Book Review – Money: A Suicide Note
One might find Money: A Suicide Note to be disturbing; not in a horror kind of way, but in a way that, as unimaginable as it might be to some, there are these types of people out there; ones that go about wasting their money without holding back and do not care as to what they spend it on. Even though it stays true to its title, the author decided to go in a different direction when writing this book. Yet, it shows what effect money can have on a person if he or she does not use it properly and spends it foolishly. John Self is a foolish spender and all he wants and thinks about is money and spends his money whenever he feels like it. The story revolves around the one constant question; would you spend your money on whatever you want or spend it wisely and save up when needed and not make it your only way of finding happiness?
Money is a 1984 novel by Martin Amis, which appeared on the TIME 100 and at #90 on the Guardian 100. The story is of John Self and his insatiable appetite for money, alcohol, drugs, porn and more. Director John Self is a self-admitted loser who smokes too much, drinks too much, irresponsible and has an addiction to porn and prostitutes. But he's got money and when he has money, he spends it carelessly. That is not all; he is waiting for the financing of his next film to come together so he can keep on wasting his money in London and New York. Leapfrogging back and forth across the pond, he leaves a shambled trail of self-destruction in his wake. It is to show how live can be lived without restraints and whether that is the way one should live their life.
Narrated by John Self, Money tells the story of a man who is all he cares about is money and what it provides. Money begins with a note from author, Martin Amis, describing the book as a suicide note from the main character, John Self. The book is serving as a record of Self's possible last days on earth. However, he does not know if Self will actually die by the end of the novel. Self, who is a director of commercials, is a drunken, drug abuser, junky, pornography loving, pill popping, and money-loving slob. Fielding Goodney, a film producer, invites him to New York to shoot a movie called Good Money, which he later wants to change to Bad Money.
He then learns Selina is cheating on him with Ossie and Selina leaves him. He then starts dating Martina, but Selina orchestrate a meeting and Martina catches her and John in bed. John Finds out he is broke and the Fielding Goodney has been using John’s mony to pay for the film as part of a revenge scheme. John returns to London, where he learns the man he though was his father, Barry Self, is not, and a man named Fat Vince is. He finds a new girlfriend and moves on with his life.
This whole book is just a whole saga about money. It all revolve about money, from him getting the directing job for the film to his girlfriend Salina to him being used out of all his money for the film. At the end of the novel, he is learning to cope with what has happened and learns to live a “normal” life and finds it actually peaceful. He is at peace with himself by the end and finds out that he does not need money to make him happy.
Unlike the book Money, Book one of Plato’s Republic shows that the primary value of money is to allow one to die with a clean conscience. Money keeps one from having to lie and cheat, and it allows one to pay one’s debts and perform sacrifices. He believes that one should use money to please God and make sure that he is not in debt to anyone before he or she dies. Unlike Plato, Self does not care about who he is indebted to or how he is in the eyes of God. He does not seem to care about the consequences of his actions.
Socrates sees money as a use to make more money. Socrates also think in market-place money is required as tokens for purposes of exchanging. He connects money to problems of justice and says justice’s ability to use money in certain ways, particularly when you are doing nothing with it. This is the opposite of the thinking of Self in Money, where he just wants to waste his money on what pleases him instead of thinking of the future. He does not want to invest his money or think about the future; he wants to live in the now and worry about the future when it comes.
Throughout the novel, John makes his preoccupation with sex and money well known. He is frequently thinking about the money he is spending, the money he has, and the money other people have. When he is not thinking about money, he is visiting strip joins or pornography shops or picking up hookers. John lives his life to excss, not worrying about how he spends money. He equates money with sex in his mind, and so do some of the people around him. When he is dating his girlfriend, Selina, he says that they talk about money while having sex.
John is searching for some kind of happiness in his life, but he does not know where to look properly. He puts all his efforts into finding peace through sex and money, but does not understand why he is not satisfied. It takes the fact that Fielding Goodney tricks him and loses all John’s money to snap John into reality. At first, John tries to commit suicide since he cannot live without money. However, when he is unsuccessful, he eventually learns that he can be happy without money and finds that living moderately has its pleasures.
When John finds the truth about the film that he was going to shoot that it is no more since the financing was gone. He finds out the Fielding Goodney has managed to get his hands on his money to fund the film. John does not understand what he could have done to Fielding. Martin suggests that John has actually done nothing to Fielding and the Fielding has another moritvation for ruining him. Martin becomes a source of reassurance for John, helping him through this problem. Martin even offers to give back the money John paid him, indicating that money is not a motivating factor for Martin.
This shows that money should never be the only think a person should rely on. We see that John almost committed suicide when he found out that his money was all gone. That might be the case for anyone, even if they do not rely on money heavily. But a person always needs another reason to live. A person always needs another thing or person to lean on when it gets tough. Money should never be the driving force for anyone and it should never be the motivating force as well.
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