Einstein's Monsters - Martin Amis (1987)

 

Rating: Admirable

Martin Amis is not known for his short stories, with only two collections published in his lifetime, Einstein's Monsters and Heavy Water and Other Stories (1998), among some later omnibus publications of collected stories which included the two volumes and some other strays. Einstein’s Monsters was apparently put together when Amis realised that the short stories he had been writing were centred around the theme of nuclear weapons. Einstein's Monsters begins with an essay called Thinkability, in which Amis outlines the true horror of the threat of nuclear weapons and the annihilation they could potentially unleash. It makes for harrowing reading and despite being written and published during the height of the Cold War, the essay is still chillingly relevant. Amis bemoans the terrible irony of the need for nuclear weapons because of the existence of those very same nuclear weapons. After this short essay the first story, Bujak and the Strong force, Or God’s Dice, provides a very decent beginning, with a Polish protagonist whose strength is such that it metaphorically mirrors the strong nuclear force. It brings him a great deal of trouble, of course, and things don’t go well for his loved ones because of it. It’s a fine, if flawed tale. Insight at Flame Lake uses contrasting diary entries to tell the story of the impact of a schizophrenic boy on his host family. The boy’s father had worked with nuclear weapons before committing suicide. Ultimately it’s a rather heavy-handed allegory for the travails of having nuclear weapons around.

Martin Amis, contemplating Einstein's Monsters

The Time Disease is entertaining but doesn’t quite suit being shoehorned into a collection of nuclear themed stories. It’s futuristic in nature, featuring people who are terrified of time and its deleterious effects on aging, in this case they are aging in reverse. As with all of these stories it features enough of that trademark Amis erudite flair and biting wit to make it worth reading. The actual writing is quite brilliant, but the overall effect is diminished by the shape of the plot. The Little Puppy That Could continues in this fashion. Set in a post nuclear apocalyptic future, things are so bad that a huge, deformed malevolent dog is menacing the ill and deformed residents of a dilapidated village. Their ploy is to offer up weekly sacrifices. Meanwhile a little puppy (who doesn’t appear to be normal himself) with great persistence worms his way into the heart of a little girl. Most of the villagers are scared of the poor little puppy, due to the giant deformed canine that menaces them on a weekly basis. It’s a bit long and grotesque, but does create a nice amount of tension, particularly in the last third of the story. The story has classical mythological allusions within its twisted narrative, but it doesn’t provoke enough motivation to do the research to understand them, at least in my case. The final story, The Immortals, is one of the finer to be found within this slender collection. It recounts the life of an immortal as he traverses the gulfs of time that encompass the history of the planet. There are some great lines, included references to decades long recreational habits and how various epochs compared in terms of boredom and danger. Turns out that ultimately the future involves the imposition of nuclear warfare and the last of humanity in New Zealand who dream that they are indeed immortal. It’s clever all right, but other than its often-brilliant prose it doesn't work quite as well as you want it to. Based on Einstein’s Monster’s, Amis wasn’t really a natural short story writer and it is probably not a coincidence that he didn’t produce many throughout his otherwise brilliant career. This collection is vaguely disappointing, but even acknowledged geniuses have lapses and in the scheme of things these stories are still worth reading just to bask in the glory of Amis’s brilliant prose style.

Show Don't Tell - Curtis Sittenfeld (2025)

 

Rating: Admirable

Curtis Sittenfeld has a great reputation for her dark wit, sardonic humour and putting a contemporary spin on old problems, such as the war of the sexes, power imbalances and complex moral situations. My prior experience with Sittenfeld was via Rodham (2020), a clever and entertaining alternate history of the life of Hilary Rodham, if she had not married Bill Clinton. Show Don’t Tell is a collection of short stories and typically for such collections some stories are better than others. Beginning with the better material, the eponymous story starts off the collection, following a young student, Ruthy, who is awaiting news about the annual grants awarded to creative writing students, referred to as the 'Peaslee’s'. It features a middle-aged student, a smoker, who is a general annoyance to Ruthy, a visiting Bukowski type of writer who dispenses writerly wisdom, a White Noise (Don DeLillo, 1985) namecheck and other various descriptions of college life (this is set in America). It’s a fine story about not being too precious and checking your privilege, which is a common theme throughout the collection. The Marriage Clock involves a buttoned-up Christian author of a best-selling marriage guide and a studio rep who can’t help but desire him, but in doing so reveals that his marriage is far from ideal; ultimately it’s quite clever and well written. A For Alone deals with a married conceptual artist who undertakes a project that involves testing the infamous 'Mike Pence rule', that posits that married men should not be alone with single woman. Of course it goes pair-shaped in the most entertaining manner possible. The Hug is my favourite and perhaps the best story here; a couple, Daphne and Rob, argue about whether Daphne can hug a former partner who is travelling through town and wants to meet up. Not only is it in the midst of the pandemic, but it’s also her ex, and Rob doesn’t like it. The ending is deftly handled - poignant, telling and relatable.

The stories in Show Don’t Tell that don’t quite work as well continue the major unifying theme of age-old problems set within modern moral conundrums, such as cancel-culture, the ‘Karen’ phenomenon, our love/hate relationships with corporations, generational change and being called out for privileged behaviour, but without quite the same amount of finesse featured in the ones mentioned above. As with many of the stories, most of the principal protagonists are middle-aged women, or younger women facing the challenges of being young in a complex world. White Women LOL doesn’t quite gel due to its convoluted nature. Creative Differences is better, with a photographer taking a moral stand regarding being featured in an advertisement masquerading as an art project. The Tomorrow Box explores the nature of success, how it can’t always make up for other shortcomings, like acceptance and success with the opposite sex. The Richest Babysitter in the World explores similar ground but is a bit predictable in its denouement. The Patron Saint of Middle Age and Giraffe and Flamingo are both flawed but ultimately admirable stories, exploring white privilege (the former) and bullying (the latter), with varying degree of success. The final story, Lost But Not Forgotten, features a character from Sittenfeld’s first novel – Prep (2005), Lee Fiora, who is now older and attending a school reunion at the school from the novel. Fiora thinks back to a past secret experience whilst forging a new relationship with a former student. It’s interesting and entertaining enough, but, once again, doesn’t quite hit the mark like the superior stories in this collection do. No doubt it would come across better if you’ve read the novel. Sittenfeld is a class writer however, and this collection is a fine example of her snappy and insightful style. It was another book club read and as always with short story collections, it received mixed reviews. However it is worth a read for its insights into our complex moral world and array of middle-aged characters in confused free-fall.