When asked by a friend who is an Amis fan why I only gave this book 3 stars, I replied (for what it's worth):

It was so long ago, honestly! I know I liked it enough to pick up some other Amis books afterwards (but never finish them) and seek out the Tate Museum when I was in London, but other than that, I have a fuzzy memory of it being unmemorable.

If Philip Roth is correct and life is misunderstanding people, then I remain awed by the riddle which is Martin Amis. His first novel The Rachel Papers injects self-awareness into satire, leaking a fecund foam which changes everything about how we regard the way we live now. The insecurity of adolescence is illustrated by our protagonist, one Charles Highway, who diagrams said angst and provides cross-references from the literary canon. One can imagine the reader or protagonsit saying bugger Holden Caulfield, then recognizing that Highway has likely compiled a list of ten reasons as to his superiority over Mr. Caulfield.

During a lazy gap year Charles writes, drinks and woos the titular Rachel. Life doesn't meet his precis. Plans have to change. Matters become a little Meta and we are left a little uncertain about what is actual and what is fictive. This is one of the most hilarious novels I've read. Numerous passages left me almost convulsing with laughter.

Adrian Mole gets laid.
(No explanation why this review was previously deleted, but I stand by it. Puerile)

Hmm...I actually liked the principal character, Charles, in the beginning, but by the end of the book I was thinking, "typical...boys!" Boys will always be boys, I guess.

It's humourous, I GUESS, if you're prepared to laugh at everything that goes along with being 20. But it's sort of a cruel dig at how seriously a 20 year old takes his own self. It's twisted and crude, but if that's how you like it..hmm...oh yeah, and Charles turns out to be a selfish, shallow, hollow excuse for a human being. Yeah, he's just being his age, but I do agree with the poster who said he shouldn't have got the girl!

Less than Zero if it was written by Charlotte Roche and Jeffrey Eugenides

I have nothing in particular to say about this one. It's like your typical bildungsroman novel, without the special aspect, unless sex counts as a special something. Almost trivial, really. No connections to the characters, no love for the feelings and relationships, no surprises, no shocks, no kinship between this story and me.

"an easy-reading, mildly funny series of bed-and-bathroom observations."