Much amiss between father and son
The Age, February 14, 2009

There was bitter rivalry between Kingsley and Martin Amis, Jane Sullivan writes.

KINGSLEY Amis was once reading a novel by his son Martin, and became so angry that he flung the book across the room.
What got him so furious, apparently, was that the author had used his own name for a character. That, he thought, was breaking the contract with the reader that there should be no fooling around with reality.
I suspect other reasons for his reaction. The fraught relationship between the father and son novelists has been much discussed and written about, not least by the son in his memoir, Experience. It's full of all those archetypal battles: the kid challenging Dad on his own ground, trying to surpass him. You get the whiff of testosterone, the clash of horns, the pawing of the dust. Kingsley was a real bastard of a bull.

So it's interesting to see Martin Amis' comments on the relationship in the newly released Volume III of the splendid Paris Review Interviews with eminent writers.

In the interview (the result of several meetings with Francesca Riviere that began in 1990, long before Amis wrote Experience), there's not much evidence of testosterone, or horns, or dust. Amis is honest but also generous and gently humorous about his father's response to his writing — even though it must have been deeply hurtful.

Read Sullivan's full piece at The Age online.