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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780679734581
ISBN number: 0679734589
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: September 29, 1992
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: September 29, 1992
Sale Popularity Level: 85874
Studio: Vintage
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In his uproarious very first novel Martin Amis, author of the bestselling London Fields, gave us one of the most noxiously believable -- and curiously touching -- adolescents ever to sniffle and lust his way through the pages of contemporary fiction. On the brink of twenty, Charles High-way preps desultorily for Oxford, cheerfully loathes his father, and meticulously plots the seduction of a girl named Rachel -- a girl who sorely tests the mettle of his cynicism when he finds himself falling in love with her.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Rachel Papers is something like Nabokov meets the teen sex film, but with depth and edge; perhaps this is the novel's greatest accomplishment. It simultaneously portrays sex as the farce it can truly be, but gives equal room to the gravity of this most intimate of human activities, which reveals more than it conceals about our nature. And this can be played out nowhere more aptly than in the battleground of late teen sex: that border zone where libido meets maturity in uncertain shades of gray. Amis hits the mark here in great stride; the novel is witty and biting and laugh out loud funny; it is both a portrait and caricature of the human being as sexual animal.
Rated by buyers 
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The Rachel Papers was Martin Amis's very first novel, from 1973, written when he was about the age of the book's protagonist -- that is, on the cusp of 20. Charles Highway tells his story on the night before his 20th birthday, which in his view makes him an adult. He is cramming for entry to Oxford. He's the son of a successful man who he mostly loathes. He is living in London, with his elder sister and her rather disgusting husband.
The story tells in flashbacks the history of his relationship with a girl named Rachel. He meets her at a party he crashes with a friend -- it turns out she's the one throwing the party, though he has no idea of that. He is smitten, and despite the presence of an American boyfriend, he tries to get her to go out with him, and haltingly succeeds. And so the tale goes ... several months of a fairly sweet (in context) relationship between two not terribly well-matched people. Charles is ferociously cynical (if much of that is a pose) while Rachel is sweet enough, pretty, but perhaps a bit dim. They have terrific sex but that seems their main connection. There are amusing scenes with both families, and plenty of further comedic details of Charles's life, in particular his dealings with the bumbling tutors at his cramming school. He also deals with the infidelities of his father and his brother-in-law. And finally of course with his concerns about where his relationship with Rachel is headed.
It's a very fine very first novel. Very funny, in what was soon enough known as Amis's standard cynical manner. (Though not nearly so overblown and vicious as for example Money.)
Rated by buyers -
The Rachel Papers, by Martin Amis, is an interesting portrayal of the teenage years of Charles Highway. As Charles nears his twentieth birthday he reflects on the memories that were recorded in his journal. Jam packed with sex and drugs, this caricature of the 60's and 70's lifestyle is quite vulgar. Martin Amis details Charles Highway's frequent sexual encounters and even dabs into the health problems that occur as a result. Mr. Highway is an intellectual, upper class, lower class; well ... I guess you could say he is whatever he wants to be. Living his life is all about technique. His movements and speech depend on the situation. Throughout the whole book Charles struggles to find out who he really is. He jumps from woman to woman staging all of his encounters trying to adapt to their personality and mannerisms. Charles is highly self conscious and feels as though he has to put on a show of the "perfect" human for people to like him. As He meets Rachel he finds that, unknowingly, he is starting to act like himself. No more written scripts for telephone calls or leaving books around his room that will make people think he is smart. His relationship with Rachel thrived more than any other relationship he had ever had. She liked him for who he was. Imperfections make somebody unique and desirable. Charles really has a hard time making the relationship work. Before Rachel, the longest relationship that he had lasted only a night in bed with another girl.
I personally think this book was quite humorous because of the desperate and quite pathetic acts of Charles Highway. To watch the amount of time he puts into arranging his room and the topics of his conversation just to get a woman in bed is amusing. The sexual scenes however are quite explicit and may be offending to some. Over the course of the book I saw Charles expand as a person. Expand beyond this fake life he has been leading. He doesn't realize it at very first but he finds himself not having to plan his days like he used to. While his relationship with Rachel becomes more than sex he starts to learn something that is most important, which is how to be himself. By the end of the book it seems to some as though he didn't learn a thing because Rachel is out of the picture. To me I saw a boy who grew up and even if he failed with Rachel he indeed learned many skills to help future relationships go further than the bed.
