Walter Amis

Gary Wills said "You can't be a writer without having a favorite writer" and as I am writing to you now, that means I must, so allow me to declare that my favorite living author is the incomparable Martin Amis.

The son of one of the great British writers of the 20th century, Sir Kingsley Amis (We miss you Kings!), Martin Amis (hereafter referred to as Amis) relocated from London to NYC several years ago and is still active in writing both fiction and non-fiction, articles and teaching.

Amis is a master of the lived experience. The ironies, insecurities and understated epiphanies of ordinary lives make for the most engaging subjects of his artful writing. There is really nothing I could do here but gush and that becomes unattractive all too quickly, so let me summate in brutalist terms.

His early novels are novels of the 70's and they can be a bit 'British' to an American eye without point of reference of European and British society of then. His later work becomes hyper intelligent when he branches into non fiction and his novels from the 80's on are all international hits.

His most recent work was a love story of two concentration camp guards during WWII. Yep, that's right. You didn't read this incorrectly, he is so good that he can tap dance on razor blades.

My favorite novel of his is "The Information" from 1995, which before my divorce I had a signed copy of from when he came on book tour to Raleigh, NC. In his memoir, "Experience", Amis delivers a wonderful line about how a true fans hand shakes when they meet an author and I barked in laughter when reading it as mine sure did when I had my moment to meet him.

It's worth mentioning that Amis is part of the legendary set of great intellectual giants in writing of the last forty years that includes Ian McEwan, Christopher Hitchens, Salman Rushdie and Julian Barnes among many others (Oh how I dream of having been a fly on the wall at any of their dinners or parties), Amis is also married to the wonderful novelist Isabelle Fonseca (more about her and the rest of the aforementioned authors in later installments as I treasure them all). Amongst all this brilliance, Amis defines what I enjoy and admire most modern fiction.