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Titles Vintage Living Texts: Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie (two volumes in series) Authors Margaret Reynolds and Jonathan Noakes Reviewed by Peter Owen Vintage Living Texts series 'Vintage Living Texts' is a new range of critical guides to modern literature, each volume centred on one author and focused on three or four texts. In an effort to broaden the potential readership, the texts offer themselves to 'teacher, student or general reader', although the preface reveals that the real target audience is teachers and students of A Level Literature. The exercises are 'tailored to [AS and A2] assessment objectives' (while acknowledging that these will vary for each specification) and the texts and authors included (Morrison, McEwan, Atwood, Winterson and others) are all likely to appear on specifications or be chosen for coursework modules. The advantage for a teacher is that the exercises and proposed routes through the novels can be 'easily fitted into a lesson plan' (which, generally speaking, is so). For A Level students, the guides are admirably accessible, student-friendly features including: a recent author interview, each conducted specifically for this series; a bibliography listing websites as well as books; a selection of extracts from contemporary reviews of the novels; sensible suggestions about the different types of 'reading activity' these texts might require; an accessible glossary of literary terms (different in each volume: a refreshing change). Random House's description of these volumes as 'a new concept in reading guides' might be a touch grandiose, but they do represent a convenient compilation of several of the most useful strands of good reading guides: their claim to be as useful to the student as to the teacher is well-sustained. Martin Amis The author-interview is substantial (15 pages), informative and readable. Perceptive questions are posed and Amis provides answers which conveniently touch on several of the frameworks most A Level teachers would want to provide for their students: Burgess' distinction between A-type and B-type novels; a brief working definition of post-modernism; the existence of an 'ideal reader'. Moreover, his conversational style implies a thoughtful and amiable man (a useful contrast, for first-time readers, to the various fictional narrators of the novels they are about to study). This interview would itself provide enough material for a short series of introductory lessons, and the 'reading guides' provided for each novel are extrapolated from issues raised in the interview. The sections of the book most likely to be used as lesson outlines or private study frameworks are labelled 'reading activities', and, for the most part, provide sensible pointers to the main themes and contexts of the novels without becoming overly prescriptive. The format of the questions will be familiar: usually identifying an area for exploration and asking the student to examine their own reactions to it. Typical question-stems are: List all the occasions where [theme] is mentioned. What does this suggest to you about... ? Assess the importance of the descriptions of [character] in the novel so far. Consider and discuss the relationship between [theme] and [theme] in the novel. What is the purpose of [character]'s role in the novel? These traditional formats are generally used skilfully to explore the issues at the heart of four complex modern novels. Students are regularly invited to access the internet for information, with specific website addresses provided, and opportunities to widen the students' reading beyond Amis (and indeed, beyond fiction) are usually seized upon: following up all the wider reading suggestions would direct a conscientious reader to Swift, Dickens, Salinger, Eliot, Romeo and Juliet and - inevitably - Kingsley Amis. Teachers might wish to be aware, though, that group-activity is rarely prescribed, and that where it is, the following is usually employed: 'if you are in a group, it might be useful to discuss and combine your knowledge'. The specific organisation of how this knowledge might be 'combined' is down to the teacher. The selection of texts for detailed study is judicious: Amis' debut; his twin critical peaks; and his autobiography which operates in that curious overlap between memoir and novel (thus providing a starting-point for engaging students in a debate about what constitutes literary fiction). The selection of London Fields and Time's Arrow, both of which derive much of their effect from the gradual release of crucially important information, necessitates a few awkward moments (along the lines of 'skip this exercise if you do not wish to spoil the ending of the novel') but there is no way to avoid this: teachers will use their own discretion in pacing their students' exposure to the plot. A comprehensive introduction to four such complex works in less than 200 pages is an ambitious task: this study guide succeeds admirably. You can buy Martin Amis online from our bookshop. Salman Rushdie The exclusive interview with Salman Rushdie, while not the coup it would have been in 1990, is substantial (23 pages) and illuminating: thoughtful questions are used to draw Rushdie into an intriguing account of his inspiration and methods of composition. The interview focuses primarily on Midnight's Children, and although it draws in Shame and The Satanic Verses towards the end, it is difficult to avoid the