Publication
Vintage (1992), Edition: Reprint, 176 pages
Original publication date
1991
Collections
Subjects
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 1991)
Description
In Time's Arrow the doctor Tod T. Friendly dies and then feels markedly better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them, and mangles his patients before he sends them home. And all the while Tod's life races backward toward the one appalling moment in modern history when such reversals make sense. "The narrative moves with irresistible momentum.... [Amis is] a daring, exacting writer willing to defy the odds in pursuit of his art."--Newsday From the Trade Paperback edition.
User reviews
LibraryThing member patthebunny5000
This may sound ridiculous, but the book narrator is downright unrealistic. The fact that the narrator never realizes what is happening (i.e. time is going backwards) made it impossible for me to enjoy this book. It was short so I finished it but I could not stand the narrator.
I understand Amis was
Also the writing style is pretentious.
I understand Amis was
Show More
using the narrator as a vehicle to tell the story backwards, but the narrator (from the beginning) has an established perspective of the world. He knows what doctors are, he knows general concepts like conversation etc.. The only way for the narrator to know these things (from the beginning) is if he were to have already lived life forwards. So why does he never pick up on life flowing backwards? Additionally the author spent time "learning" backwards English, but understood backwards German immediately... really?Also the writing style is pretentious.
Show Less
LibraryThing member John
Some books sweep you up in the complexity and interactions of the characters; some impress with the lyricism of the writing; some with the mirror they hold up to infinite variety of human follies and strengths; some with their plumbing of emotional relationships; some with their take on historical
The story of the life of Tod (which means death, in German)Friendly is told backwards, from lying almost dead on a hospital table in the USA, to his time as a doctor in Auschwitz (as Odilo Unverdorben, the last name means uncorrupted/innocent), back and back to his re-entry into the womb. It is told by a narrator who is undefined: his soul…his alterego? ….some force that is alternately part of Tod’s being and an outside observer, but a force that does not foresee the unraveling of the secret to be exposed by the life lived backwards; ironically, the narrator can remember the future that is now the past, but Tod only lives in the moment and we never get inside Tod’s head. The narrator does, however, has a sense of humour as in his admission that, “I’m getting more and more tentative about cause and effect”. The “life in reverse” technique is not new, but some parts of the book are funny in a scatological way: bowel movements become progressively effective and efficient as Tod moves towards greater youth and health: some are just funny to picture as with the garbagemen distributing garbage from their trucks, and food reassembling itself from the garbage can to the mouth where it is re-assembled and deposited on the plate. But no one is going to find Tod, or the alterego, appealing characters.
So, does Amis bring new illumination, new angles of consideration to a well-told story? (“Understanding” would be too much for the Holocaust.) I think he does in a way, although it takes awhile to get to it through the rather boring reverse-reel of Tod’s post-war life. In the world of Time’s Arrow, the smoke from the crematoria funnels down into the ovens to reconstitute the bodies that are then pulled out, the gold teeth and filings re-inserted with pliers, the hair shorn back onto the head, the bodies stacked into the “showers” where they are re-animated, the people re-united with their loved ones at the trains that they then board for their reverse trip. Or a more specific example:
“Enlightenment was urged on me the day I saw the old Jew float to the surface of the deep latrine, how he splashed and struggled into life, and was hoisted out by the jubilant guards, his clothes cleansed by the mire. Then they put his beard back on.”
These are horrific images and their absurdity reinforces the horror. Similarly, the return trip of the Jews, the dismantling of the ghettos, the return of persons to their previous lives, towns, cities, even small, isolated hamlets of half-a-dozen poor huts from which they were all gathered…all of this highlights starkly the absurdity and the madness of the whole enterprise for which there is no “why?”.
At one point, the narrator notes that “Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.” And while he recognizes that it can be appealing to have, “no will, and no body anyway through which to exercise it….there is always the countervailing desire to put yourself forward, to take your stand as the valuable exception. Don’t just go along. Never just go along. Small may not be beautiful. But big is crazy.” Unfortunately, this is not true for the many, many people who make such absurdities and horrors come true: “I’ve come to the conclusion that Odilo Unverdorben, as a moral being, is absolutely unexceptional, liable to do what everybody else does, good or bad, with no limit, once under the cover of numbers.” These are not new perceptions, but they bear reminding as they are through Amis’s construct.
