Something like this: "The foundational literary principle is decorum, which means something like the opposite of its dictionary definition: 'behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety' (i.e., submission to an ovine consensus). In literature, decorum means the concurrence of style and content—together with a third element which I can only vaguely express as earning the right."

Later, when Amis describes Saul Bellow's biographer Zachary Leader as "respectful but unintimidated, balanced but never anodyne", whose "literary criticism, like his prose, is unfailingly stylish and acute", he could be fairly describing himself.

One of the strongest pieces in this collection shows Amis the explorer making a foray into the porn film industry in California. It could so easily be a condescending item about the grotesqueries of various "others" and shock value in abundance on low hanging branches.

But Amis encounters a truly remarkable porn star, a woman he finds to be admirable and worthy of respect, moreso than most people described in this book. She describes herself as a prostitute, because she looked the word up in the dictionary and recognized her profession: exchanging sex for money.

At the end of his journey, however, Amis decides, "not quite. Prostitution is the oldest profession; and market-driven porno is, perhaps, the newest profession. You are more like a gladiator: a contemporary gladiator. Of course, the gladiators were slaves—but some of them won their freedom. And you, I think, will win yours".

This is a rallying cry not so much for the reader but for the subject; though I expect readers also to feel elevated and inspired by it.

And this is why these particular Amis books are so rewarding. He travels the world and considers people whose lives and existence I hadn't even had notions of. He can bring a sympathetic eye to a Trump rally, a movie star, a destitute, paralyzed mass-murderer in a South American slum.

But he's never swept away. Just as Nabokov's genius won't blind his critical vision, his understanding of the reasons people might commit horrible acts does not lead him to a placid acceptance of those actions.

We can disagree with Amis about anything. But I never doubt his effort, his sincerity and his honesty. He makes large swathes of the world and its denizens understandable because he makes himself understandable.

Does that sound like an easy thing to do? I don't think it is. We all stand to gain by trying it, though, and this is a dazzling result of that process.