Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73131 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-13
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Daily Telegraph
Amis's most daring and ambitious novel

James Wood, Guardian
...a world of pathos and cruel hilarity-but the crux, the test of his vision, is what he does with Auschwitz

Financial Times
...devastatingly sustained black irony stands comparison with Swift's A Modest Proposal. It is, I think, Amis's finest achievement to date

Customer Reviews

"The world has stopped making sense again..."
Tod T. Friendly (who is in fact Odilo Unverdorben, a Nazi Doctor and assistant to Josef Mengele in Auschwitz-Birkenau), at the moment of his death in late 20th century New York, re-lives his life (which to the people surrounding him is a complete secret), or more correctly, a shadow or rather perplex and surprised double of Tod Friendly (or John Young, and finally Odilo Unverdorben), who is the narrator of this account, does. Ingeniously, Martin Amis has mirrored this life as inversion, making it something like a upside down account of the 20th century.
Definetely not an easy read in the beginning (Martin Amis never is, thankfully- and reading inverse dialogues is wee bit like running backwards- not that I've tried running backwards though), "Time's Arrow" needs time getting accustomed to, increases momentum until finally Odilo Unverdorben re-enters his mothers womb. Inverse dialogue, inverse sexual acts, inverse life- even Auschwitz and Odilos role during the holocaust inversed: especially this part of this novel is the one making this book an unforgettable reading experience, this is the part, which stuns most, with leaves you breathlessly following Odilos shadows inverse view of the Schoah.
Martin Amis' prose is ironical, black, ice-cold, cruel and consciously pathetical at times. A shattering, stunning and utterly original visionary work of literature.

Warning: This book will mess with your mind.
Writing life backwards is not original. Yet it is a mark of Martin Amis's subtle humour that he is able to say something truly fascinating about human nature. This is the story of Todd T. Friendly, former Nazi Medical Executioner and now all-round American nice-guy. By situating the narrator within Todd's body but not actually part of his mind, the narrator is able to take a step back from the action, to observe the absurdities of life, whether backwards or forwards. This book also plays with your consciousness, blurring your interaction with the world. Whenever I stopped reading, I found myself completely unsure which way round things should happen: should I get in or out of the bath next? How many books can alter the state of your mind, even for a few moments? Martin Amis is toying with your psyche, few author have the playful sense of humour to do this with such an apparently serious subject.

Breathtakingly impressive
Taking any life through a backwards lense would have been sufficient to display the dazzling literary technique at work here, but to have the courage (or audacity) needed to tackle the subject of the holocaust in this way lifts the novel from a clever work to a truly monumental work of literature. The reader's own confusion, followed by collusion, is used as a powerful tool of engagement.