Martin Amis
By Damon Albarn
I didn't get into Martin Amis by choice; when I was at drama school I
auditioned for a part in The Rachel Papers and when I got down to the
last three or four I thought I'd better read the book. I didn't really
like it and I had no real desire to read anything else, until, in
1992, when Blur were doing our second tour of America, I read
London Fields and it saved me. It gave me so many new options;
I'd been quite traditional in my reading until then, stopping at
Charles Bukowski and Saul Bellow. London Fields had a massive
effect on me. It had a real sexual freedom. Keith Talent was so
English and I wanted to be him. I wanted to read everything by Martin
Amis after that. I thought Money had a kind of hedonistic
energy about it, but the only other book which really grabbed me was
Time's Arrow. I lost faith with The Information. I
didn't relate to it at all. London Fields is so funny and sexy
that you are distracted from the nihilism, but with The
Information I thought Amis had lost all his optimism. There are
two sides to Notting Hill; the good area to the east of Ladbroke
Grove, which is where Keith Talent and I live, and the area on the
west side where Martin Amis seems to have moved. And all the fuss
about the $100,000 advance stank. I think he will have to write
something really remarkable to make amends. Having said that, he
changed a small part of my life for ever and in that sense he is a
great author.
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