cover image Martin Amis: The Biography

Martin Amis: The Biography

Richard Bradford. Pegasus (Norton, dist.), $29.95 (456p) ISBN 978-1-60598-385-1

In this colorful, though ultimately unsatisfying biography, University of Ulster English professor Bradford (Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis), recounts the life of British novelist Martin Amis. Growing up in the rocky household of his hard-partying novelist father, Kingsley, Amis traveled in illustrious literary circles. Bradford follows the young man from childhood to Oxford and on to the vibrant intellectual scene in 1970s London. Dipping his toe in literary waters, Amis became involved with the New Statesman—hobnobbing with Christopher Hitchens, Julian Barnes, and Ian McEwan—and began his own writing career. From his outrageous second novel, Dead Babies, to his mature works, Money and London Fields, Amis developed a style that bitingly satirizes contemporary mores. His delight in giving offense, matched with that virtuoso style, made him an enfant terrible of the London literary establishment. Bradford rounds out the portrait of Amis’s career with some attention to his personal life, including two marriages and the ongoing struggle with his father’s literary shadow. Unfortunately, the result is less biography than hagiography, replete with musings on why Amis is the most important British novelist of his generation. Meanwhile, Bradford’s overreliance on interviews with Amis and his friends—many passages of which are simply quoted verbatim—creates a gossipy air, and readers may doubt the completeness of the account. Photos. (Dec.)