I sure many people will mention his great novels, but I wanted to mention a weird and (somewhat) underrated sci-fi film that he wrote: Saturn 3 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079285/). It apparently had production problems which impacted the final film, but I think it's worth watching for the interesting ideas about building a killer, as in psychopathic, AI. Also the experience of writing it formed the basis of the novel Money.
The limits of my experience with his work was a tongue in check overview of early 80s arcade games and the players. He painted them as defenders of earth against an alien onslaught.
His book of essays/articles he wrote over the years is pretty great and includes many memorable turn of phrases. One I can recall almost verbatim from memory goes something like, "You can stir a vat of mollasses with James Wood's Chekhov boner."
His memoir Experience was also a good time if you're into that era and circle of people.
The best thing for a Martin Amis or Harvey Keitel fan is to forget Saturn 3 exists. Its overdubbing pf Keitels voice is distracting to the point of unintentional hilarity.
I’ve actually been avoiding re-reading “Money” because I was so impressed with it a few decades ago and I’ve worried it might not live up to the memory. Now is probably the time for another ride in the Fiasco, John Self’s memorable Italian sports car.
A movie based on his novel “The Zone of Interest” just premiered at Cannes this week and seems to be getting rave reviews. Hopefully Amis had a chance to see it.
I first read it in the 90s because Blur referenced it as inspiration for Parklife. At the time I had no idea who Martin Amis was after reading it I knew wanted to read all his other books.
It's still on the shelf with a load of his others.
I re-read this every 5 years or so. It certainly covers a lot of ground on which literary tastes have changed, so it might not hold up for everyone, but what keeps me coming back is how much goddamn fun it is. Even if I thought it hadn't aged well, it'd be easy to forgive because of how utterly hilarious it is. I might have to find myself a hardcover copy. I hope you enjoy the re-read. RIP Martin.
Just thinking of that. I keep a copy of Hitch's "Love, Poverty, and War" as a bathroom reader, and although I don't recall the specific section, it was through their friendship that I was introduced to Martin's father's works.
The glue binding my copy of Lucky Jim dissolved in the back windshield of my car one summer, and I remember chasing the pages at the Indian mounds where I'd go after school to read.
You probably know this but for others, Lucky Jim was written by his father Kingsley Amis, who was also a popular author in his time. Reading Martin’s memoir about his relationship with his dad is pretty good.
RIP Martin. Just to make this more HN-relevant: even though his book "Money" is popular and regarded as a masterpiece, it is not available on Kindle, or in any ebook format, in the US. It is, however, available on Kindle in the UK. I've always wondered why. Perhaps that'll change now that he's gone.
What a gifted writer. Times Arrow and London Fields are easy to find recommended, and deservedly so. The Information might be one of my favorite books of all, and Night Train was a lot of fun. I haven't caught up on his most recent two.
Peerless stylist of his generation, a serious thinker, and somehow managed to be fun alongside all of that. I haven’t kept up with his novels since Yellow Dog, but could recommend each and every one I’d read for something, even the duds were brimming with verve and original ideas. A major loss.
I knew of London Fields for a long time before I got around to reading it, but I hadn't known it was an actual place until then. Always thought it was an intriguingly evocative title, and I suppose that was intentional.
Indeed they were. I saw the two of them on a speaking tour at UCLA in the late 1990s, before Christopher became obsessed with Islam. They were kind of acting like bad schoolboys, drinking and smoking on stage IIRC. It would not be surprising if they went to Oxford together, of course Hitchens did.
