Style Over Substance John A Dern. Martians, Monsters & Madonna: Fiction and Form in the World of Martin Amis Peter Lang, 2000 [Book Review]

I would like to start by saying that I am always happy to see extended criticism of contemporary authors published. As a fan of contemporary British fiction in particular, I was eager to read John Dern's recent volume dealing with the work of Martin Amis. To date, Amis has been the subject of relatively few extended volumes of criticism, which seems surprising when we consider that Amis has been one of a select group of authors – including Ian McEwan, Graham Swift, Salman Rushdie and Julian Barnes – at the forefront of British literature for the past few decades.