Martin Amis has become another soldier in a war against the sub-species known as “Brooklyn Hipsters.”
The London Evening Standard has a new piece about the British author and his apparent attitude toward the young and disaffected.
According to their mysterious source, the writer finds Brooklyn “terribly transactional.”
“He views the Brooklyn hipster scene as Read More
New York Times book critic Dwight Garner has no kind words for Martin Amis: The Biography by Richard Bradford. But if Mr. Garner did not enjoy the reading experience, which he described as ”like watching a moose try to describe a leopard, using only its front hooves,” well, he sure seemed to enjoy panning it.
The biography “is mortifying in its dullness and lack of instinctive feeling for its subject.” Part of this is due to Mr. Bradford’s writing. Read More
A mediocre book by Martin Amis is better than most books by anyone else, but unfortunately, a bad book by Martin Amis is just as bad as any other bad book. And Lionel Asbo (Knopf, 255 pp. $25.95) is a bad book.
The mention on the cover of Mr. Amis’s previous masterworks—Money and London Fields—does Lionel Asbo no favors by calling to mind its better-realized predecessors. As in those books, the protagonist is a morally bankrupt, misogynistic menace to society—which for Mr. Amis is a promising start. Unfortunately, Asbo reads like a first draft of an Amis novel, before the linguistic pyrotechnics, trenchant wit and cosmopolitan insight have made it in. Read More
The Observer put down our book last Saturday and ventured out to Gardiner Farm for the eighth annual Authors Night at the East Hampton Library. By the time we arrived, a plethora of library patrons—evidently undeterred by the cloudy skies—swarmed the tent in hopes of chatting up their favorite writers.
Hosted by library benefactors Alec Baldwin and Barbara Goldsmith, the reception boasted a guest list of more than 100 authors—everyone from the former Real Housewife of New York Kelly Killoren Bensimon, author of the “supermodel diet” book I Can Make You Hot, to the esteemed Lyndon Johnson biographer Robert Caro. Literary aficionados of all breeds meandered between tables with plastic cups of wine, accumulating stacks of personally inscribed hardcovers.
Sitting beside a large pile of copies of his second autobiography, Dick Cavett appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the attention of a throng of admirers and photographers. As we approached, he spontaneously grabbed both sides of our head and pulled us in for a dramatic kiss on the cheek. “I just wanted to give the photographer a thrill,” he whispered, a gleam in his eye. Read More
![[Photo via McNally Jackson]](http://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/xyhuz.jpg?w=112)
How did Border’s die? “When Borders declared bankruptcy in February, more than 200 of its 400 outlets were still ‘highly profitable,’ says its final chief executive officer, Mike Edwards.” [BusinessWeek]
Martin Amis’s biography might be badly written, but this review is excellent. [FT]
More thoughts on Q.R. Markham. Is it pastiche? A collage? Or plagiarism? [New Yorker]
Morris Philipson, who directed the University of Chicago Press for 30 years, has died. [Chicago Tribune] Read More
Amis.
Slate follows up on our guide to Brooklyn for Martin Amis, offering the novelist more tips about crime, medical facilities, traffic and places to play tennis:
Amis will shortly turn 62, meaning that he will be, in the eyes of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, a Read More
“Rachel has nothing to do with me,” Gully Wells informed The Observer, on the phone from London. She was referring to Rachel Noyce, the tall, black-haired haired crush object in The Rachel Papers, Martin Amis’s debut novel, which is conspicuously dedicated to her.
Ms. Wells, 60, is best known for her decade-long, on-and-off love affair Read More
On Monday night, I was on 10th Avenue talking to the biological granddaughter of Brooklyn literary lioness Paula Fox. I asked her if she read Martin Amis. “I like Money,” said Courtney Love, sitting on a bench and smoking a cigarette outside a film premiere after-party. “I like John Self in Money,” she said. “I Read More
As The Observer reported last December, British novelist Martin Amis is packing up, crossing the pond, and shacking up in Cobble Hill. But how will the author of Money, son of Kingsley and drinking pal of Hitch find out about all those hip hot spots surrounding his new digs?
Always servicey, Vantiy Fair Read More
Martin Amis hasn’t just written the novels every Brooklynite pretends he or she can write. The BroBrit also just nabbed the brownstone every dweller wishes he or she had.
His new 5,300-square-foot brownstone is 22 feet wide by 60 feet deep and is currently configured as separate apartments. It features restored pine plank floors, tin ceilings and marble mantels, Read More
