Martin Amis, British author of trend-setting novels including ‘Money’ dies
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London: Martin Amis, the author of insightful novel ‘Money: A Suicide Note’ died at the age of 73, news agency AFP reported.
Born in 1949 as the second of three children of famous novelist Kingsley Amis and his first wife Hilary Bardwell, Martin Louis Amis has always been measured up to his father.
Kingsley Amis’ 1954 novel ‘ Lucky Jim’ made him one of the towering figures of British literature in the 1960s.
After the success of the father’s novel, the Amis family stayed in Princeton where Kingsley Amis taught, according to the report.
Growing up, Martin Amis could not resist the pull of literature and after graduating from Oxford University, he set to write his first published novel ‘ The Rachel Papers’ in 1973.
Following this rather obscure novel, he came out with ‘Dead Babies’ two years later showing a rare penchant for ‘morbid humour’.
Martin Amis began to get attention as an author with his novels ‘ Success’ , and ‘Other People’.
The novels that came along over the years including 'Money’, ‘London Fields’ and ‘ Time’s Arrow’ put him amongst the greatest British authors of all time.
The 1984 novel ‘Money’ summed up the post war generation, depicting what a report said ‘ self-serving greed in Thatcherite Britain and the US under Ronald Reagan.’
In an interview a year after the novel came out, he said ‘Money doesn't mind if we say it's evil, it goes from strength to strength. It's a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy.’
The novel has since been praised as ‘one of the most searing, insightful and bitingly funny English-language novels of the 20th century.’
The novels tells the story of John Self, who is a noted director of adverts, and gets invitation from a film producer in New York City to shoot his first film. John Self has insatiable appetite for pornography, alcohol, drugs and food.
The novel is praised for its sharp and vivid language, and dark humour that spices up characters ‘bordering on cartoonish’.
This tour de force in the Amis career followed several other works including his most recent ‘ The one of Interest’ set in the backdrop of Nazi death camp.
An adaption of the novel by the British director Jonathan Glazer is highly praised at the Cannes Film Festival.
Alongside trending setting novels, Amis penned two collections of short stories , six non-fiction and a memoir.
