Status
Available
Genres
Publication
New York : Harmony Books, 1987.
Description
A collection of stories about a frightening world inhabited by people dehumanized by the daily threat of nuclear war and postwar survivors deformed by its results.
Media reviews
New Musical Express
The stories swirl with fallout and the stress of thinking you might be blown up any minute. People's social lives are like missile crises or else the mushroom-cloud is already in their heads — they have personal apocalypses, they are permanently fixed in The Day After.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LynnB
Martin Amis has written a collection of five stories about lving with the threat of, or after, a nuclear war.
In two of the stories, the existence of nuclear weapons is a backdrop for the anxieties and behaviour of characters. These were my favourites, with a strength of language and imagery that literally made me pause and reflect mid-paragraph at times.
The other three stories could more easily fit the science-fiction genre since they take place after nuclear war has destroyed the world as we know it. Even in these, Mr. Amis's focus is on people: these aren't stories about war and technology, but about what they do to humanity.… (more)
In two of the stories, the existence of nuclear weapons is a backdrop for the anxieties and behaviour of characters. These were my favourites, with a strength of language and imagery that literally made me pause and reflect mid-paragraph at times.
The other three stories could more easily fit the science-fiction genre since they take place after nuclear war has destroyed the world as we know it. Even in these, Mr. Amis's focus is on people: these aren't stories about war and technology, but about what they do to humanity.… (more)
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
A slightly hit-and-miss collection of stories - and an excellent opening essay - on the nuclear reality of the 1980s.