Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, the author

of many novels including Money (1984) and London Fields (1989). He is currently
Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of
Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year. 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 Sir Kingsley Amis, he has
inspired a generation of writers with his distinctive style, including Will Self and
Zadie Smith. The Guardian writes that his critics have noted what Kingsley Amis
called a "terrible compulsive vividness in his style ... that constant demonstrating
of his command of English," and that the “Amis-ness of Amis will be recognisable
in any piece before he reaches his first full stop.”

I would like to dwell on one of his best novels Money. Money tells the story
of, and is narrated by, John Self, a successful director of commercials, who is
invited to New York by Fielding Goodney, a film producer, in order to shoot his
first film. Self is an archetypal hedonist and slob; he is usually drunk, an avid
consumer of pornography and prostitutes, eats too much and, above all, spends too
much, encouraged by Goodney.
The actors in the film, which Self originally titles “Good Money” but which he
eventually wants to re-name “Bad Money”, all have some kind of emotional issues
which clash with each other and with the parts they are asked to play — the
principal casting having already been done by Goodney. For example: the strict
Christian, Spunk Davis is asked to play a drugs pusher; the ageing hardman Lorne
Guyland has to be beaten up; the motherly Caduta Massi, who is insecure about
her body, is asked to appear in a sex scene with Lorne, whom she detests, and so
on. The character of Lorne Guyland was based on real-life Kirk Douglas.
Self is stalked by ‘Frank the Phone’ while in New York, a menacing misfit who
threatens him over the telephone, apparently because Self personifies the success
Frank was unable to attain. Self is not frightened of Frank, even when he is beaten
up while on an alcoholic bender (unable to remember how he was attacked).
Towards the end of the book Self arranges to meet Frank for a showdown, which is
the beginning of the shocking denouement. It appears that Goodney has something
to do with it, and the invitation to Self to direct a film was part of a bigger plan.
Self returns to London before filming begins, revealing more of his humble
origins, his landlord father Barry (who makes his contempt for his son clear by
invoicing him for every penny spent on his upbringing) and pub doorman Fat
Vince. Self is convinced that his London girlfriend, Selina, is having an affair with
Ossie Twain, while Self is likewise attracted to Twain’s wife in New York,
Martina. This increases Self’s psychosis and makes his final downfall even more
brutal.
There are some hilarious set pieces, such as when Self wakes to find he has
skipped an entire day in his inebriated state, the tennis match and the attempts to
change Spunk’s screen name. The writing is also full of witty one-liners and silly
names for consumer goods, such as Self’s car, the Fiasco, and the Blastfurters
which he snacks on and Butcher’s Arm, the pub.
Amis writes himself into the novel as a kind of overseer and confidant in Self’s
final breakdown. He is an arrogant character, but Self is not afraid to express his
rather low opinion of Amis, such as the fact that he earns so much yet “lives like a
student”. Amis, among others, tries to warn Self that he is heading for destruction
but to no avail. The New York bellhop, Felix, becomes Self’s only real friend in
America and finally makes Self realise the trouble he is in: “Man, you are out for a
whole lot of money.”
The novel's subtitle, "A Suicide Note", is clarified at the end of the novel. It is
revealed that Barry Self is not John Self’s father; his father is in fact Fat Vince. As
such, John Self no longer exists. Hence, in the subtitle, Amis indicates that this
cessation of John Self’s existence is analogous to suicide, which of course, results
in the death of the self.
After learning that his father is Fat Vince, John realises that his true identity is that
of Fat John, half-brother of Fat Paul. The novel ends with Fat John having lost all
his money if it ever existed, yet he is still able to laugh at himself and is cautiously
optimistic about his future.

