> [Original Message] > From: Eric Yost <Mr.Eric.Yost@xxxxxxxxx> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 6/16/2005 9:58:58 PM > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: le E-mail test > > I googled Martin Amis. He sells low cost life insurance. I > don't need any, thanks. > > ___ > > Just goes to show that writing is a chump's game. Sales from _Yellow > Dog_ didn't cut it, I guess, so he has to go pound pavements, lowball > policies in hand. > I don't know if it's a chump's game but you're right (although not necessarily about Martin Amis); many writers do have day jobs. James Joyce taught at Berlitz for money, was helped out by Sylvia Beech. Come to think of it, it's so quiet because everybody's out getting drunk for Bloomsday. Maybe they'll stagger in tomorrow with hangovers and enlarged ears from listening to the Joyce readings. And maybe they won't. Getting back to Amis, he apparently was influenced by Philip Roth. I read Portnoy's Complaint, which I thought rather astute underneath the humor. I thought it quite brilliant. The Human Stain had a good plot and a good premise. Not wonderful, but good. I've yet to see the movie. I tried I Married a Communist and didn't finish it. I didn't like that Bellow-ish ephemerality. Fiction is nice but non fiction is more fun it seems to me. Andy Amago > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html