In the end, in fact in an afterword to the book, Amis recognizes the special feature of the Nazi killing programs (not limited to Jews, Odilio also spends time early on with the elimination of the physically and mentally handicapped):
“The offence was unique, not in its cruelty, nor in its cowardice, but in its style—in its combination of the atavistic and the modern. It was, at once, reptilian and “logistical”. And although the offence was not definingly German, its style was. The National Socialists found the core of the reptilian brain, and build an autobahn that went there. Built for speed and safety, built to endure for a thousand years, the Reichsautobahnen, if you remember, were also designed to conform to the landscape, harmoniously, like a garden path.”
Show More
moments and events. And then some books, like Time’s Arrow, can be appreciated for what it is that they try to do in illuminating, in a new way, something that has been, and continues to be, thoroughly described through histories and memoirs, an illumination that is more than just an accretion to a well-known story, in this case, the Holocaust. This is the category into which falls Time’s Arrow.The story of the life of Tod (which means death, in German)Friendly is told backwards, from lying almost dead on a hospital table in the USA, to his time as a doctor in Auschwitz (as Odilo Unverdorben, the last name means uncorrupted/innocent), back and back to his re-entry into the womb. It is told by a narrator who is undefined: his soul…his alterego? ….some force that is alternately part of Tod’s being and an outside observer, but a force that does not foresee the unraveling of the secret to be exposed by the life lived backwards; ironically, the narrator can remember the future that is now the past, but Tod only lives in the moment and we never get inside Tod’s head. The narrator does, however, has a sense of humour as in his admission that, “I’m getting more and more tentative about cause and effect”. The “life in reverse” technique is not new, but some parts of the book are funny in a scatological way: bowel movements become progressively effective and efficient as Tod moves towards greater youth and health: some are just funny to picture as with the garbagemen distributing garbage from their trucks, and food reassembling itself from the garbage can to the mouth where it is re-assembled and deposited on the plate. But no one is going to find Tod, or the alterego, appealing characters.
So, does Amis bring new illumination, new angles of consideration to a well-told story? (“Understanding” would be too much for the Holocaust.) I think he does in a way, although it takes awhile to get to it through the rather boring reverse-reel of Tod’s post-war life. In the world of Time’s Arrow, the smoke from the crematoria funnels down into the ovens to reconstitute the bodies that are then pulled out, the gold teeth and filings re-inserted with pliers, the hair shorn back onto the head, the bodies stacked into the “showers” where they are re-animated, the people re-united with their loved ones at the trains that they then board for their reverse trip. Or a more specific example:
“Enlightenment was urged on me the day I saw the old Jew float to the surface of the deep latrine, how he splashed and struggled into life, and was hoisted out by the jubilant guards, his clothes cleansed by the mire. Then they put his beard back on.”
These are horrific images and their absurdity reinforces the horror. Similarly, the return trip of the Jews, the dismantling of the ghettos, the return of persons to their previous lives, towns, cities, even small, isolated hamlets of half-a-dozen poor huts from which they were all gathered…all of this highlights starkly the absurdity and the madness of the whole enterprise for which there is no “why?”.
At one point, the narrator notes that “Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal. Only styles change.” And while he recognizes that it can be appealing to have, “no will, and no body anyway through which to exercise it….there is always the countervailing desire to put yourself forward, to take your stand as the valuable exception. Don’t just go along. Never just go along. Small may not be beautiful. But big is crazy.” Unfortunately, this is not true for the many, many people who make such absurdities and horrors come true: “I’ve come to the conclusion that Odilo Unverdorben, as a moral being, is absolutely unexceptional, liable to do what everybody else does, good or bad, with no limit, once under the cover of numbers.” These are not new perceptions, but they bear reminding as they are through Amis’s construct.
In the end, in fact in an afterword to the book, Amis recognizes the special feature of the Nazi killing programs (not limited to Jews, Odilio also spends time early on with the elimination of the physically and mentally handicapped):
“The offence was unique, not in its cruelty, nor in its cowardice, but in its style—in its combination of the atavistic and the modern. It was, at once, reptilian and “logistical”. And although the offence was not definingly German, its style was. The National Socialists found the core of the reptilian brain, and build an autobahn that went there. Built for speed and safety, built to endure for a thousand years, the Reichsautobahnen, if you remember, were also designed to conform to the landscape, harmoniously, like a garden path.”
Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
The book starts with Tod T. Friendly dying as an old man, surrounded by doctors. But then his life starts to replay backwards, watched by what seems to be a spirit living in his mind who is unaware of what happened before/will happen next. To start with the watcher finds the reversed life
Very interesting.
Show More
'counterintuitive, and faintly disgusting', but later/early in Tod's life he describes events as though it is natural for a man to be regurgitating food at each meal and for Nazis to be helping bloodied Jews up from the ground as the windows of their shops reassemble from fragments.Very interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member FredSmeegle
The narrator lives in another person's body and experiences time backwards. Sounds gimmicky, but the greatness of the novel is how it starts to disrupt the reader's own sense of time. While reading it, I found myself thinking often about how my actions appeared in reverse and a few times found
Show More
myself a little confused about the direction of normal time. Also as a consequence, Amis gets you to notice and consider everything in the book in more detail because you're always jolted out of your usual frame of reference. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheTwoDs
***SPOILERS***
Is it possible to write about one of the worst atrocities perpetuated on humanity - focusing on the worst aspects of that atrocity - from the point of view of a participant? One would expect this to become a morose, gruesome endeavour, doomed to morphing into a litany of abuses.
But
This is the premise Martin Amis brilliantly pulls off here, with full command of the language and a technical performance worthy of envy. Conversations are related backwards. Aging happens backwards. The simple act of hailing a taxi becomes a serio-comic execise in parody - the taxi is waiting for you when you come out of the restaurant, it knows where to take you, just before you get out you tell it where you have just come from, when you get out you are so appreciative of the service you stand there waving at all of the taxis for a while. Touches like this elevate what could have been a stylistic exercise in wankery to a level of art rarely reached in fiction.
Is it possible to write about one of the worst atrocities perpetuated on humanity - focusing on the worst aspects of that atrocity - from the point of view of a participant? One would expect this to become a morose, gruesome endeavour, doomed to morphing into a litany of abuses.
But
Show More
what if you told the story backwards? Start at the end of an old man's life, work backwards to the atrocities and to even earlier times.This is the premise Martin Amis brilliantly pulls off here, with full command of the language and a technical performance worthy of envy. Conversations are related backwards. Aging happens backwards. The simple act of hailing a taxi becomes a serio-comic execise in parody - the taxi is waiting for you when you come out of the restaurant, it knows where to take you, just before you get out you tell it where you have just come from, when you get out you are so appreciative of the service you stand there waving at all of the taxis for a while. Touches like this elevate what could have been a stylistic exercise in wankery to a level of art rarely reached in fiction.
Show Less
LibraryThing member NativeRoses
Startling work about the life of a Nazi doctor from a Holocaust death camp as seen by an independent intelligence within him that experiences the doctor's life and surroundings moving backwards through time. Brilliant examination of what may have been the doctor's thoughts and feelings at various
Some of the scenes that will stay with me include the 'uniting' of the Jewish families (as seen by the intelligence within the doctor) in which Jewish husbands, wives, and children transitioned from anguished despair at their separation to clinging to one another.
Extremely highly recommended.
Show More
points in his life as deciphered by the backwards moving intelligence within him. Some of the scenes that will stay with me include the 'uniting' of the Jewish families (as seen by the intelligence within the doctor) in which Jewish husbands, wives, and children transitioned from anguished despair at their separation to clinging to one another.
Extremely highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member CayenneEllis
Finished Time's Arrow by Martin Amis yesterday. Was COMPLETELY unimpressed. Ugh. In fact, I disliked it so much I didn't even bother to write an actual review. It was hard to follow, and generally uninteresting. I was not invested in the character and so I was not invested in the major pivotal plot
Still, I would not recommend this book.
3/10 - Dislike
Show More
point that I was waiting on and knew would occur early in his life and late in the book. The whole 'time told backward' narration device did NOT get any easier to keep up with, as I had hoped it would early on in the book. Dialogue was a pain especially. The only things that saved this book from a 'Hate' was that it was short, so the torture didn't last too long (although it still managed to drag) and I did enjoy the theme of hurting and healing.Still, I would not recommend this book.
