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From The Times
January 5, 2008

Martin Amis

The 50 greatest postwar writers: 19

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Everybody seems to have an opinion about the younger Amis, whether or not they have read him. He is one of the few writers to be argued about in pubs. Is he a genius, and the greatest stylist of the age? Or is he a poseur, and a tiresome literary show-off? At the moment, he is growling at militant Islamists, and in the past he was famous for spending a large advance on dentistry. The Rachel Papers (1973), his brilliant, arrogant, shocking, shameless first novel, was a portrait of the young male mind that some female critics found disturbing — he has often been accused of misogyny. Martin Amis is a son of the novelist Kingsley (Lucky Jim) Amis, and has inherited his father’s savage comic genius. Martin’s literary gods, however, are Nabokov and Bellow, and his influences are American rather than English. Somehow, he makes other British writers look provincial.

One to read: Money (1984)

More about Martin Amis

Listen to Martin Amis discussing drama, tabloids and London Fields

See the full top 50 list here

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