Lionel Asbo: State of England: A Novel

A wickedly funny, grotesquely exaggerated portrait of modern Britain, as seen through the rise of one of Amis’s most outrageous characters.

In the brutal concrete landscape of Diston Town, teenage Des Pepperdine is doing his best to stay invisible—reading poetry, avoiding trouble, and nursing a dangerous secret. But his guardian, Lionel Asbo, is a ferocious presence: a pit-bull-breeding, tabloid-devouring career criminal with a gift for violence and a hatred of books. When Lionel wins the l...