[1] The novel is based on Amis's experience as a script writer on the feature film Saturn 3, a Kirk Douglas vehicle.

Self is an archetypal hedonist and slob: he is usually drunk, and an avid consumer of pornography and prostitutes; he eats too much; above all, encouraged by Goodney, he spends too much.

Self returns to London before filming begins, revealing more of his humble origins, his landlord father Barry (who makes his contempt for his son clear by invoicing him for every penny spent on his upbringing) and pub doorman Fat Vince.

Felix, a bellhop, helps Self to escape from an angry mob in the hotel lobby and fly back to England, only to discover that Barry is not his real father.

He is an arrogant character, and Self is not afraid to express his rather low opinion of Amis, such as the fact that he earns so much yet "lives like a student".

The novel ends with Fat John having lost all his money (if it ever existed), yet he is still able to laugh at himself and is cautiously optimistic about his future.

Amis said of his work "Money makes a break from the English tradition of sending a foreigner abroad in that (a) John Self is half American, and (b) as a consequence cannot be scandalized by America.

"[4] In 2010 David Lipsky, in Time, called Amis's book "the best celebrity novel I know: the stars who demand and wheedle their way across his plot seem less like caricature and more like photorealism every year.