this book of essays is already ancient, but i decided to give it a read regardless. visiting mrs. nabokov covers twenty years of amis' career.

naturally, the first pieces i read were his literary ones on j.g. ballard, graham greene, salman rushdie, philip larkin, isaac asimov, and anthony burgess. there's other pieces on, or including, authors: john updike, v.s. naipaul, snooker with julian barnes, poker night with david mamet, and articles on nicholas baker and v.s. pritchett.

my favourites are the articles on roman polanski (what a messed up history), kasparov vs. karpov (chess as bloodsport), and the title piece (the nabokovs are intriguing people).

amis is a charming writer, to be sure. what makes some of the pieces great is the depth of some of his relationships (he'd known many of these characters for 20 years, partly due to his father's extensive literary friendships). what makes some of the pieces lame is that he was trying quite hard in his youth to prove that he could be honest and friendly in the same piece. the other glaring commonality is his constant emphasis on discussing liquor. not surprising, i suppose, given how renowned kingsley's fondness was for the bottle.

some of this book is worth reading if you can pick it up from the library.