AMIS on the GULAG

If gulags don't sound like your idea of fun, be forewarned: MartinAmis's new novel, House of Meetings, is not a fun book. It's somethingof a labor, actually -- forced labor, collective labor, the laborof love. And as Amis tells the story of two brothers locked ina slave camp, he labors mightily to make real the nightmare ofRussian history. Often he succeeds. Sometimes the characters getstuck in the fog of tragedy, the prose turning didactic and portentous.(Stalin bad. Got it.) But even when Amis fails, he says thingsbetter and more beautifully than anybody else playing the game.He still owns the subject of male violence, and it's fascinatingto see him turn his attention from the atrocities of the pub tothe megahorrors of the pogrom. And every 20 pages or so, he writesa sentence that reminds you why you've got to read him. So readthis book. And when you're finished, drink a bottle of vodka.Smoke cigarettes. Cry over the inescapable certainty of deathand the impossible beauty of women. Drink more. Smoke more. Thinkabout the ways you are glad that you are not Russian and only be glad for Martin Amis.