Ever since I first discovered London Fields back in a college lit class, I’ve had a pretty intense love-hate relationship with the English author Martin Amis. When he’s creating characters like the sexy, witty murderee Nicola Six in London Fields (full disclosure: I totally looked up to her when I was 20) or giving me headaches while I try to work out the backwards timeline of Time’s Arrow, he’s among the best postmodern novelists out there—but he’s also my first fave author who’s written a book that I just couldn’t finish (ahem, Money). His new novel, Lionel Asbo: State of England is, thankfully, equal parts hypnotic, hilarious, and, in typical Amis style, pretty darn disturbing (there’s some, as they say, granny shagging within the first few pages). I caught the new Cobble Hill resident’s reading at Books Beneath the Bridge recently, and it’s an experience I highly recommend. He’ll be at BookCourt this Monday celebrating the official release of Lionel Asbo with a reading and signing. –C.A.