Money is perhaps one of the earliest post-modern fiction which includes all
the characteristics of a post-modern text. While modern fiction, the 20th century
fiction till 1970, considered man as the centre of the novelist's investigation of the
world, post-modern fiction refuses to acknowledge this centre. Following the post-
structuralism theory, post-modern fiction believes that there is no centre in the
structure that the text deals with. As opposed to modernism, postmodernism sees
the world from outside, from the fringes. That's the reason why though John Self
tells his own story in the first person, he is not an omniscient narrator. We do not
know everything that is going on in his mind, or whatever is happening to him,
which is a classic situation in omniscient narration. For example, John Self does
not tell us how Barry came to raise him when John was not his son. John does not
tell us his actual relationship with Selina except the sexual ones.
In a post-modern narrative, the author often disassociates himself with the
characters. This is especially true in case of Money, where we see the narrator John
Self as an unreliable person. What is more unique about Money is that here, the
author, Martin Amis, makes an appearance as himself, and what's more, he is
introduced by the narrator. It is like telling about the self through a third person.
The remarks John Self makes about Amis not altogether good. John laughs at
Amis' poverty, his literature and so on. However, the appearance is not a gimmick.
It serves a definite purpose. Since we are dealing with a protagonist who most of
the time does not understand what's going on around him, who most of the time is
inebriated, and who is selfish to the core, the character of Martin Amis provides us
the authorial voice. He explains the meaning of John Self's behaviour. It is because
of his comments that we come to understands John's downfall.
In most parts, a post-modern novel is a 'Meta Narrative', meaning that the story is
not told in a linear manner, and there are layers and layers of the story. Apparently,
the narrative of the novel Money goes in a linear structure. It deals with the
experience of a man who is too involved with himself and the consumerism of the
time. In one sense the novel is a commentary on the growing commercialisation of
the world, where McDonald's meaning food and a Mercedes means social status,
where love, physical relationship, can be bought “over the counter” and where
human life and emotions have no values. Within these circumstances, Money is the
story of a man, who is the perfect product of this consumerism, and the novel goes
on to tell how his life comes down crashing when he begins to ignore the age-old
values and begins to chase money. It's a perfect study of greed.
Within this structure, within the tale that John Self tells us, there are other stories,
which gives us insight to not only John's but also about other characters. John has a
plot in his mind on the basic of which he wants to make a movie. The plot involves
father and son, a middle class household who fight over a packet of heroine and a
girl with whom both the father and the son sleep. He gives the story idea to Doris
Arthur. Now, Arthur, a lesbian, comes to a totally different idea about the plot.
When the star of the proposed film, Lorne Guyland, hears the plot, he comes up
with his own about the character of the father. He turns Garry, the father, into
Garfield, a rich man, a patron of art and literature and what not. He even refuses to
be beaten up by his screen son, even if the story demands it. Finally, John seeks
help of the writer Martin Amis to develop the plot. Here also the plot gets a
different treatment. Amis tells John: "The distance between the author and the
narrator corresponds to the degree to which the author finds the narrator wicked,
deluded, pitiful and ridiculous..." This is, in one sense, reflects the actual narrator,
Martin Amis' attitude towards the character of John Self.

The novel, Money is a powerful criticism against consumerism at its worse.

The modern, globalised pop culture, where everything is for sale, and where
money can buy everything, even happiness, as John Self would say, is depicted as
a shallow, lifeless world. This lifelessness is especially intensified by the fact that
John Self, the narrator tells most of the story when he is drunk. The world is seen
from the point of view of a drunken haze. It’s a world where family values are
judged in terms of money. Barry Self offers a long list of invoice asking his son to
pay every penny he had spent on his son’s upbringing. It’s a fast-paced life where
love is counted with money. Selina plots against her lover to get hold of his
money. This is a world where the ability to spend is the ultimate goal. Fielding
Goodney admonishes John for not travelling in a business class, for not spending
enough money. This is a world where money makes up for everything. As John
Self says, everything in the world is about money.

This novel gives us clear insight into the modern world, its values and vices.
All events are shown in the light of money. Money defines morals, principles and
behaviour. Reading this book you’ll see the situation similar to the real one,
happening in our society. I definitely suggest read it as you’ll get really unmatched
pleasure.