Slumming it with Martin Amis

Not even Martin Amis’ worst enemies — and the British novelist has plenty of them, judging from the polarized and occasionally splenetic reaction to his latest outing, “Lionel Asbo: State of England” — would ever accuse him of being a neo-Victorian. From his great London trilogy (“Money,” “London Fields” and “The Information,” published between 1984 and 1995) to more recent efforts such as “The Pregnant Widow” (2010), Amis has surfed the zeitgeist, satirizing contemporary British mores in a way his readers tend to experience as unfailingly fresh and up-to-the-minute.

By Kevin Nance

August 17, 2012