Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis

Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis

Lionel Asbo has just won £139,999,999.50 on the Lottery.

A horribly violent, but horribly unsuccessful criminal, Lionel’s attentions up to now have all been on his nephew, Desmond Pepperdine. He showers him with fatherly advice (‘carry a knife’) and introduces Des to the joys of internet porn. Meanwhile, Des desires nothing more than books, a girl to love and to steer clear Uncle Li’s psychotic pitbulls, Joe and Jeff.

But Lionel’s winnings are not necessarily all good news. For Des has a secret, and its discovery could unleash his uncle’s implacable vengeance.

‘One of Amis's funniest novels’ New Yorker

‘A book that looks at us, laughs at us, looks at us harder, closer, and laughs at us harder and still more savagely’ Observer

Terrific.. Both funny and serious, and (as always wth Amis) very very on-the-money' * Richard Ford *
This is classic Amis * Sunday Herald *
The novel is something of a joy...he makes the dreadful funny, the grotesque poetic * The Times *
It's a Big Mac made from filet mignon… It is a book of lovehate. It is a powershake... A book that looks at us, laughs at us, looks at us harder, closer, and laughs at us harder and still more savagely. It is every inch the novel that we all deserve. * Observer *
The broadest comedy he has ever published… Lionel is a fantastic brute… I laughed a lot. Amis’s delight in the incorrigible is genuinely Dickensian… This is a verbally inventive comedy…to be enjoyed in the same spirit as Little Britain… It’s a hoot * Evening Standard *

Martin Amis was twenty-three when he wrote his first novel, The Rachel Papers (1973). Over the next half century – in fourteen more novels, two collections of short stories, eight works of literary criticism and reportage, and his acclaimed memoir, Experience – he established himself as the most distinctive and influential prose stylist of his generation. To many of his readers, Amis was also the funniest. His intoxicating comedic gifts express a profound understanding of the human experience, particularly its most shocking cruelties, and Amis wrote with pathos and verve on an astonishing range of subjects, from masculinity and movie violence to nuclear weapons and Nazi doctors. His books, which have been translated into thirty-eight languages, provide an indelible portrait and critique of late-capitalist society at the turn of the twenty-first century. He died in 2023.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780099565680
ISBN 10	0099565684
Title	Lionel Asbo
Author	Martin Amis
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2013-06-06
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.