New Amis collection rubs readers up the right way

ssay: The Rub of Time, By Martin Amis, Random House, €17.25

Martin Amis Pic: Sandro Baebler

Essay: The Rub of Time, By Martin Amis, Random House, €17.25

Literature, in Gustave Flaubert’s superb phrase, is “the perpetual orgy”. Books exist mainly for our delight, and contemporary literature’s greatest pleasure-giver is Martin Amis. At its best – and much of The Rub of Time is Amis at his peerless best – his work provides the readerly equivalent of a multiple orgasm that leaves you trembling at the knee and grinning dazedly.