Hearing the sad news of Martin Amis' death I stopped work and went to my favourite bar for lunch and a beer mourning our loss.
Not a week goes by without hearing of a celebrities death and while most don't affect me Amis' death did. His death was the death of a comrade, of a fellow writer, and a great one at that. It is also the death of an age.
In my youth I dead five books of Amis. 'The Rachel Papers', 'Dead Babies', 'Einstein's Monsters', 'Time's Arrow' and 'Success'. I found him to be an incredibly resourceful writer, an impeccable stylist, a contrarian, and enormously gifted at the craft of writing.
His construction of his books is ingenious, playing games with the reader and indulging in dark humour wickedly. As to his style he wouldn't be who he was without Saul Bellow and Vladimir Nabokov, both highly stylised writers. He was truly modern who wrote about taxi cabs and junk food, the Americanisation of Britain and ASBOS.
Some people attribute Amis' talent to his famous novelist father Kingsley Amis, writer of 'Lucky Jim', but I think it would be more accurate to his his work as of his own making, though takingly similar themes as Kingsley in a different way.
I've yet to read his most famous work 'Money', something which I am looking forward to as it was been quite a while since I have read anything by him.
So to Martin I raise a glass and say thanks for the enjoyment you gave me.