3/10 - Dislike
Show Less
LibraryThing member JohnGrant1
An entity -- a soul, perhaps? -- is born into the body of naturalized US citizen Tod Friendly at the moment the latter dies of old age, and watches Tod's life lived in reverse, from this moment of death all the way back to the moment, decades earlier, when as a tiny bawling baby he is stuffed back
The telling of a tale in reverse chronology is an interesting literary conceit -- interesting in theory, anyway. In practice, it's a bit annoying and dull, which is why (so far as I know) only one other novel has been written this way: Counter-Clock World (1967) by Philip K. Dick; there may be good reason why this is one of the few Dick novels not to have been reissued over the past decade or so. (After the publication of Time's Arrow, Amis acknowledged borrowing the conceit from Dick; but he makes no mention of this in the book's Acknowledgments pages.) In the case of Time's Arrow, the thrill of seeing everyday actions being reinterpreted because done backwards wears off pretty fast, and once that happens there's not a whole lot left to be entranced by except watching how well or badly the author handles his self-imposed task. To Amis's credit, I noticed just one instance where his control of the chronology slipped (unless I'm mistaking the reference), where the narrating entity referred to something as being in the past when in fact it lay in the entity's future: p42, where the narrator's talking about a Japanese student in 1960s or 1970s America, and says, "He's lucky he wasn't here a few years ago, when we really hated the Japanese."
I read the book around this time of its first publication and remember thinking that, just as the telling of the tale backwards was a somewhat meaningless stunt, so in fact was my reading it: I got to the end of it (it's quite a short book) but felt less as if I'd read a novel or been told a story, more as if I'd got to the far end of the tightrope without falling off, and so what? I had the same feeling this time round except that the book annoyed me quite a lot more -- not just through the affectation of the literary trick but also because applying it to a piece of human history so horrific as the Auschwitz seems to me to cheapen that misery and suffering, as if to say that human torment is just something to be witty about.
Oh, yes, and it wasn't lost on me that "Tod" is the German for "death". Friendly Death. I'm not 100% sure what Amis meant to convey by that.
Show More
into his screaming mother. Along the way, we discover that Tod, under a different name, is a monster, a WWII war criminal living in the US under an assumed name: he has been one of the vile "physicians" working in Auschwitz under Mengele and, before that, with the Holocaust's major architect Christian Wirth. To the entity, however, these men and "Tod" himself aren't monsters at all but great benefactors, for do they not take shattered, mutilated men, women and children and, marvelously, render them whole?The telling of a tale in reverse chronology is an interesting literary conceit -- interesting in theory, anyway. In practice, it's a bit annoying and dull, which is why (so far as I know) only one other novel has been written this way: Counter-Clock World (1967) by Philip K. Dick; there may be good reason why this is one of the few Dick novels not to have been reissued over the past decade or so. (After the publication of Time's Arrow, Amis acknowledged borrowing the conceit from Dick; but he makes no mention of this in the book's Acknowledgments pages.) In the case of Time's Arrow, the thrill of seeing everyday actions being reinterpreted because done backwards wears off pretty fast, and once that happens there's not a whole lot left to be entranced by except watching how well or badly the author handles his self-imposed task. To Amis's credit, I noticed just one instance where his control of the chronology slipped (unless I'm mistaking the reference), where the narrating entity referred to something as being in the past when in fact it lay in the entity's future: p42, where the narrator's talking about a Japanese student in 1960s or 1970s America, and says, "He's lucky he wasn't here a few years ago, when we really hated the Japanese."
I read the book around this time of its first publication and remember thinking that, just as the telling of the tale backwards was a somewhat meaningless stunt, so in fact was my reading it: I got to the end of it (it's quite a short book) but felt less as if I'd read a novel or been told a story, more as if I'd got to the far end of the tightrope without falling off, and so what? I had the same feeling this time round except that the book annoyed me quite a lot more -- not just through the affectation of the literary trick but also because applying it to a piece of human history so horrific as the Auschwitz seems to me to cheapen that misery and suffering, as if to say that human torment is just something to be witty about.
Oh, yes, and it wasn't lost on me that "Tod" is the German for "death". Friendly Death. I'm not 100% sure what Amis meant to convey by that.
