On paper, the deaths of Martin Amis and Cormac McCarthy might appear to have little in common. The former was a self-consciously “literary” Englishman, who may have made America his last home, but remained the quintessential Brit abroad, happy to offer his (often incendiary) opinions on any matter under the sun, whether literary, cultural or social.
McCarthy, who has died at the age of 89, was Amis’s polar opposite in virtually every regard: taciturn of style while Amis was verbose, reclusive while the younger man was pathologically sociable, and someone who largely kept his opinions and thoughts to himself.
