Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59990 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

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.

not for the faint of heart
By far Amis's best, but most controversial novel, one that will leave you stunned, but yearning for more from start to finish. it is short enough to read in one sitting, but long enough to keep you guessing and make you understand the massive twist which takes place. Something that anyone and everyone should read at least 10 times. Amis at his best.