Show Less
LibraryThing member mjiko
This is the first book I've read by Martin Amis, and I found it to be self-consciously clever and frankly pretentious. It's impressive that Amis could write a story backwards, but that doesn't make it a good book. On the whole I found this generally irritating.
LibraryThing member m.a.harding
ultimately - bad taste
LibraryThing member Carmenere
Tod Friendly dies in his garden in Massachusetts not far from the Alpha and Omega of highways, Route 6. He's not really Tod Friendly though because he is really John Young, but not for long as he changes his name several times before he is born. He dies a doctor and has been for many years,
At books conclusion, I'm disheartened. Aka Tod doesn't seem to comprehend what he has done and the punishment involved with it is never realized. If all our good seems bad and all our bad appears good, what does it all mean in the end. This arrow misses the target for me and leaves me befuddled.
Show More
regardless of where or when he lived it all appears that he is a good doctor yet remember we're moving in the reverse so it all looks acceptable. The reader however knows where this is leading and mid century his career has taken him down a different path. At books conclusion, I'm disheartened. Aka Tod doesn't seem to comprehend what he has done and the punishment involved with it is never realized. If all our good seems bad and all our bad appears good, what does it all mean in the end. This arrow misses the target for me and leaves me befuddled.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dperrings
General Comments,
The book left me with more of an atmospheric feeling or mood then the telling of a story. The reverse order was confusing, because a lot of the dialog moved chronologically forward. I also felt like I had to be on guard in reading this book just to keep track (or at least attempt
Page 130 and 131- The idea of a master race.
The period of history that I think would be interesting to look at is the rise of Hitler to power and how the every day citizens of the country could get caught up and sucked in to the hole movement. And was there a defining moment when it was clear what was going on?
George Bush and the Christian Right ?
Is dogma a precursor to evil ?
Recent comments by Pat Roberts and William Bennet.
The book left me with more of an atmospheric feeling or mood then the telling of a story. The reverse order was confusing, because a lot of the dialog moved chronologically forward. I also felt like I had to be on guard in reading this book just to keep track (or at least attempt
Show More
to) of where I was at in the book. I was glad the book was short because I am not sure that I could have taken much more. The book is sort of cold and creepy.Page 130 and 131- The idea of a master race.
The period of history that I think would be interesting to look at is the rise of Hitler to power and how the every day citizens of the country could get caught up and sucked in to the hole movement. And was there a defining moment when it was clear what was going on?
George Bush and the Christian Right ?
Is dogma a precursor to evil ?
Recent comments by Pat Roberts and William Bennet.
Show Less
LibraryThing member eswnr
The only work of fiction by which I've ever been physically disoriented by reading. I was so enveloped in the method that I'd get up to get a glass of water, and I'd have to stop and think to make sure I was taking the steps in the right order. Of course, this would just be gimmickry by someone not
Show More
as brilliant as Amis - here the effect is the perfect device by which to tell the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member DrJane
I am not a fan of science fiction but I really enjoyed this book!
LibraryThing member beautyisntperfect
This is an interesting and engaging book. As you learn within the first few pages, time runs backward in this novel. I found the reversal of time really drew me into the story. Reading this book is similar to solving a puzzle, you have to remember clues to make connections because you get the
Show More
effects of something before it actually happens, which I thought was one of the best parts about reading it. Show Less
LibraryThing member evanroskos
The kind of book that bothers some people because the author's efforts are so constant and obvious, but wonderful. I still marvel at Amis's ability to write an entire novel backwards. But I also appreciate his ability to keep the book manageable. It's a book you need to learn to read and once you
***
Added: I recently re-read this book and it didn't hook itself into my brain like the last times. I'm not sure if I've gotten past the ideas and can't really appreciate it for anything else (the style and ideas are fantastic, but once those have been absorbed, there's not much else).
Show More
"get" the language, you don't want to stop. Brilliant.***
Added: I recently re-read this book and it didn't hook itself into my brain like the last times. I'm not sure if I've gotten past the ideas and can't really appreciate it for anything else (the style and ideas are fantastic, but once those have been absorbed, there's not much else).
Show Less
LibraryThing member jmoncton
This book starts out with the main character dying. The big twist is that he then lives his life backwards. Since it is the same life, he doesn't get to make any decisions, but instead observe his own life. What an interesting story! How would we judge our own lives if we lived them in reverse?
