Editing Martin Amis (section)

===1980s and 1990s===
Amis's best-known novels are ''[[Money (novel)|Money]]'', ''[[London Fields (novel)|London Fields]]'' and ''[[The Information (novel)|The Information]]'', commonly referred to as his "London Trilogy".<ref>Stringer, Jenny. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5Vr1RWniW_YC&pg=PA18 Martin Amis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616131037/https://books.google.com/books?id=5Vr1RWniW_YC&pg=PA18 |date=16 June 2024 }}, ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English''. Oxford University Press, 1996.</ref> Although the books share little in terms of plot and narrative, they all examine the lives of middle-aged men, exploring the sordid, debauched, and post-apocalyptic undercurrents of life in late 20th-century Britain. Amis's London [[protagonist]]s are anti-heroes: they engage in questionable behaviour, are passionate iconoclasts, and strive to escape the apparent banality and futility of their lives. Amis wrote, "The world is like a human being. And there's a scientific name for it, which is [[entropy]] – everything tends towards disorder. From an ordered state to a disordered state."<ref>McGrath, Patrick [http://bombsite.com/issues/18/articles/874 "Martin Amis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130316150050/http://bombsite.com/issues/18/articles/874 |date=16 March 2013 }}, ''[[Bomb (magazine)|Bomb]]'', Winter, 1987.</ref>

''Money'' (1984, subtitled ''A Suicide Note'') is a first-person narrative by John Self, advertising man and would-be film director, who is "addicted to the twentieth century". "[A] satire of Thatcherite amorality and greed",<ref>[https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/martin-amis "Martin Amis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114148/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/martin-amis |date=4 March 2016 }}, British Council: Literature. Retrieved 12 January 2016.</ref> the novel relates a series of black comedic episodes as Self flies back and forth across the Atlantic, in crass and seemingly chaotic pursuit of personal and professional success. ''[[Time Magazine|Time]]'' included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels of 1923 to 2005.<ref>[[Lev Grossman]] and Richard Lacayo. [https://web.archive.org/web/20051019053903/http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html "All Time 100 Novels"], ''Time'', 2005.</ref> On 11 November 2009, ''The Guardian'' reported that the [[BBC]] had [[Money (British TV series)|adapted ''Money'' for television]] as part of its early 2010 schedule for [[BBC 2]].<ref
name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/11/nick-frost-bbc2-martin-amis-money | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Nick Frost to star in BBC2 adaptation of Martin Amis's Money | first=John | last=Plunkett | date=11 November 2009 | access-date=27 March 2010 | archive-date=16 June 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616131038/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/11/nick-frost-bbc2-martin-amis-money | url-status=live }}</ref> [[Nick Frost]] played John Self, and the adaptation also featured [[Vincent Kartheiser]], [[Emma Pierson]] and [[Jerry Hall]].<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> The adaptation was a "two-part drama" and was written by Tom Butterworth and Chris Hurford.<ref name="guardian.co.uk"/> After the transmission of the first of the two parts, Amis was quick to praise the adaptation, stating: "All the performances [were] without weak spots. I thought Nick Frost was absolutely extraordinary as John Self. He fills the character. It's a very unusual performance in that he's very funny, he's physically comic, but he's also strangely graceful, a pleasure to watch ... It looked very expensive even though it wasn't and that's a feat ... The earlier script I saw was disappointing [but] they took it back and worked on it and it's hugely improved. My advice was to use more of the language of the novel, the dialogue, rather than making it up."<ref>Wightman, Catriona (25 May 2010). [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a221753/martin-amis-praises-money-adaptation.html?rss "Martin Amis praises ''Money'' adaptation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021194304/http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a221753/martin-amis-praises-money-adaptation.html?rss |date=21 October 2012 }}, ''[[Digital Spy]]''.</ref>
[[File:Martin Amis and creative writing (Interview 1990).mp3|thumb|Martin Amis talks about creative writing, his father and PR for books. (Interview 1990)]]
''London Fields'' (1989), Amis's longest and "most London" novel,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Self |first1=John |title=Martin Amis novels – ranked! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/24/martin-amis-novels-countdown-to-top-john-self |access-date=22 May 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=24 August 2019 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616131039/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/24/martin-amis-novels-countdown-to-top-john-self |url-status=live }}</ref> describes the encounters between three main characters in London in 1999, as a climate disaster approaches. The characters have typically Amisian names and broad caricatured qualities: Keith Talent, the lower-class crook with a passion for darts; Nicola Six, a femme fatale who is determined to be murdered; and upper-middle-class Guy Clinch, "the fool, the foil, the poor foal" who is destined to come between the other two.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Nelson |first1=Elizabeth |title=England's Screaming: The Apocalyptic Prescience of Martin Amis's 'London Fields,' 30 Years Later |url=https://www.theringer.com/2019/12/9/21002276/martin-amis-london-fields-novel-1989-30th-anniversary |website=The Ringer |access-date=22 May 2023 |date=9 December 2019 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522154823/https://www.theringer.com/2019/12/9/21002276/martin-amis-london-fields-novel-1989-30th-anniversary |url-status=live }}</ref>

