Experience is an unexpectedly emotional odyssey.
With the publication of his memoirs, Amis' cherished reputation as the enfant terrible of English letters is under threat. It will not be easy for him to survive his own rehabilitation. Amis, now 50, wants to be remembered primarily for his fiction. The possibility that a factual book, albeit a sublime essay giving shape and meaning to his chaotic life, could eclipse his reputation as a novelist is too dangerous to contemplate. Well-wishers are understandably nervous about how to convey their response to Experience without offending him.