Martin Amis, Lionel Asbo: State of England

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Jun 2012

Places

United Kingdom (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Lionel Asbo: State of England

is Martin Amis’s thirteenth novel and its title character joins John Self, of

Money

(1984), and Keith Talent of

London Fields

(1989), in that gallery of gargantuan grotesques for which Amis is particularly known. Like Self and Talent, Lionel can be seen to embody wider social developments, and the subtitle of this novel emphasizes his emblematic quality: in some sense he stands for the degraded “state of England”. Amis had previously used this phrase as the title of one of the short stories collected in

Heavy Water

(1998); that story’s uncouth protagonist, Mal Bale, suffers some similar social humiliations to Lionel when he encounters the upper classes. But Lionel is more monstrous than Mal.

The epigraphs to parts one, two and three of Lionel Asbo play

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3154 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Lionel Asbo: State of England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 June 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34649, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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