The book was controversially omitted from the Booker Prize shortlist in 1989, because two panel members, [[Maggie Gee (novelist)|Maggie Gee]] and Helen McNeil, disliked Amis's treatment of his female characters. "It was an incredible row," [[Martyn Goff]], the Booker's director, told ''The Independent''. "Maggie and Helen felt that Amis treated women appallingly in the book. That is not to say they thought books which treated women badly couldn't be good, they simply felt that the author should make it clear he didn't favour or bless that sort of treatment. Really, there were only two of them and they should have been outnumbered as the other three were in agreement, but such was the sheer force of their argument and passion that they won. [[David Lodge (author)|David [Lodge]]] has told me he regrets it to this day, he feels he failed somehow by not saying, 'It's two against three, Martin's on the list'."<ref>{{cite news|last=Wynn-Jones|first=Ros|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/time-to-publish-and-be-damned-1239074.html|title=Time to publish and be damned|newspaper=The Independent|date=14 September 1997|access-date=4 September 2017|archive-date=26 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026170402/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/time-to-publish-and-be-damned-1239074.html|url-status=live}}</ref> A [[London Fields (film)|2018 film of ''London Fields'']], on which Amis worked as a scriptwriter, suffered from a problematic production process and was critically and commercially unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite web |last=McClintock |first=Pamela |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-amber-heards-london-fields-bombs-at-record-low-160k-1155714 |work=The Hollywood Reporter |title=Box Office: Star-Studded 'London Fields' Bombs With $160K, Near-Record Worst for a Wide Release |date=28 October 2018 |access-date=11 January 2019 |archive-date=28 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181028223011/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-amber-heards-london-fields-bombs-at-record-low-160k-1155714 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Amis's 1991 novel, the short ''[[Time's Arrow (novel)|Time's Arrow]]'', was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]]. Notable for its backwards narrative, including dialogue in reverse, the novel is the autobiography of a [[Nazi concentration camp]] doctor. The reversal of the [[arrow of time]] in the novel, a technique borrowed from [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[Slaughterhouse 5]]'' (1969) and [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''[[Counter-Clock World]]'' (1967), is a narrative style that itself functions in Amis's hands as commentary on the [[Nazis]]' rationalisation of death and destruction as forces of creation with the resurrection of [[Nordic mythology]] in the service of German nation-building.<ref name="Harris1999">{{cite journal |last1=Harris |first1=Greg |title=Men Giving Birth to New World Orders: Martin Amis's "Time's Arrow" |journal=Studies in the Novel |year=1999 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=489–505 |jstor=29533359 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533359 |issn=0039-3827 |access-date=20 May 2023 |archive-date=20 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520215840/https://www.jstor.org/stable/29533359 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''The Information'' (1995) was notable not so much for its critical success, but for the scandals surrounding its publication. The enormous advance of £500,000 (almost US$800,000) demanded and subsequently obtained by Amis<ref name="Sheppard1995">{{cite magazine |last1=Sheppard |first1=R. Z. |title=Sour Grapes, Bad Teeth |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,982884,00.html |access-date=21 May 2023 |magazine=Time |date=1 May 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521002428/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0%2C33009%2C982884%2C00.html |archive-date=21 May 2023}}</ref><ref name="Lyall1995">{{cite news |last1=Lyall |first1=Sarah |title=The New York Times: Book Review Search Article |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/01/home/amis-bigdeal.html |access-date=21 May 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=31 January 1995 |archive-date=21 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521032252/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/01/home/amis-bigdeal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> for the novel attracted what the author described as "an [[Eisteddfod]] of hostility" from writers and critics<ref name="Leith2014">{{cite news |last1=Leith |first1=Sam |title=Why we love to hate Martin Amis |newspaper=The Guardian |date=15 August 2014 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/love-to-hate-martin-amis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815152958/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/love-to-hate-martin-amis |archive-date=15 August 2014}}</ref> after he abandoned his long-serving agent, [[Pat Kavanagh (agent)|Pat Kavanagh]], to be represented by the Harvard-educated [[Andrew Wylie (literary agent)|Andrew Wylie]].