LibraryThing member William345
Second reading. Just "brill," to use the Amis argot. Highly recommended.
LibraryThing member VictoriaNH
At first I found the time moving backward sort of gimmicky, but then it became more interesting and thought provoking. It also made me slow down and ponder what I was reading. For example, a fat, dumpy druggie goes to the Vietnam war and comes back a clean-cut young man in good shape. Illustrates
Show More
points that have been done countless times before in a novel way. Show Less
LibraryThing member curious_squid
Oh Martin, you are so clever.
I am a sucker for experimental writing, and writing a narrative in reverse, might sound too gimmicky, but I found it quite such an interesting take.
The main character does seem flat and gets less like able as the book goes on, but the perspective was always thought
Overall I’d say that at times this book is funny, at times it’s dark- reallly dark.... But this is the kind of book that makes me love the 1001 list because I would have never read it on my own
I am a sucker for experimental writing, and writing a narrative in reverse, might sound too gimmicky, but I found it quite such an interesting take.
The main character does seem flat and gets less like able as the book goes on, but the perspective was always thought
Show More
provoking and compelling. Overall I’d say that at times this book is funny, at times it’s dark- reallly dark.... But this is the kind of book that makes me love the 1001 list because I would have never read it on my own
Show Less
LibraryThing member soylentgreen23
A whole book running backwards. You would think it would tire you out, but Amis keeps hold of you from finish to start, never once relinquishing his hold, as the narrator's horrible beginnings slowly become clear.
LibraryThing member deerhorne
I initially gave this book two stars, but after further thought I landed on three stars. The initial reaction was of extreme disappointment since the book started with so much potential. However, I think this story is a little better once you have time to let it all sink in--but not much
Portraying this story from end to beginning was a clever trick which has been done by other authors more successfully. The narrator in this story is simply not the best vehicle for story progression (or regression). The narrator learns more as the story moves along while the main character loses experiences and unwinds--layer after layer.
It's easy to know from the beginning what the secret is, and a lot of the excitement for me was to get past the big secret to see what led up to this awful point in time. Past the secret I expected the main character to be more human and somewhat more developed, which would contrast somewhat with the character's later revelations and trials.
Even after reflecting on everything for a while after finishing, I still do not have any emotion towards the main character. Yes, he did awful things and ended life still having this as a part of him. There just isn't enough contrasting elements to make a better decision. The end of the story shows an very one-dimensional and shallow youth caught-up in the fervor of the times (somewhat) and there is no major transformation. Maybe the point was to unravel the character to a point of non-definition to show how complex we become over time as we add events and interactions to our lives. This thought made me add one star later.
In regards to the narrator, I thought at first it was a non-judgmental observer which would simply tell the story as it was seen. However, very soon, the narrator knows English is being spoke backwards so it has to learn to flip the words around. I expected this much to happen so I didn't judge too harshly.
However, my opinion of the narrator changed quickly when it was disgusted by the physical appearance of Irene later in her life. This reaction could only come from something human as to judge whether another person is physically attractive or not. The narrator expresses difficulty learning German, but backwards English was learned within a few pages.
The dialog running backwards was necessary for conformity in the backwards-running time, but I found it annoying after a while as I had to read back through the dialog myself from end to beginning to compare the beginning to end.
It's also hard to touch on the Holocaust without the book suddenly becoming about the Holocaust itself. If I maintain this story in review as a pure character study of one man's journey through life and not the events in his life, this is not a good journey. If I view the settings and events in addition to the character study, it's still not a good book.
I do plan to re-read this book again at some future point. Hopefully I will pick-up more on a re-read and appreciate this book more.
Show More
better.Portraying this story from end to beginning was a clever trick which has been done by other authors more successfully. The narrator in this story is simply not the best vehicle for story progression (or regression). The narrator learns more as the story moves along while the main character loses experiences and unwinds--layer after layer.
It's easy to know from the beginning what the secret is, and a lot of the excitement for me was to get past the big secret to see what led up to this awful point in time. Past the secret I expected the main character to be more human and somewhat more developed, which would contrast somewhat with the character's later revelations and trials.
