Tied for the most difficult book I have ever read. It was also the first book where you actually did have to read the summary (on the back cover) to understand the context. Either way, the reverse Time Arrow used in the book was useless. It added an extreme amount of effort to understand basic elements of the story (in UX we call this cognitive load). Lastly, I DON'T read books on this topic.
Steer clear of this one, folks. ( )

Nazi doctor Tod Friendly's sordid life in reverse, from heart attack in small-town, innocuous and walled-off melting pot America, to conception in depressed, post WWI Solingen. Unexceptional in every way, Tod's moral compass depends upon the health of surrounding society (might makes right). 'You do what you do best, not what's best to do.' Amis: 'The offense was unique, not in its cruelty, nor in its cowardice, but in its style -- in its combination of the atavistic and the modern...at once reptilian and :logistical.' And although the offense was not definingly German, its style was. The National Sociialists found the core of the reptile brain, and built an autobahn that went there.'

After reading half the book, one starts thinking in the reverse style. Good speed and direction, disorientation used to good effect; probably will not offer up new reactions upon later readings, operates at one level. ( )

This is one of those rare books that actively affects the way I'm thinking about things in the moment. Not just within the boundaries of the book, but is literally making me think about man's relationship with time more thabbn I would prefer.

With that said, not as uproarious as [b:Money|18825|Money|Martin Amis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367084993l/18825._SY75_.jpg|85999], or even [b:Lionel Asbo: State of England|13155843|Lionel Asbo State of England|Martin Amis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335405188l/13155843._SX50_.jpg|16258714], it's still effectively humorous considering how dark it gets, i.e. there wasn't a temptation to put it down once the destination became clear.

For film fans I'm about 90% certain this was on Gaspar Noé's reading list before he created Irreversible. Do with that as you may. ( )

Oh Martin, you are so clever.
I am a sucker for experimental writing, and writing a narrative in reverse, might sound too gimmicky, but I found it quite such an interesting take.

The main character does seem flat and gets less like able as the book goes on, but the perspective was always thought provoking and compelling.

Overall I’d say that at times this book is funny, at times it’s dark- reallly dark.... But this is the kind of book that makes me love the 1001 list because I would have never read it on my own ( )

"Time, the human dimension, which makes us everything we are."

'Time's Arrow' opens with the main character being dragged back from the brink of death by medics after a heart attack– and from then on he grows gradually ever more youthful until his eventual birth. As he grows younger, we learn that he was once a doctor who made his patients worse rather than better and has repeatedly changed his name as he moved West to New York from mainland Europe. It isn't long before we realise where he’s going (or coming from) – that he worked in the various camps across Poland where millions of people (mainly Jews) had been brought back to life and he had been a member of the Hitler Youth.

The narrator exists inside the protagonist’s head and experiences everything he does, but is also separate from him. This allows the narrator to comment on events that he has had no power to influence, he doesn't know what is to come any more than the reader does. The use of the narrator allows the reader to consider the protagonists actions intellectually rather than emotionally.

That is not to say that that this isn't an emotional read. The protagonist is a particularly dislikeable individual, before and after the war objectifying women and treating them with utter disdain, and one who reacts quite coldly to the death of his own daughter. But as you would expect, it is his wartime actions which is the real focus of this book and are the most difficult to comprehend. That events happen in reverse – bringing people to life rather than killing them – doesn't make them any less horrifying. We are reminded that these heinous acts weren't one off aberrations but instead played out over a number of years. The reverse timeline compels the reader to reassess events with which we think we are already familiar.

"Probably human cruelty is fixed and eternal, only styles change."

However, whilst part of me admires the creative way that the author has tackled such harrowing events I cannot help but think that he was just too clever and ultimately trivialised them. It soon becomes apparent that in the later life the protagonist feels no guilt about his previous deeds and that he has seemingly escaped censure for them which made uncomfortable reading. I cannot help but think that he had perhaps somehow turned a new leaf, had lived relatively innocently post-war, it might have magnified the horror of his wartime deeds, if that is possible, then I too would have felt differently. Something other than complete contempt.

I suspect that this is yet another of those Marmite books, you will either love or hate it. For me it was an OK read but as with so many by the author that I've read a confusing and underwhelming one. It was at least thankfully brief. ( )