Book Review: The Rub of Time

The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump: Essays and Reportage, 1986-2016 by Martin Amis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I first read Amis in the 90s where his influence was everywhere. I haven't kept up on his recent novels, but still try to check out his nonfiction. Suffice to say, he's still the sharpest man alive on the planet to put pen to paper.

This was done well. As a collection of his journalism, this is all likely out there on the web anyway. However, I do like that it gathered things in small groups, so it never got bogged down. It also sprinkled in some Q&A that he did, so it felt like a small interview. It kept everything light.

Amis will always be tied to certain writers and be asked to write about others who share his Century. They all show up here- Bellow, Updike, and Roth, Hitchens, Nabokov, Burgess, Jane Austen. I found particularly illuminating his pieces of Larkin and Ballard. His book reviews read like mini-biographies. Real insight in Ballard's writing by examining his early books, but also insight on the man himself. As far as Larkin, a thorough reading of the poet (and his life) who has been re-evaluated and re-re-evaluated.

Amis points out that literature criticism is the only medium where you use the same media to criticize. You don't sing about a song to review it. You don't paint a picture or sculpt to criticize art.

Although it is lit-heavy, the 'reportage' is often the most interesting part of the book. In 2011, he flew to Iowa to see the candidates run for the caucus. Amis is razor sharp with another view of political writing we often don't see.

He attends a Trump rally in Ohio, goes to visit drug lords in Colombia, and digs deep into the recent history of Iran. He pens a piece of Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn that seems insightful and accurate to this American reader.

The piece on Travolta is an appreciation of one of America's greatest artists as written by someone who never saw Battlefield Earth. How would Amis have known? It was written after the double impact of Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction. That view may not have particularly aged well.

Amis goes to a porn set in 2001 for some prurient matter. With deference to Amis, I am not sure that there is much here but a few clever one offs. At the very least, it seems dated from a pre-Pornhub world.

His essay on tennis (and its clever rejoinder there's no interesting people named Tim) perhaps has aged better. Why do we idolize these tennis champion men who behave abhorrently like little boys.

Overall, Amis proves he's still the best writer on the planet. The weaker pieces are pushed towards the end, but there a handful of essays here that should be proof enough of his talent.



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