Goading the Enemy

Martin Amis has always courted controversy. From dramatic feuds with fellow writers Christopher Hitchens and Julian Barnes to his stormy relationship with his father, Kingsley, the 57-year-old Amis has been vilified as much as he's been celebrated. While working on his latest book, "House of Meetings," about life in the Soviet gulags, he's also been writing on

controversial subjects like Islamism, terrorism and the war against it, as well as what he believes is a decline of morals in a post 9/11 world. NEWSWEEK's Silvia Spring spoke to Amis last week. Excerpts:

Spring: You recently wrote a fictional story about Muhammad Atta's last day on Earth. What drew you to him as a character?

Amis: His face, so rich and malevolent that it haunted me.

In the story you describe jihad as the most charismatic idea of Atta's generation. Do you really believe this?

It's self-evidently true. You're always onto a winner if you can persuade people they can be righteous and violent at the same time. Nothing beats that. Officially sanctioned violence is unimprovable. And with this paradise which they've stirred into the mix--whereby with an act of mass murder, you gain the keys--you've got a very attractive idea. Also, it gives the "nobody" a chance to play a decisive role in world history, and there are lots of people who are going to be drooling at the thought of that.