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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Absolutely breathtaking. We, our lives, the events of the world... it's all so small.
Short book, but took me forever to get through. You have to read all the dialogue backwords and I had to go back sometimes and piece events together. This is the story of a man's life, told backwards. I'd better read it again before I start writing my big paper.
Short book, but took me forever to get through. You have to read all the dialogue backwords and I had to go back sometimes and piece events together. This is the story of a man's life, told backwards. I'd better read it again before I start writing my big paper.
"The origin of the term "gimmick" is uncertain. Etymologists suggest that the term emerged in the United States in the early 20th century. The Oxford Dictionary suggests that it may have originally been a slang term for something that a con artist or magician manipulated to make appearances different from reality and gradually changed its meaning to refer to any ‘piece of magicians' apparatus’. The word itself may be an approximate anagram of the word magic. Another possible origin is that it may have come into use among the gaming tables, where it came to refer to "a device used for making a fair game crooked" ..."
A fair game made crooked, the demise of Tod (German for "Death") Friendly brought back from the end, his life run backwards by ways of magic manipulated, back through his immigration (his flight), back to Fatherland, back to the moment of him aiding in the birth of a race, that by his hands, in another running of time he sought to end. Therein lies the gimmick - the inverse of time and action, inspired by a paragraph in Vonnegut, taken to its utmost.
Roughly halfway or three quarters of the way through the narrative, the hand is laid bare, and the obvious terminus can be seen. Yet, despite the nature of the work, the subject and even the description, there is little effect or response in the reader. We feel little when we should feel more. The device is stretched too thin, and the magic begins to fade. In Vonnegut's original, the device is kept short, and in turn becomes impactful and explosive; there is an effect, a statement and we feel it. Here, slipping through time backwards, it is only Amis' skill and ability that elevate the work out of the banal and make it an intriguing experiment, albeit a more hollow work than it should be.
A fair game made crooked, the demise of Tod (German for "Death") Friendly brought back from the end, his life run backwards by ways of magic manipulated, back through his immigration (his flight), back to Fatherland, back to the moment of him aiding in the birth of a race, that by his hands, in another running of time he sought to end. Therein lies the gimmick - the inverse of time and action, inspired by a paragraph in Vonnegut, taken to its utmost.
Roughly halfway or three quarters of the way through the narrative, the hand is laid bare, and the obvious terminus can be seen. Yet, despite the nature of the work, the subject and even the description, there is little effect or response in the reader. We feel little when we should feel more. The device is stretched too thin, and the magic begins to fade. In Vonnegut's original, the device is kept short, and in turn becomes impactful and explosive; there is an effect, a statement and we feel it. Here, slipping through time backwards, it is only Amis' skill and ability that elevate the work out of the banal and make it an intriguing experiment, albeit a more hollow work than it should be.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, War
Moderate: Pedophilia, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Pregnancy
Time moving backwards
Forgives all atrocities
Take that, Ben Button!
Forgives all atrocities
Take that, Ben Button!
There are some expertly crafted reviews of this book on here that will go into much more eloquent detail on why this book is kind of a failure. To me the prose is the sole redeeming quality, and even that is marred by misogyny and fat phobia. This book might have wow’d the lit crowd in 1989 enough to get it short listed for the Booker, but today this book is gimmicky and kind of a boring message-less slog. I realize this was an experiment and maybe there is something to be said about what it attempts to comment on but the results were for me pretty underwhelming. This was just not for me, and I can’t say I’d really recommend it to anyone else.
Could have been shorter. Did not see the twist in the middle coming at all though.
Another masterpiece from Amis' ever fertile mind.
This novel is written moving backwards in time, following the life of a doctor from his death to his birth.
This requires a lot of effort from the reader as you must always try to remember what order things have happened and what the narrator knows and does not know. This is the kind of mental effort I have never made before and it was a wonderful experiences.
Relationships always start at the end, lives always start from deaths, consequences are always seen before action. It is a wonderful and unique experience.
The big spoiler, which was idiotically revealed in the blurb of my edition, is that the doctor was a Nazi who worked at Auschwitz.
The descriptions of the torture, murder, gassing and killing of people in those camps are always presented as a kindness - victims of gruesome experimental surgeries being brought back to life, children reunited with families, skeletal men who gain weight and health. There is something about presening these actions backwards in time that makes them even more horrifying and disturbing.
This is a great book, highly recommended.
This novel is written moving backwards in time, following the life of a doctor from his death to his birth.
This requires a lot of effort from the reader as you must always try to remember what order things have happened and what the narrator knows and does not know. This is the kind of mental effort I have never made before and it was a wonderful experiences.
Relationships always start at the end, lives always start from deaths, consequences are always seen before action. It is a wonderful and unique experience.
The big spoiler, which was idiotically revealed in the blurb of my edition, is that the doctor was a Nazi who worked at Auschwitz.
The descriptions of the torture, murder, gassing and killing of people in those camps are always presented as a kindness - victims of gruesome experimental surgeries being brought back to life, children reunited with families, skeletal men who gain weight and health. There is something about presening these actions backwards in time that makes them even more horrifying and disturbing.
This is a great book, highly recommended.
I've never read a book quite like this. Equal parts jarring and funny, until about halfway through, when it becomes harrowing. Brilliant, but frustrating to read. Ranking it by stars is not easy; 5 for concept and execution, 3 for personal enjoyment. 4 is splitting the difference.
uhhhh very strange but intrigueing. i think i'm too small brain to understand this novel but i did enjoy a fair bit of how strange it was, so there's that
The story of Tod Friendly (ETA: /John Young/Hamilton de Souza/Odilo Unverdorben), told in reverse chronological order.
And by that, I mean completely reverse. For example: instead of eating food the way we do it, in this world food is regurgitated (sorry), put back together in one's mouth, put back on the plate, knitted back together with knife and fork, prepared to create the original components, then brought to the store where they give you money for the food items, and finally you put the items on the shelf.
The story is told from the point of view of an outsider, almost like a ghost or spirit, who is watching Tod go through his life, and making observations about the things that happen. You know going through that Tod is troubled, but you must relive his life before you find out what troubles him so, and the last third of the book is just incredible.
At less than 200 pages, the book is short enough that I only felt a occasionally exhausted by the gimmick. I would definitely recommend this, and I think it would be an interesting story for a book club.
And by that, I mean completely reverse. For example: instead of eating food the way we do it, in this world food is regurgitated (sorry), put back together in one's mouth, put back on the plate, knitted back together with knife and fork, prepared to create the original components, then brought to the store where they give you money for the food items, and finally you put the items on the shelf.
The story is told from the point of view of an outsider, almost like a ghost or spirit, who is watching Tod go through his life, and making observations about the things that happen. You know going through that Tod is troubled, but you must relive his life before you find out what troubles him so, and the last third of the book is just incredible.
At less than 200 pages, the book is short enough that I only felt a occasionally exhausted by the gimmick. I would definitely recommend this, and I think it would be an interesting story for a book club.