Martin Amis (Routledge Guides to Literature) - Softcover

Finney, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415402921 ISBN 13: 9780415402927

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to Martin Amis's life, work and the wide range of critical responses to his work. Perhaps the best-known British novelist of his generation, he had to compete with his father, Kingsley Amis (1922-95) who was himself a leading novelist of his generation. In reacting to his father he adopted a self-conscious, ludic mode of fiction and cultivated a unique and much imitated style. 
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 situates his life in the context of the literary climate and social, political and cultural gestalt of his lifetime. It constitutes the most extensive biographical narrative to appear by the date of publication. Part 2 provides a critical introduction to the eleven novels, two collections of short stories, two autobiographical works, and three collections of essays, reviews, profiles, and articles that he had published so far. Part 3 offers a more advanced examination of the major critical debates about the nature and value of his work. They range from his turn to American fiction for models, his portrayal of women (including charges of misogyny), and his unusual views on linguistic language ("Style is morality," he wrote).

About this title

From the Author

When I was invited to contribute to the extensive series, Routledge Guides to Literature, I had little hesitation in choosing Martin Amis as a subject. I thought his novel Money (1986) a quintessential work of the eighties with its chapters alternating between Thatcher's London and Reagan's New York. I was also drawn to the status he held as leader of his generation of British novelists. Not only was he a leading fiction writer, but he was a prominent critic with a powerful and articulate voice. Once again I was given the opportunity to show how far critical theory can be usefully employed in literary criticism at a time when theory itself was under attack. I guess I was also drawn to an author who, like me, had immigrated to America part-way through his life and acquired a dual perspective.

From the Inside Flap

This book offers the reader an introduction to Martin Amis's life, work, and the wide range of critical responses to his work. Possibly the most outstanding. and certainly the best-known novelist of his generation, Amis initially had to compete with his father, Kingsley Amis (1922-95), who was himself a leading novelist of his generation. In carving out his own fictional territory, Amis reacted against his father's realist form of social satire in favor of a self-conscious, ludic mode of fiction that was particularly indebted to Vladimir Nabokov. This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 places Martin Amis's life in the context of the literary climate, both in Britain and the USA, and of the social, political, and cultural gestalt during his lifetime. As no biography of Amis has yet appeared, this part constitutes the most extensive biographical narrative about him to appear to date. Part 2 consists of a critical introduction to every book he has published so far--eleven novels, two collections of short stories, two autobiographical or semi-autobiographical books, and three collections of his nonfiction reviews, profiles, articles, and essays. These introductions are meant to inform the reader about the basic contents, themes, and formal characteristics of each book. Part 3 offers a more advanced examination of the major critical debates about the nature and value of his work that have appeared since he published his first novel in 1973. These debates range from Amis's rejection of British in favor of American novelistic models and the effect on the reception of his work of his superstar status in Britain, to his portrayal of women and his unique, comic use of language.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0415402921
• ISBN 13: 9780415402927
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 190