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Time Arrow Martin Amis 9780679735724 Books

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Time Arrow Martin Amis 9780679735724 Books

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.


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Time Arrow Martin Amis 9780679735724 Books Reviews

My subject line is a good summary of my view. The book does well at describing things as they happen in reverse. However, the characters are so poorly developed that I had a hard time enjoying the book. I enjoy getting to know characters and their "adventures," but this novel left me knowing the events of the main character's life but not truly appreciating who that person was. The events are straight from well documented atrocities from the holocaust, but little light is shed on the person underlying the treacherous behavior of the main character. I was glad to finish this book so I could move onto my next read.
This is an ingenious book with an ample supply of Mart's usual brilliant writing. In general, this brilliance captures the odd and surprising effects of experiencing life in reverse-people leaving a hospital battered and broken or food leaving the mouth to fill a plate. At the same time, this reversal of time produces a dreamlike quality in the narrative, with the usual cumulative effects of a well-told novel dissipating, not building, as the story progresses. I'm glad I read this book. But I think "Time's Arrow" demonstrates why most novels (I'm not sure about science fiction) move into the narrative's future. This risky book is provocative reading. Still, I prefer "The Information", when Gywn Barry is plotting and enacting his revenge on the futile Richard Tull.
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.
I really enjoyed this book. It does contain some graphic descriptions which is to be expected on a holocaust novel. The reverse-time order of the narrative was fascinating to read and also to think about from a literary and analytical perspective. In the end, I believe that it confirmed what I already believed rather than providing any new insights into the roots of evil. Regardless, the novel provides much food for thought.
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.
Though the premise can seem off putting, you will get into the rhythm almost immediately and soon you will be thinking backwards outside of the story. At least I did. Exceptionally written that only occasionally turns overwrought, insightful and surprising. Read it.
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.
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.