From: stephenjones
Category: Amis
Date: 7/14/99
Time: 10:23:50 AM
Remote Name: 130.159.248.35
Found this on the Electronic Telegraph <<http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=001737581256585&rtmo=VZukx5ux&atmo=YYYYYYYp&pg=/et/95/1/6/amis.html>>
[I particularly enjoyed their latent sexism in describing Isobel Fonseca as an heiress rather than a writer, and their suggestion that Amis is money obsessed, journalists dotcha just love em?]
Martin Amis
MARTIN AMIS, 45, thought by many to be the most influential of his generation of British authors, is not a modest man. But then, he has little reason to be: his books, especially Money and London Fields with their laddish yet learned style, have inspired many imitators.
Yet, despite his critical success, both the Booker Prize and large advances have eluded his grasp.
His recent split with his wife, Antonia Phillips, and two young sons, has increased his appetite for money: his new girlfriend, the heiress Isobel Fonseca, recently persuaded him to spend a rumoured £20,000 on having his teeth redone.
Yet Amis fans find his emphasis on cash ironic. In Money, a satire on Eighties greed, he wrote: "Maybe money is the great conspiracy, the great fiction. The great addiction too: we're all addicted and we can't break the habit now. You just can't kick it, that junk, even if you want to. You can't get the money monkey off your back."