A Review of a Suicide Note-Paper 5

What would you do if you had all the money in the world?  Would you donate it?  Invest it?  Buy a nice car or house?  Or would you live a life of extravagance like John Self, the embodiment of every vice that money can afford.  The lifestyle, the drinking, the smoking, the sex.  Would you live this way?  I’m sure quite a few more people would if they had the money.    

The novel Money, is a first-person account of the overindulging John Self, a 35 year old director of “controversial TV ads for smoking, drinking, junk food and nude magazines” (78), who finds himself living the life of his ads.  This entire novel is a quick overview of his overindulging lifestyle, all of which requires money.  Lots of money.  And it’s about how he uses this money, or rather “suicide note” (112).

There are certainly people in society who reflect John Self in most, if not all, shapes of life.  We see it in celebrities like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan.  They binge on clubbing, drinking, sex and cocaine.  And there are others who are similar in this out of control lifestyle.  But this not the lifestyle of most people.  Of course, had Martin Amis targeted this book at the few people in society like John Self, it wouldn’t have been a very successful novel.  Or rather novelized suicide note.

Instead, this novel is an exaggeration of those urges which every human has.  Money, albeit an exaggeration, is an interpretation of what humans think, feel and desire.  Those urges to spend money on anything, drink alcohol, do drugs or have sex with as many women/men as possible, are in all of us.  These vices are in all of us. The difference between us and John, is that we can control ourselves.   

            One of the biggest things that money buys for John, is sex pornography.  Throughout the book, John fantasizes of sex or pornography, “whew, the stuff that hot fox was giving out, all miming so fluently with the pornography still fresh in my head” (51).  John’s pornography habit consisted of “three-mag-a-week and at-least-one-movie habit to sustain” (44).  Most people would probably say, in public, that this is disgraceful and untasteful.  Sure it may be untasteful, but reality is, most people have seen a pornography video at some point in their life.  And despite all the free pornography online today, it’s still a booming industry that makes billions of dollars.  So John is once again an exaggerated reflection of society and our urges and desires.  We might not be as open or flamboyant as John Self, but to say you’ve never done or wanted to do some of the things he’s done, would be an outright lie.

            One contention I had with this novel, was the confusing way in which this story was written as a “suicide note”.  The letter by John, along with the notification at the beginning of the novel just confused the hell out of me.  The notification at the beginning says that the novel “is a suicide note” and that “by the time you lay it aside, John Self will no longer exist”.  This was written in September 1981.  Yet right before the end, John writes a letter during the winter of 1981/1982 saying “I fucking nearly killed myself the other day” (351).  So he clearly hadn’t killed himself and he continued to exist in September 1981.

            This just leads to confusion to the status of John Self.  From the final letter, we realize that he has a more optimistic outlook on life, his new girlfriend and his new dad.  But this book is supposed to be one giant suicide note.  These contradictions are rather confusing and blurs the ending.  Maybe I missed something or I didn’t get the right message from the book.  But what I do not like from this book, was the ending.

            The ending of this novel should have been rewritten to better improve the meaning of the book.  As I mentioned earlier, I found the ending to be contradictory and downright confusing.  If the ending was more concrete, I believe the message that money was a facilitator of vices could have been stronger.  For instance, if he had committed suicide as a result of his downfall, the message would have been considerably stronger because of what it would imply: money, if misused and abused can bite you in the ass. 

            Despite the ending, though, I still think the book did an adequate job of reflecting society’s obsession with money and the vices in this world.  Everybody has the desires and urges.  Sex and drugs aren’t just for rock and roll stars or people with a lot of money.  We indulge in these things as well.  Just not as often or as open.  John Self represents people as they are with their deepest desires.  And even though the ending was a minor draw back, the book accurately portrays what we desire and how money facilitates these desires every step of the way.