Time's Arrow

A life is unspooling backwards. But who is this puzzled narrator who betrays an innocence the subject of the story cannot share? This is a well-written, fascinating tale, spanning the first part of the 20th century, with all its horrors.

This book begins with the near-death collapse of a sucessful American doctor, Tod Friendly, then traces his life backwards through his years as an illegal immigrant and the horrors of his wartime service in the SS, ending with his upbringing in a Germany destroyed by the first World War. But these are no mere flashbacks; everything happens in reverse, down to the mechanics of eating, defecation, and sex. The central character's work as a physician thus involves taking in healthy patients and sending them out with illnesses or injuries. The payoff, however, is that the same doctor's work at Auschwitz, now under his given name of Odilo Unverdorben ("innocent"), involves bringing Jews to life out of the ashes, restoring their property, and distributing them around Europe. It is a powerful conceit that gives an unexpected way of revisiting the Holocaust. The problem, however, is that the sheer cleverness of Amis' technique takes center stage, and gets in the way of his deeper study of how a man could be born in innocence, immerse himself in horror, and still reach towards some sort of personal redemption.

Backwards runs the river, from a dull life in the 1980s USA through shape shifting identities, back to Portugal, then Italy, and finally, Germany, where we discover that the reason we are going backward in time, reminiscing our way to Auschwitz...is...well, a neat formal trick. Where ordinary time moves forward: we get a letter, we tear it up, we throw it in the trash...In this novel, the pieces of the letter jump out of the trash, reassemble themselves, and become a letter. Curious, and interesting, at times...confusing at other moments because we have to put the pieces together ourselves...trying to figure out the hero's secret. Once we get back to Nazi Germany, the horrors emerge in full bloom...as if Amis has done too much research. The slender conceit of a person's life unraveling backward cannot sustain the weight of the holocaust. Definitely worth reading, despite the flaws.

I don't think I ever really caught on to the reverse-time angle. I didn't fully understand it. It's certainly a different kind of book. That appeals to me. But I wouldn't put it in the top rank of books I've read. By the time you get to the end it has taken a heavy turn from the rather light-hearted beginning of the book. It is as serious as it gets in terms of the subject matter.

I found this book hard to get into at first, but liked it more and more as time when on (or back... Heh.).It's a very odd book, for sure. The narrator seems to switch between seeing how time happens in reverse, but then switching to perceiving time as moving forward and taking what he sees literally, depending on his emotional needs, dictated by what he's witnessing. It's overall a very cool effect, if difficult to explain. I'm impressed, though. I've certainly never read anything like it before. I like it enough to where I've decided to order a few more Amis books, this being the first of his I've ever read.

I received the book in good shape. Only had a very small fold in the corner but other than that the book was in good shape!

This book is so different from any book I've ever read, it's told backwards. I actually found myself dreaming backwards and thinking backwards after reading this book. It really, really, makes you think. I found myself thinking about this book after the fact. It takes perspective and turns it upside down and messes with your world view. I don't want to mention the topics addressed in this book because figuring it out as you read is part of the puzzle that makes this book so intriguing.I highly recommend this book.

A Rabbi private eye told me about this book three years ago. It took me awhile to get to it but I see why he wanted me to read it. It's told in reverse order. Ships eat their wake, babies are stuffed with feces, relationships go backward. It's filled with paradox but as well down as possible.

This book is absolutely amazing, at just 136 pages it is still a massive modern masterpiece. This is my first time reading Martin Amis but not the last. It wasn't easy getting used to the story going backwards in time, but just as I was becoming accustomed to it the holocaust experience in reverse was mindblowing and incredibly moving.

Lo compré de segunda mano y me llegó en perfecto estado y muy rápido. La historia me encanta, era para una asignatura de la universidad, pero lo recomiendo. El autor cuenta la historia al revés, lo que le da un toque de humor peculiar ya que los taxistas por ejemplo pagan por llevar a los clientes, la gente sale peor de la consulta del médico, etc.

Questo libro lo consiglio a chi piace leggere in inglese. E' un libro che parla del Nazismo in modo molto particolare. Lo consiglio, mi è piaciuto tantissimo

Livre intéressant mais spécial. La lecture n'est pas aisé et il est assez dur à comprendre cependant il vaut le détour.

This book did not live up to my initial expectations. The backwardness is a fun idea, but it does get old when you have to read conversations from the bottom up to make any sense of them, and it kind of precludes narrative devices like prolepsis that make you want to read on. I kept stopping because, while it's interesting, it's certainly no page-turner. I couldn't finish it.