INTERVIEW | Martin Amis

MEET Mr. Nice Guy

Chatting up an older, more philosophical Martin Amis.

By ANDREA HOAG

Special to The Star

ISABEL FONSECA Martin Amis: Age seems to be bringing him a bit more grace.

It’s easy to be afraid of Martin Amis.

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Conscious or not, given Amis’ recent exploration into all things Russian, it’s no surprise that he names Vladimir Nabokov to his pantheon of literary heroes.

“It’s actually not a good idea to be too influenced by the great geniuses,” Amis confided. “Particularly with Nabokov, there have been many attempted homage novels, but you just can’t carry off that very snooty, very clever, haughty voice of his. Especially when he is giving in to cruelty, as in his early novels. … And he’s a wonderful writer about cruelty. … Lolita is an incredibly cruel novel. And he wasn’t a cruel man at all, but that was almost his best voice.”

Amis himself has a great deal to teach about “voice,” a fact richly evident in his book of terrifically funny essays and literary criticism, The War Against Cliché.

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“With a novel, you reveal yourself as a sort of social, sexual, emotional being. … You lay yourself wide open.”