5 OCTOBER 1991, Page 25

Creepier than thou

Sir: Nothing in my book can compare with the blasphemous cuteness, and robust vul- garity, of your front-page headline (28 September): 'Designer gas ovens'. As for your reviewer, James Buchan: I couldn't shock him as much as he shocks me. His vision is, indeed, forbiddingly bleak. 'I find it creepy', he writes, 'to see Primo Levi — his suffering, his calm — rearranged for lit- erary fun and profit.' What could be creepi- er, and more callowly ungenerous, than such an imputation? All books, by the way, including If This Is a Man, are written 'for profit'. All reviews are too — however exalted, however eagerly cynical.

Martin Amis

London W11