Books & Books, Coral Gables . August 26, 2012. 6:00 p.m.
Lionel Asbo, a terrifying yet weirdly loyal thug (self-named after England’s notorious Anti-Social Behaviour Order), has always looked out for his ward and nephew, the orphaned Desmond Pepperdine. He provides him with fatherly career advice (always carry a knife, for example) and is determined they should share the joys of pit bulls (fed with lots of Tabasco sauce), Internet porn, and all manner of more serious criminality. Des, on the other hand, desires nothing more than books to read and a girl to love (and to protect a family secret that could be the death of him). But just as he begins to lead a gentler, healthier life, his uncle – once again in a London prison – wins £140 million in the lottery and upon his release hires a public relations firm and begins dating a cannily ambitious topless model and “poet.” Strangely, however, Lionel’s true nature remains uncompromised while his problems, and therefore also Desmond’s, seem only to multiply.
Martin Louis Amis is the author of eleven previous novels, the memoir Experience, and two collections of stories and six of nonfiction, most recently The Second Plane. He was the Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester until 2011. The Times named him in 2008 as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Amis’s raw material is what he sees as the absurdity of the postmodern condition and the excesses of late-capitalist Western society with its grotesque caricatures. He has thus been portrayed as the undisputed master of what The New York Times called “the new unpleasantness.” Influenced by Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov and James Joyce, as well as by his father, Kingsley Amis, he has inspired a generation of writers with his distinctive style.
Free tickets are required for this event and are available, while supplies last, at Books & Books in Coral Gables, Miami Beach and Bal Harbour Shops.
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
305.442.4408
www.booksandbooks.com
Be the first to comment