Martin Amis was the son of three fathers—one actual parent and two literary forebears—Kingsley Amis, Vladimir Nabokov, and Saul Bellow.
From Kingsley, he inherited comedy. (Often this was low comedy. Kingsley used to tell a joke about encountering a dog whose bark sounded like the words “Fuck off.” In Martin’s novel “Lionel Asbo,” there are two dangerous dogs who bark in exactly that way, only doubled: “Fuckoff! Fuckoff!”)
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