The Martin Amis Web

Martin Amis is one of the UK's most successful post-war novelists and easily its most reviled. The son of right-wing curmudgeon Kingsley, Amis the Younger has long been a how-we-love-to-hate-him figure for the British press. From the fall-out with Julian Barnes to the expensive dental work, Amis is usually in the news for something other than his writing. Which is strange given that he's the Zidane of the book world, capable of the deftest touch, the surprising change of pace and the head butt to the
chest.

THE GREAT SNEER

Books like Money (1984) and London Fields (1989) have been fashioned from a great snarling sneer, offending the blandly genteel proprieties of drawing room fiction and giving Will Self a template to follow in the process. There is always in Amis that primacy of style, that instinctive self-regard and haughty self-absorption that the author shares with his friend Christopher Hitchens. Amis is a very particular type, that of the sublimely gifted intellectual who struggles to laugh at himself and cannot quite shake off the belief that he should be running the world. But he deserves to be celebrated for his tremendous gift. No one likes write Amis. And in cultures that don't fear the literary as much as ours, this astounding ability would be given more importance than the dental work and personal life.

THE WEBSITE

Set up in 1995 the Martin Amis Web claims to be "the authoritative resource for information about Amis's writing and career." It's certainly comprehensive. There's all sorts of fun to be had, from a new discussion board to links to the old one. There's an overview of Amis's work and a superb section called Affinities, which links the writer to his influences and literary colleagues. Commentary gives you Amis on a variety of themes - never less than entertaining - while Intertexts, one of the highlights of the site, offers commentaries on and work inspired by the writer. As if that were not enough there's also an archive of reviews of Amis's work. 
 
Professor Gavin Keulks of Western Oregon University has run this site since 2006. He's doing a fine job.

8 Jan 10