<ref name="McGrath2007">{{cite news |last1=McGrath |first1=Charles |title=The Amis Inheritance |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22amises.t.html |access-date=21 May 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=22 April 2007 |archive-date=12 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912050722/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22amises.t.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The split was by no means amicable; it created a rift between Amis and his long-time friend, [[Julian Barnes]], who was married to Kavanagh. According to Amis's autobiographical collection ''[[Experience (book)|Experience]]'' (2000), he and Barnes had not resolved their differences.<ref>Amis, Martin, ''Experience'' (2000), {{pp.|247–249}}.</ref> ''The Information'' itself deals with the relationship between a pair of British writers of fiction: one, a spectacularly successful purveyor of "airport novels", is envied by his friend, an equally unsuccessful writer of philosophical and generally abstruse prose.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Carl |title=Meet the elite who hit the million mark |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/meet-the-elite-who-hit-the-million-mark-20120710-21tm6.html |access-date=22 May 2023 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=11 July 2012 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522052649/https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/meet-the-elite-who-hit-the-million-mark-20120710-21tm6.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Amis's 1997 short novel ''[[Night Train (novel)|Night Train]]'' is narrated by Mike Hoolihan, a tough woman detective with a man's name. The story revolves around the suicide of her boss's young, beautiful, and seemingly happy daughter. ''Night Train'' is written in the language of American '[[Noir fiction|noir]]' crime fiction, but subverts expectations of an exciting investigation and neat, satisfying ending.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stolarek |first1=Joanna |title=Martin Amis's Night Train: a Pastiche of the Classical Detective Story or Hard-Boiling Metaphysics? |journal=Anglica Debating Literature and Culture |year=2009 |volume=17 |pages=139–151 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280558687 |quote=Night Train does not conform to the standards of the crime novel due to the absence of crime and a genuine culprit. |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616131040/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280558687_Martin_Amis's_Night_Train_a_Pastiche_of_the_Classical_Detective_Story_or_Hard-Boiling_Metaphysics |url-status=live }}</ref> Many reviewers subjected it to negative criticism, e.g., [[John Updike]] "hated" it, but others such as Jason Crowley writing in ''[[Prospect (magazine)|Prospect]]'' have applauded his attempt to write in an American idiom<ref name="Cowley1997">{{cite magazine |last1=Cowley |first1=Jason |author-link=Jason Cowley (journalist)|title=Fictional failure |url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/55440/fictional-failure |access-date=22 May 2023 |magazine=Prospect |date=20 December 1997 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522035041/https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/55440/fictional-failure |archive-date=22 May 2023}}</ref> and Beata Piątek wanted "to discuss ''Night Train'' as more than a clumsy spoof detective story and argue that it is an intellectual and intertextual joke that Amis plays on the critics who compare him with the American writers and criticise him for his sexist portrayal of women."<ref name="Piątek2004">{{cite book |last1=Piątek |first1=Beata |editor1-last=Mazur |editor1-first=Zygmunt |editor2-last=Richard |editor2-first=Utz |title=Homo Narrans: Texts and Essays in Honor of Jerome Klinkowitz |date=2004 |publisher=Jagiellonian University Press |page=158 |url=https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/277155/piatek_bullshit_tv_conversations_or_intertextuality_in_night_train_2004.pdf |chapter=Bullshit TV Conversations' or Intertextuality in Night Train |access-date=22 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522043941/https://ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstream/handle/item/277155/piatek_bullshit_tv_conversations_or_intertextuality_in_night_train_2004.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The novel found other defenders too, notably in Janis Bellow, wife of Amis's mentor and friend [[Saul Bellow]].<ref>{{cite journal|first=Janis Freedman|last=Bellow|url=https://martinamisweb.com/pre_2006/jfntreview.htm|title=Second Thoughts on ''Night Train''|journal=The Republic of Letters|volume=4|date=May 1998|pages=25–29|access-date=21 May 2023|archive-date=21 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230521084220/https://martinamisweb.com/pre_2006/jfntreview.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> It was adapted for the cinema in 2018 as ''[[Out of Blue]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bradshaw |first1=Peter |title=Out of Blue review – Carol Morley |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/08/out-of-blue-review-carol-morley |access-date=22 May 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian |date=8 September 2018 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616131040/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/sep/08/out-of-blue-review-carol-morley |url-status=live }}</ref>