Martin Amis: The Biography
*Starred Review* Biographies of the living can feel premature and provisional. But as one of the most controversial, virtuoso, and avidly read literary writers on the planet, Martin Amis is certainly worthy of a life-in-progress investigation. And who better to conduct it than Bradford, biographer of Martin’s father, the notoriously freewheeling and womanizing Kingsley Amis, and of Kingsley’s best friend, poet Philip Larkin. Excerpts from Bradford’s extensive conversations with Martin and those who know or knew him flow like a glinting river through the landscape of the past Bradford zealously constructs, beginning with Martin’s conspicuously privileged yet alarmingly reckless bohemian childhood, failures at school, and lack of vision for his future. Bradford doesn’t clue non-British readers in on just how relentlessly the media scrutinized the Amis household, especially after Kingsley married his second wife, Elizabeth Jane Howard, joining together two photogenic literary superstars. But he does emphasize the extraordinary discipline long-floundering Martin marshaled once he decided to write. Bradford assiduously charts Martin’s rise as an audacious newspaper critic within a circle of brilliant friends that included Christopher Hitchens and Ian McEwan, chronicles the creation of his lightning-strike novels, and analyzes his much-gossiped-about personal life. Bradford’s engrossing and enlightening portrait of the man he believes is the most important British novelist of his generation will be the cornerstone for future biographies. --Donna Seaman