Martin Amis Amis's work centres on the excesses of late-capitalist Western society, whose perceived absurdity he often satirises through grotesque caricature; he has been portrayed as a master of what "The New York Times" called "the new unpleasantness". Inspired by Saul Bellow, Vladimir Nabokov, and James Joyce, as well as by his father Kingsley Amis, Amis himself has gone on to influence many successful British novelists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including Will Self and Zadie Smith. Amis was born in Oxford, England. His father, noted English novelist Sir Kingsley Amis, was the son of a mustard manufacturer's clerk
Kingsley Amis religious views is perhaps summed up in a response, reported in his "Memoirs", to the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko's question, in his broken English: "You atheist?" Amis replied, "It's more that I hate Him." During this time, Amis had not turned completely away from the comedic realism of "Lucky Jim" and "Take a Girl Like You". "I Want It Now" (1968) and "Girl, 20" (1971) both depict the "swinging" atmosphere of London in the late 1960s, in which Amis certainly participated, though neither book is strictly autobiographical. "Girl, 20", for instance, is framed in the world of classical (and pop)