In a street thick with smoke, looters smash their way into a local
shop, steal whisky and beer. One man grabs a packet of cereal, another
runs off laughing with four bottles of whisky. Out on the street many
are pushing shopping carts full of stolen goods down the street.
London was woken out of bed with reports of such scenes on the night
of August 7, 2011. The cops called it copy-cat criminal activity.
Local leaders dissociated their communities from the “hooligans and greedy criminals”.
As the dust began to settle, one thing became clear, these were
unrestrained youth, as young as 10, with complete disregard for
authority and fearlessness of the outcome.
Lionel Asbo, the central character of Martin Amis’ eponymous novel, is
also the product of London’s underclass that became conspicuous in the
aftermath of the August riots. Lionel gets his first restraining orders
at the age of three and takes up ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) as
his proud title, in place of the family name Pepperdine.
Shaven-headed Asbo is a 21-year-old violent criminal with a penchant for
pitbulls and a complete contempt for the law; someone who takes pride
in being stupid on purpose. He serves time off and on offences mostly
related to extortion and stolen property.
Asbo’s prime concern is the “morals” of his mother Grace Pepperdine.
Grace, who had a “mischievous” youth, was a mother of seven by the age
of 19. Of all her children no two had the same father except Asbo and
Cilla, who were therefore called twins. A grandmother at 39, Grace is
having an affair and Asbo gets the wind of it. He wants to dig out who
it is and “deal” with him. “Noises”, “groans” and “giggles” are reported
from Grace’s apartment. One of the most frequent visitor’s to her house
is her grandson, Cilla’s son and Asbo’s protégé Desmond and Asbo asks
him to keep on a lookout.
Terrified Desmond is guilty of incestuous relationship with his
grandmother. Asbo corners Rory Nightingale, a younger schoolmate of
Desmond for having a fling with Grace. Rory goes missing and nothing is
heard of him again. Desmond lives the rest of the story in fear of the
day Asbo finds out about him and Gran, particularly when she slips into
dementia and starts babbling about her various relationships.
Lionel Asbo: Sate of England is Amis’ 13th novel.
Set up in a fictional London borough called Diston where no one lives
beyond 60, the novel is as much a satire on London’s underbelly as on
the celebrity-obsessed society. Amis is best known for his 1984 novel
Money: A Suicide Note which is about the debut film venture of John
Self, a slob and constantly drunk director. Among other things, Self is a
consumer of pornography and prostitutes much like Asbo who uses his Mac
only for watching porn and tries to inculcate these “values” in his
nephew: “With the Mac you can have three new bunk-ups every day — by
using your imagination”. Sexual revolution, spiritual vacuity, physical
and moral decay are some constant notes of Amis’ works. His last novel,
The Pregnant Widow, received much acclaim after a success-deprived
decade. In The Pregnant Widow Amis went back to Keith Nearing, who had
appeared in his first and much loved novel Rachel Papers.
The story of Lionel Asbo gets a twist when Asbo, who is serving time in
prison, comes to know that he has won a lottery of £140 million. With a
fortune behind, this time he secures an early exit from the jail and
checks into a high-profile hotel in Soho. While the lottery becomes his
short-cut to class jump he becomes the mandatory front-page tabloid
puller for his irreverent antics.
Gradually, as he gets wrapped in publicity concerns, he and his
glamour-model girlfriend plan abortion as an exit-strategy to sell their
break-up. His nephew, Desmond, however charts a different life
altogether. From a boy who was thrashed for watching Crimewatch (as it
asked people to tell on criminals) and encouraged to smash some windows
instead of writing poetry, Desmond grows to become a crime reporter,
gets married to his childhood sweetheart and becomes a father, much to
the dismay of his uncle.
Martin Amis’ father, the famous writer Kingsley Amis had found his son’s writing “onanistic” and liked it “sporadically”.
Martin, who has not won the Booker yet, has often cited the “taint of
heredity”. Following harsh reception of Yellow Dog (2003), Amis had
moved to Uruguay for two years. He is currently located in New York for
family reasons.
While Amis’ current novel draws an interesting array of characters,
including Asbo’s girlfriend Thernody and Grandmother Grace, the story
itself is severely emaciated. The use of language, styling of humour and
satire are Martin’s strong points but he falters for the want of
consistency as he expands his narration.
In an age when Asbo can easily watch porn on his laptop, the lottery
notice is delivered at his home in a letter and milk is still delivered
in bottles at the door step. Desmond’s journey to becoming a father is
stretched like the Indian soaps programmes that pause and zoom in on
expression with the sole purpose of delaying the climax. Though, Asbo
himself is a master character, you only wish that Amis had not
digressed.
However, what has particularly not gone down well with Amis’ London readers is the sub-title of the novel State of Nation.
Asbo is an anti-intellectual thug who breaks up weddings, beats up old
men at pubs and traumatises the syntax of his native language. His
family is severely dysfunctional and his life is without meaning or
redemption. Clearly, calling that the “State of Nation” is not kindly
looked upon, notwithstanding the fact that similar simplistic and
touristy descriptions of India are usually hailed as insightful and
often bestowed an award or two.
