The meeting house by Martin Amis

The meeting house
by Martin Amis.

In this article I am going to talk about the book “The House of Encounters”, by Martin Amis, a novel that immerses us in the story of two brothers who suffer the repression and horror of the Soviet gulag. It is a work that combines drama, love, violence and reflection on the destiny of Russia and humanity.

The novel is narrated by one of the brothers, a former soldier who participated in the invasion of Germany and who was sentenced to ten years of hard labor in Siberia for an invented political crime. His brother Lev, a pacifist and Jewish poet, was also imprisoned and sent to the same concentration camp, where they were reunited. Between them there was a love rivalry for Zoya, Lev’s wife, whom they both loved since childhood.

The story unfolds in two times: the present, in which the narrator, now elderly and exiled in the United States, returns to Russia to visit the place where he was imprisoned and to tell his stepdaughter about his life; and the past, in which he recounts his experiences in the gulag, where he had to survive hunger, cold, brutality and desperation. The climax of the novel is the meeting between Lev and Zoya in the “House of Meetings”, a cabin where conjugal visits were allowed between prisoners and their wives.

Both brothers compete for the love of Zoya, a young Jewish woman. Lev marries Zoya before being imprisoned, and the relationship between the three characters becomes the center of the narrative. The novel focuses on the relationship between brothers, two antagonistic beings who have never shown affection for each other. The story is told from the point of view of the surviving brother, now in his eighties, who has emigrated to America and returns to Russia to report to a ghostly stepdaughter.

The concentration camp in which the brothers spend the decisive years of their lives is a symbol of the physical and moral illness of the former USSR. The novel also explores the different ways in which Russians have built their own “house of horrors” over time.

“The House of Encounters” is a short but intense novel, which shows us Martin Amis’s ability to create complex and contradictory characters, who provoke both admiration and repulsion. The author offers us a critical and lucid vision of the history of Russia, from Stalinism to savage capitalism, passing through the Cold War and perestroika. It also raises universal questions about love, hate, guilt, forgiveness and redemption.

It is a masterpiece of contemporary literature, which moves us and makes us think. A book that leaves no one indifferent and that I recommend reading to all lovers of good stories.

“The House of Encounters” has been described as a love novel, with a lascivious and impotent, sick, obsessive, incestuous, insane, impure, brutal and misogynistic love, but constant and frustrated. Another inexperienced, youthful, naive and patient love is also presented, equally constant and frustrated.

Martin Amis has been praised for his writing skills and for tackling the atrocities of the century with strength, moral indignation and reckless courage. The novel has been rated “highly recommended” and is considered a literary study of the many deterministic possibilities in Russian history.

In summary, “The House of Meetings” is an intense and moving novel that explores human relationships and the history of the Soviet Union through the lives of two brothers and their love for a woman. Martin Amis’s ability to tackle difficult topics and his unique narrative style make this novel an exciting and enriching read.