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Time's Arrow or the Nature of the Offence
 
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Time's Arrow or the Nature of the Offence (Paperback)

by Martin Amis (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (13 Aug 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099455358
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099455356
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 92,873 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #8 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Amis, Martin
    #23 in  Books > Humour > Lawyers & Criminals

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Product Description

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
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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Warning: This book will mess with your mind., 14 Mar 2007
By Sam J. Ruddock (Norwich, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
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.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, 5 April 2005
By A Customer
One of the most interesting books I've ever read.

Constantly funny and appealing, and eventually devastating.

The way Amis handles Auschwitz is truly breath-taking, a ridiculously surreal way of looking at something that is all-too-real. By presenting it in this seemingly light-hearted manner, he increases the tragic effect.

A very important book that should be read.

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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Amis' brave attempt to tackle the Holocaust, 14 Jan 2004
In 'Time's Arrow', Amis' Booker Prize winning novel, he tells the story of a German participant in the Holocaust and his later life as an exile in America. Crucially, the action occurs in reverse, with the central character (a doctor who executed Jews in the gas chambers) jolting back to life and becoming progressively younger. Interestingly, the narrator of the story is trapped in the same body as the central character and can only watch helplessly, and often without full comprehension, as the events unfold.

Amis deserves full credit for his achievement, and although the conceit of running his story backwards occasionally feels a little forced, it does help the reader to adopt a different perspective on the events of the Holocaust and its consequences. Particularly ironic is the juxtaposition of a doctor first damaging and mutilating his patients (in his life in America) and then bringing them back to life (in the gas chambers of Auschwitz). I would recommend this novel highly - it is less autobiographical and cliched than many of Amis' other works, and is all the better for it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A worthy read.
Amis' best work to date in my view, and a worthy Booker Prize winner.

Odd (life in reverse), surreal in places, but still eminently credible. Read more
Published 8 days ago by Rose Wood

4.0 out of 5 stars Virtuoso writing ... and a decent novel
This book is virtuoso writing at its best, a technical triumph - how can you plot a book and maintain consistency (and suspense - a plot) when you are telling the whole story... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Mr. Iain Smith

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing but not worthless
I'm quite a big Amis fan, but this book - worth 2.5 stars if I could award half stars - is for me less impressive than is usual for him. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dylan

3.0 out of 5 stars Time's Arrow -
This book has at the heart of it a simple, but clever idea. The problem that is faces is once the idea is understood, it starts to rely on the narrative and this veers from being... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Brad Clooney

5.0 out of 5 stars "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,... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Roland Freisitzer

5.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2006 by c westwood

5.0 out of 5 stars 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. Read more
Published on 6 April 2006 by Mr. R. Aherne

1.0 out of 5 stars How the mighty have fallen
I love the early Martin Amis books and I had very high expectations of this one but...

There is more truth and beauty in the single line from Vonnegut than there is in the whole... Read more

Published on 19 Jan 2005 by J. E. Davidson

3.0 out of 5 stars More interesting than fun, but worth a listen
Amis' book is about time. It's narrated backwards. Grant reads it forwards. I think it's supposed to make (help) one think about responsibility, causation, and what individuates... Read more
Published on 29 Aug 2001

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