The Modern Novel

Biography

What to do about Martin? Frankly, he shouldn’t be here because he isn’t really a very good writer and, in fifty years, he will only be a footnote to English literary history. So what’s the secret of his success? It’s a combination of things. Firstly, there is Daddy who had little literary talent, though he did produce one mildly interesting work and was vaguely known to the public, both for his middlebrow novels and his extramural drinking and marital problems. Secondly, there are really very few good English novelists and Amis fils looks as though he ought to be good and therefore far too many people (some, at least, who should know better) think he is. Thirdly, he is visible. He writes for a variety of publications, including leading newspapers such as The Observer. He also appears in a variety of publications – because of his financial demands, his marital shenanigans, his fight with his father and his friends, even because of his dental work! In short he is the fodder of gossip columns and the nearest thing to a pop star or a football player England has in the field of literature. And that sells books. Finally, he is hailed as a postmodernist which gives him all sorts of cachet with the literary and academic elite. See, for example, The Martin Amis Web. Actually, he isn’t a postmodernist. He is a Brit trying to write like an American and that makes the experts think he is a postmodernist. He died in 2023.

So where does that leave us with Amis? I have covered Money: A Suicide Note and London Fields, despite the fact that both read like watered down early 1980s Norman Mailer (with, perhaps, a bit of Elmore Leonard thrown in) but I really do not think that these are anywhere near as great as some people make them out to be. No doubt we will have to put up with him and his antics for some time to come but there are many better writers to read. And if you want to know more about him, many of the sites below will help you. He was born in 1949, son of Kingsley Amis. He read English at Oxford and worked for the Times Literary Supplement and New Statesman as a literary critic. He had his teeth fixed (expensively, in the USA), trashed Katie Price aka Jordan, a woman of similar talent to his own, and argued with his father. He also wrote some books.

Books about Martin Amis

Richard Bradford: Martin Amis: The Biography

Other links

Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Amis: Profile
The Martin Amis Experience
Dear Martin, Yours Eric (Amis, his father and why he is a little shit)
Articles about Martin Amis from the New York Times
Martin Amis: the sexual revolution killed my sister Sally
Fear and Loathing (Amis on September 11)
Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis too
The Amis Inheritance (about Kingsley and Martin)
Interview
Interview
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