impression that the 'Booker of Bookers' is the primary focus of the whole volume. Rushdie dwells more on ideas than techniques, and there are useful comments on the practicalities of writing novels and the ways in which authors assemble and edit their ideas. This would provide a good basis for a set of introductory lessons on literary creativity, and indeed the interview enables the 'reading guides' section of the novel to identify the key themes of Rushdie's work with a degree of authorial authenticity. The sections of the book most likely to be used as lesson outlines or private study frameworks are labelled 'reading activities', which progress through the novels chapter by chapter, with occasional 'Questions for discussion or essays'. Questions usually identifying an area for exploration and ask the student to examine their own reactions to it. Typical questions include: What do snakes usually represent, metaphorically? Note all their associations, and consider which are used in this chapter. Discuss the similarities and contrasts between stories, histories and myths, with reference to Books One and Two. Analyse the use and significance of dreams in The Satanic Verses. Although they read like the questions any A-Level teacher could formulate for their own students, they are well-targeted at specific (and relevant) areas of each text. There are also a few good (if rather straightforward) creative tasks (rewriting Naseem's story in her own words; construct your own parable to illustrate a moral truth) which teachers might like to expand. Students are regularly invited to access the internet for information, with specific website addresses provided, and opportunities to widen the students' reading beyond Rushdie's novels are legion: the conscientious reader of this book will have looked at The Arabian Nights, Homer, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Arundhati Roi and the Bayeux Tapestry. One cautionary note should be sounded: the book's activities are probably best accessed as an edited whole, or at least as planned sequences. Random 'dipping in' might well see a student faced with 'how is magic realism employed in these sections?' or 'how do the episodes on these pages develop the theme of self-dramatisation?' The selection of texts is good: enough variety to convey the range of Rushdie's work while providing a good awareness of the almost Joycean intertextuality of the novels. The contemporary reviews section includes several reviews of East West, a useful way forward for students wishing to expand their reading. As one of the half-dozen most important English-writing novelists of the late twentieth century, Rushdie will probably feature on A Level specifications for many years to come, which makes this volume a sound investment. You can buy Salman Rushdie online from our bookshop. Titles The War Poets and Over the Nightmare Ground Publishers Cromwell and Headstrong Interactive Reviewed by Ruth Entwistle War poetry has long been a mainstay of the English Literature curriculum. An O Level and GCSE stalwart for decades (an engineer friend, pushing 40, can still recite Dulce et Decorum Est by heart), it is now to be found on various AS and A2 Literature specifications. In an effort to bring the subject and the poetry to life, two educational publishers have released war poetry themed CD-ROMs. The War Poets (Cromwell, £99.95) is a technically flashy number that has many impressive features, not least of which is the video presence of Brian Blessed. The poetry spans many centuries and features poems from the Bible and Homer up to the First World War, focussing closely on Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen. Useful elements include teachers' notes, web links and a gallery of war images from the different periods, but overall the content is thin. The poems are not read aloud in full - we are treated instead to short extracts - and the 'Interactive Tutorial' turns out to be a not-very-interactive (although quite edifying) lecture from a video professor (extracted, incidentally, from Cromwell's much cheaper video on the subject). A better investment would be Over the Nightmare Ground (Headstrong Interactive, £85.00 + VAT + p&p). This lacks the whistles and bells of the former, and is visually less inspiring, but it has a solid academic base that would provide students with extensive research material. The featured poems don't cover as expansive a period as The War Poets, but Over the Nightmare Ground does include more recent poetry from World War II. All poems are read aloud in full; Charles Causley, for example, both reads Song of the Dying Gunner and talks about the background to the poem. Each poem is accompanied by a useful glossary and some thought-provoking background material. So for example, from reading Kipling's Tommy, we can click to Paddy, a parody of the poem by Tom Kettle. Some poems link to associated visual images, such as war paintings by John and Paul Nash, and whilst listening to a reading of Henry Reed's Naming of Parts, the viewer can examine a labelled diagram of a .303 rifle. While I felt, after half an hour, that I had exhausted the possibilities of The War Poets, Over the Nightmare Ground left me newly inspired, both about war poetry and about the possibilities of the CD-ROM as a serious learning tool. Links Headstrong Interactive - email: mike.h@headstrong.demon.co.uk - tel: 01484 660770 (the Web site also has a useful links page) Cromwell - email: crom@compuserve.com - tel: 01789 292779