a history of assaults upon women. Despite his macho image, Clint is sexually dysfunctional, and responds hopefully to a series of flirtatious text messages from someone named "k8". Upon discovering that "k8" is a transsexual, Clint, who has talked with 'Karla White' in California, becomes enraged and drives to confront Andrews (whom Clint appears to blame for his ill-fated meeting with "k8"). Clint kills both Simon Finger and Andrews, but is blinded in his struggle with the latter. Throughout the novel, reference is made to the arrival of a comet, which is to pass dangerously close to Earth. An airliner experiences a number of problems on its journey to New York from London, and is obliged to make an emergency landing at the moment the comet arrives. Major themes The novel can be read as a meditation upon male violence. The threat of the comet is, like the idea of time reversal in Time's Arrow, and the total eclipse in London Fields, another instance of Amis's frequent use of awe-inspiring natural phenomena, and of devices derived from science fiction, as a means of conveying a sense of doom. This sense is heightened by the theme of ethical decline that is another hallmark of Amis's work, and is manifest in the novel's treatment of subjects such as incest, adultery, sexual exploitation, and violence. The character of Russia Meo is an expert on the children of tyrants, and it seems evident that the author is drawing parallels between power and tyranny on both the large and the small scale. Sympathy for the victims of abusive power – particularly children – is implied, but there is also a disturbing sense of helplessness in the face of human (particularly male) depravity. The only note of redemption offered lies with Xan's struggle against his worst impulses and his slow, difficult reconciliation with his wife and children. Reception The tone of criticism overall was described as "near universal derision". Tibor Fischer made one of the most quoted statements in a book review of modern times saying in The Daily Telegraph "Yellow Dog isn't bad as in not very good or slightly disappointing. It's not-knowing-where-to-look bad. I was reading my copy on the Tube and I was terrified someone would look over my shoulder (not only because of the embargo, but because someone might think I was enjoying what was on the page). It's like your favourite