The War Against Cliché

The War Against Cliché (2001) is an anthology of essays, book reviews and literary criticism from the British author Martin Amis. Like his previous collection "Visiting Mrs. Nabokov", the book is comprised of many pieces written over the course of Amis' career, beginning in the mid-1970s as a journalist and following up to his period of recognition as one of Great Britain's most acclaimed novelists. The book takes its title from one of Amis' essays, an encomium to James Joyce's novel "Ulysses". Amis characterizes that novel as Joyce's "campaign against cliché". Among the many authors reviewed are John Updike, Saul Bellow, Iris Murdoch, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elmore Leonard and Philip Roth. Many of the essays also touch on pet topics of Amis', such as chess, soccer, masculinity, and nuclear weapons.