Even after reflecting on everything for a while after finishing, I still do not have any emotion towards the main character. Yes, he did awful things and ended life still having this as a part of him. There just isn't enough contrasting elements to make a better decision. The end of the story shows an very one-dimensional and shallow youth caught-up in the fervor of the times (somewhat) and there is no major transformation. Maybe the point was to unravel the character to a point of non-definition to show how complex we become over time as we add events and interactions to our lives. This thought made me add one star later.
In regards to the narrator, I thought at first it was a non-judgmental observer which would simply tell the story as it was seen. However, very soon, the narrator knows English is being spoke backwards so it has to learn to flip the words around. I expected this much to happen so I didn't judge too harshly.
However, my opinion of the narrator changed quickly when it was disgusted by the physical appearance of Irene later in her life. This reaction could only come from something human as to judge whether another person is physically attractive or not. The narrator expresses difficulty learning German, but backwards English was learned within a few pages.
The dialog running backwards was necessary for conformity in the backwards-running time, but I found it annoying after a while as I had to read back through the dialog myself from end to beginning to compare the beginning to end.
It's also hard to touch on the Holocaust without the book suddenly becoming about the Holocaust itself. If I maintain this story in review as a pure character study of one man's journey through life and not the events in his life, this is not a good journey. If I view the settings and events in addition to the character study, it's still not a good book.
I do plan to re-read this book again at some future point. Hopefully I will pick-up more on a re-read and appreciate this book more.
Show Less
LibraryThing member thethinslice
As the impact of the holocaust recedes out of living memory forever, Amis renders the event anew. The narrator is an intelligent passenger inside the head of a man as his life unfolds in reverse. The narrator is intelligent, though his conclusions are based upon a world where letters first spring
With highly praised films such as Life Is Beautiful portraying the holocaust as a Disney World, works like this one by Amis are increasingly more important.
Aside from the obvious subject which isn’t overtly revealed until the last quarter of the book, this little post-modern narrative experiment also reveals much more about the human condition where chess boards are painstakingly organized from chaos, the participant celebrate their work with a handshake, and the world moves towards a green promised land. A land that is known to exist, and it is only a matter of time before it is reached.
Show More
from fire and then are read, and where life is mended with the knife’s edge. As a result, the narrator’s perspective on events are innocent and pure like a child’s. The effect is [hopefully] to re-awaken the world so they do not forget.With highly praised films such as Life Is Beautiful portraying the holocaust as a Disney World, works like this one by Amis are increasingly more important.
Aside from the obvious subject which isn’t overtly revealed until the last quarter of the book, this little post-modern narrative experiment also reveals much more about the human condition where chess boards are painstakingly organized from chaos, the participant celebrate their work with a handshake, and the world moves towards a green promised land. A land that is known to exist, and it is only a matter of time before it is reached.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Jenners26
I confess that I read this book quite a while ago (probably 10+ years ago), so the details are a little hazy. But the idea of the book stayed with me after all this time--so it must have made an impression on me (and books that make an impression or worth reading!). I remembered that I liked the
Show More
book because the author chose to tell a life story backwards--starting at the end and moving toward birth. I remember being intrigued by this idea so I bought it. When preparing to write this little description, I went to Amazon.com to refresh my memory on the details and then it started coming back to me bit by bit. The person whose story the author choose to tell is a Nazi. Obviously, this is not just any old character and life, but one charged with significance and loaded with provocation. Because I don't think I could accurately write the description of how the book works, I'm borrowing the quick description from the Amazon.com review: "He puts two separate consciousnesses into the person of one man, ex-Nazi doctor Tod T. Friendly. One identity wakes at the moment of Friendly's death and runs backwards in time, like a movie played in reverse, (e.g., factory smokestacks scrub the air clean,) unaware of the terrible past he approaches. The "normal" consciousness runs in time's regular direction, fleeing his ignominious history." I remember being filled with dread and anticipation of how the one identity was going to confront the truth of his past. It is a thought-provoking read and, again, does an interesting job of playing with time. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cat-Lib
A rather self indulgent novel. The story of a nazi war criminal told backwards, thus wiping the slate clean. Not sure it would encourage me to read any more of Martin Amis.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0679735720 / 9780679735724
Physical description
176 p.; 5.2 inches
Pages
176