Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis
Jonathan Cape $37.99
When Britain introduced Anti-Social Behaviour Orders it was always inevitable that they would quickly become seen as badges of honour by those who revel in being on the wrong side of the law. Amis' anti-hero, Lionel Pepperdine, merely pushes this to its logical conclusion by celebrating his status as the nation's youngest recipient (at 3) of such an order and legally changing his name to Asbo.
This standard device of pursuing satire by exaggeration has a drawback, however, in that the subjects may already be beyond satire and Amis' targets of celebrity vulgarity, public squalor, unfocused rage and establishment hypocrisy are in that zone. His glamour girl-poet-all-round-celebrity Threnody is fun but hardly more preposterous than her real life inspirations.
The subtitle is "State of England" but, courtesy of fictional and reality television, we are already wearily familiar with that dystopian slice of the country Amis used to call home.
There are clearly ambitions of a Dickensian nature at work here but this is no Hard Times. The grim landscape of his London borough of Diston is bleak enough physically and spiritually but the social commentary is too well rehearsed to have the impact it should.