any grieving father would ask: take a second look,

Not since his celebrated novel Money has Amis turned his focus on America to such remarkable effect, Fusing brilliant wordplay with all the elements of a classic whodunit, Amis exposes a world where surfaces are suspect no matter how perfect, where paranoia is justified no matter how pervasive, and where power and pride are brought low by the hidden recesses of our humanity.
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