Rated by buyers -
Charles Highway: an overanalysing piece of work. He is shallow (like most men probably are, it's just reading what we think is a little harder to swallow) but still manages to charm the ladies. This book is all about the massive amounts of diaries Charles keeps each year and he is reminiscing over them in the hours leading up to the stroke of midnight declaring the end of his childhood. He has kept many diaries for a large portion of his life (he mentions that he seems to always go through seven a year no matter how he tries to cut down) but the ones he is focusing on are over the recent months about Rachel.
At very first this book was a little hard to get really into, what with all the witty remarks and crude, blatant talk about women; which I am more than likely to be found guilty of. After the very first chapter you begin to realise how rather pathetic Charles really is, he wears glasses, is trying to attend Oxford and thinks about getting drunk before calling a girl he likes, not to mention he has a note card with conversation topics. Once, before he was to take Rachel to a show he saw the same one the prior day to think of a funny commentary for the date. He is shallow on the outside to his friends who have a similar mindset, yet we get to see inside his genius cranium. I'm sure a lot of people have put on a different appearance to fit in with their friends and I believe this is why Charles Highway is such a likeable fellow.
Not only is Charles the epitome of the average lower-middle class man, but the story is captivating and well written, the occasional swears add the right touch without overdoing it, really giving the reader the material to create their own interpretation of how the characters look and sound. Charles has saved the papers for the eve of his twentieth birthday because, as he sees it, it is the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.
Charles sits down at seven o'clock and over the subsequent four hours takes the reader from his elaborate, albeit phoney vacation in Spain to...well I wouldn't want to spoil the ending but many diaries are read and many secrets and `graphic' scenes are described in almost too much detail.
All you need to know is that should the opportunity arise, or not arise then you should read this book (if the opportunity doesn't arise you may want to stop waiting and go out and buy the book). If, however, scenes of explicit content offend you, you may want to consider something a little tamer. I'd have to rate this book an R, maybe an NC-17 for the odd swear and depiction of sexual acts so if you are under the age of 5 and don't have an adult reading with you, avoid this book. But for those of a more mature audience (not too mature mind you) if you want a book that will make you laugh and cringe, this IS for you.
Rated by buyers 
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A Review of The Rachel Papers
If it wasn't for the sex, the drugs and the vulgarity The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis would have been completely unreadable. The fact is that is all that was appealing in the entire book. Outside of the crude and sometimes over-the-top humor, The Rachel Papers is just another book about a young adult trying to `find himself'. The young adult in question is Charles Highway, who is on the verge of turning twenty; something he thinks will have a large effect on his life. The Rachel Papers are a diary of his journey from age nine-teen to age twenty, as Charles tries to seduce a young women named Rachel. This sets the stage for Charles to make a complete ass of himself throughout the whole book. The author Martin Amis seems to pin all the stereotypes of a young adult on Charles, and he comes out with a totally unlikable character. Charles character doesn't seem to change throughout the whole book; he never learns from his mistakes and still believes that he is `the man'.
On the other hand The Rachel Papers does have some good characters, starting with Charles' love interest: Rachel. She is almost the complete opposite of Charles and is both believable and likable, and of course Charles doesn't see this. Aside from Rachel there are a few other decent characters, one being the totally unforgettable Norman, who in a weird way acts as a role model for Charles. On top of the you have Charles parents and there utterly bizarre relationship. The side characters are good but overall they can't make up for Charles.
One of the defining things of the book is its explicitness and vulgarity. The reactions of readers of the book range from hilarious to disturbing to offensive, so as you can see you will either love or hate the language and situations the language describes. For example depending on your taste, without going into too much detail, will either love or hate the part involving Scissors, a condom and an important part of the body. For anyone my age (18) you will love the humor, anyone older who is sensitive and easily offended should steer clear.
All in all, I think Amis could have done a much better job with this book. Charles starts off acting like an ass and by the end he hasn't really changed. The main plot of the book (Charles trying to seduce Rachel) is boring. Throw in Charles in-ability to use his brain and you have the rare occasion where the protagonist in a book is actually disliked by the reader. Luckily for Amis the side characters and explicit humour were enough to allow his writing career to continue. The book provides some humour but not quite enough to not fall asleep during the boring parts. In the end so may want to save yourself the time and not read it at all, that's just my opinion, cause this is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of book.
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