The Pregnant Widow is English writer Martin Amis's twelfth novel, published by Jonathan Cape on 4 February 2010.It is the most eagerly anticipated novel of the year and Martin Amis at his fearless best.
The novel, which Amis describes as partly autobiographical, deals with the feminist revolution, which Amis sees as incomplete and bewildering for women, or as he said in an interview given in 2007: "consciousness is not revolutionised by the snap of a finger. And feminism, I reckon, is about halfway through its second trimester."
On another occasion Amis remarked: "The novel I'm working on is blindingly autobiographical, but with an Islamic theme. It's called A Pregnant Widow, because at the end of a revolution you don't have a newborn child, you have a pregnant widow. And the pregnant widow in this novel is feminism. Which is still in its second trimester. The child is nowhere in sight yet. And I think it has several more convulsions to undergo before we'll see the child."
On another occasion Amis remarked: "The novel I'm working on is blindingly autobiographical, but with an Islamic theme. It's called A Pregnant Widow, because at the end of a revolution you don't have a newborn child, you have a pregnant widow. And the pregnant widow in this novel is feminism. Which is still in its second trimester. The child is nowhere in sight yet. And I think it has several more convulsions to undergo before we'll see the child."
The story is set in the hot summer of 1970 in Campania, Italy, in a castle owned by a cheese tycoon where Keith Nearing, a 20-year-old English literature student; his girlfriend, Lily; and her friend, Scheherazade, are on holiday. The narrator is Keith's conscience, in 2009. Keith's sister, Violet, is based on Amis's own sister, Sally, described by Amis as one of the revolution's most spectacular victims.
It was - a long, hot summer, and the times are times of change: The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing, like many young men of his age, is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends.
The Pregnant Widow is Martin Amis's first novel since House of Meetings (2006), and it arks the beginning of a new four-book deal. It took him nearly five years to complete it. Originally set for release in 2008, the novel's publication was pushed back to 2009 and then 2010 as further editing and alterations were being made, expanding the novel to some 480 pages.
The Pregnant Widow" is a comedy of manners and a nightmare, brilliant, haunting and gloriously risque. The result is a tragicomedy of manners, combining the wit of "Money" with the historical sense of "Time's Arrow" and "House of Meetings"."
Like a few of Amis's forer novels, it was published to mixed reviews from the press.
Amis's next project is a novella currently titled State of England, and that will be followed by another full novel made up of some of the other half of the original draft of The Pregnant Widow.
It was - a long, hot summer, and the times are times of change: The girls are acting like boys, and the boys are going on acting like boys, and Keith Nearing, like many young men of his age, is struggling to twist feminism and the rise of women towards his own ends.
The Pregnant Widow is Martin Amis's first novel since House of Meetings (2006), and it arks the beginning of a new four-book deal. It took him nearly five years to complete it. Originally set for release in 2008, the novel's publication was pushed back to 2009 and then 2010 as further editing and alterations were being made, expanding the novel to some 480 pages.
The Pregnant Widow" is a comedy of manners and a nightmare, brilliant, haunting and gloriously risque. The result is a tragicomedy of manners, combining the wit of "Money" with the historical sense of "Time's Arrow" and "House of Meetings"."
Like a few of Amis's forer novels, it was published to mixed reviews from the press.
Amis's next project is a novella currently titled State of England, and that will be followed by another full novel made up of some of the other half of the original draft of The Pregnant Widow.
