Nah, Nope, Not Quite

In what is sure to be a gossipy little dust-up in literary circles, Iraq War supporter Leon Wieseltier of the New Republic panned Martin Amis’s new book about Islam and Terrorism.

The subtitle of the book alone, September 11: Terror and Boredom, betrays a kind of adolescent superciliousness that is likely to prevent most people, myself foremost among them, from reading it, never mind taking it seriously.

The great NY Times critic Michiko Kakutani slammed it too.

Here’s my two-bit psychological analysis on Amis: This book is simply a response to the fact that his good friend, the corpulent blowhard Christopher Hitchens, has become more popular in American (and Brit?) intellectual circles. He’s feeling left behind, so he’s taking a stab at a “brave” and possibly “shocking” position, with the hope of rebuilding his street cred.

Of course, the fact that his dad was the legendary writer Kingsley Amis never helps. Why doesn’t everybody love me the most?