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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
Een vernuftig uitgangspunt dat tot in het detail uitgewerkt wordt: onze naamloze verteller is een soort "lifter" die meereist in het lichaam van een man en zo zijn leven achterstevoren meemaakt.
Elk gesprek, elke actie beleeft hij omgekeerd, en het lijkt hem allemaal zo weinig logisch. Dokters die mensen ziek maken, mensen die ruzie maken alvorens een relatie te beginnen, huishoudsters die hun werkgevers betalen. Toegepast op WOII blijkt dit gegeven uiteindelijk nog het meest absurd van al.
Als audioboek is dit boek bijzonder lastig en vermoeiend: waar je in tekstvorm een gesprek nog eens in de normale volgorde kan lezen, moet je je al luisterend erg hard concentreren om zo het gesprek goed te kunnen reconstrueren. Hersengymnastiek, maar ik zou het toch niet aanraden.
Hoewel alles erg goed uitgewerkt is, vond ik het boek toch ook vermoeiend en te lang. Ik kan me niet van de indruk ontdoen dat dit verhaal veel beter had gewerkt als kortverhaal.
Elk gesprek, elke actie beleeft hij omgekeerd, en het lijkt hem allemaal zo weinig logisch. Dokters die mensen ziek maken, mensen die ruzie maken alvorens een relatie te beginnen, huishoudsters die hun werkgevers betalen. Toegepast op WOII blijkt dit gegeven uiteindelijk nog het meest absurd van al.
Als audioboek is dit boek bijzonder lastig en vermoeiend: waar je in tekstvorm een gesprek nog eens in de normale volgorde kan lezen, moet je je al luisterend erg hard concentreren om zo het gesprek goed te kunnen reconstrueren. Hersengymnastiek, maar ik zou het toch niet aanraden.
Hoewel alles erg goed uitgewerkt is, vond ik het boek toch ook vermoeiend en te lang. Ik kan me niet van de indruk ontdoen dat dit verhaal veel beter had gewerkt als kortverhaal.
This is one of those books that I feel could've been a little bit more complete as a whole, but the process undergone to create it and the little pieces that made me go, "Wow" require that it get rated higher than a mere three. If only Goodreads had half stars. Speaking of half, I'm still half asleep!
Is it correct to write a satire, using black humour about the Nazis? I think that it is time to start writing other kind of Nazi/Holocaust books, and this is a fucking masterpiece.
Suddenly, the perpetrators of a holocaust, through the eyes of a naïve narrator, turn into creators of life.
The backwards structure (hence the title, "Time's Arrow, because the arrow of time goes backwards) does not make it a difficult reading, as it may seem.
Suddenly, the perpetrators of a holocaust, through the eyes of a naïve narrator, turn into creators of life.
The backwards structure (hence the title, "Time's Arrow, because the arrow of time goes backwards) does not make it a difficult reading, as it may seem.
I finished this book last night and have not recovered. I could try to write my own synopsis, but honestly, the one from the book description is better.
"Doctor Tod T. Friendly dies and then feels markedly better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them, and mangles his patients before he sends them home. And all the while Tod's life races backward in time toward the one appalling moment in modern history when such reversals make sense."
This is the story of a man's life in reverse. He regurgitates his dinner, uses kitchen gadgets to return it to its raw form, then brings the individual items back to the grocery store where the clerks pay him. It takes some time to settle into the rhythm of the story, but the haunting strangeness of a life lived backward never leaves. Sure, it's a gimmick, but it also works really well.
The entire time, you know that you're building toward something bad. There is reason that life has started moving backward and you just know you're not gonna like it. Then you find out what it is, and yep. You really don't like it at all.
I can't go further into detail without spoiling the book, but man. This one is going to live in my brain for a long, long time.
"Doctor Tod T. Friendly dies and then feels markedly better, breaks up with his lovers as a prelude to seducing them, and mangles his patients before he sends them home. And all the while Tod's life races backward in time toward the one appalling moment in modern history when such reversals make sense."
This is the story of a man's life in reverse. He regurgitates his dinner, uses kitchen gadgets to return it to its raw form, then brings the individual items back to the grocery store where the clerks pay him. It takes some time to settle into the rhythm of the story, but the haunting strangeness of a life lived backward never leaves. Sure, it's a gimmick, but it also works really well.
The entire time, you know that you're building toward something bad. There is reason that life has started moving backward and you just know you're not gonna like it. Then you find out what it is, and yep. You really don't like it at all.
I can't go further into detail without spoiling the book, but man. This one is going to live in my brain for a long, long time.
medium-paced
challenging
dark
medium-paced
I find this book really hard to review because while it was a really illuminating way of showing the horrors of the holocaust and was incredibly well written I didn't necessarily enjoy it. I have given it 3* but the majority if books I have also given three stars I have enjoyed a lot more.
The book begins with the death of the main character Tod. T Friendly. His death alters times arrow and we then, along with his conscience which is within him but separate, travel back through his life. Everyone goes backwards and speaks backwards but luckily Amis alters that quickly so we can understand more. Written words however are read forwards and lead to some confusion as the conscience tries to understand what is happening. In this backwards journey Tod ends relationships at the start. Going to the toilet is not a fun activity as the waste from the toilet bowl re-enters him and when people come into the hospital he takes off the bandaging to open up the wound and stick a rusty nail in it. This is life in reverse and as a writing style the sheer novelty of it was interesting but then it began to drag somewhat in the first half and parts of it I had trouble following. But also as a book about a Nazi war criminal you constantly want to to get to the main bit so to speak. So after a few name and location changes we end up with the name Odilo Unverdorben at Auschwitz just as the Russians 'scurried eastward'. It should be mentioned here that the conscience has no understanding of History like the reader does so whilst we automatically go in with judgements about the horrors of Auschwitz the conscience goes in with no information other than the backwards life it has lived to this point. So when we learnt that Odilo 'personally removed the pellets of Zyklon B and entrusted them to a pharmacist in his white coat' we learn the level of his involvement in the mass murders but the conscience sees them being rescued which makes the whole thing much more darker and twisted. Amis also details bodies of the dead being resurrected with gas and where then given clothes and glasses etc
'to prevent needless suffering, the dental work was usually completed while the patients were not yet alive... most of the gold we used came directly from the Reichsbank. But every German present...gave willingly of his own store'. The whole second part of the book takes place in Auschwitz Odilo contains to heal jews and his relationships suffer as his partner cannot understand how he can do it. The level of discomfort the reader feels through this section is high, there are constantly this f********kkk moments (I cant think of a better word, reading this book did literally make me say f*** in a long drawn out fashion).
Whilst writing this review I realise that whilst this is not going to be a book I read again and again or one that anyone can snuggle down into. It is a book that is going to stick with me for a while and will keep me thinking about it. So maybe for the power of the book it deserves more than three stars.
The book begins with the death of the main character Tod. T Friendly. His death alters times arrow and we then, along with his conscience which is within him but separate, travel back through his life. Everyone goes backwards and speaks backwards but luckily Amis alters that quickly so we can understand more. Written words however are read forwards and lead to some confusion as the conscience tries to understand what is happening. In this backwards journey Tod ends relationships at the start. Going to the toilet is not a fun activity as the waste from the toilet bowl re-enters him and when people come into the hospital he takes off the bandaging to open up the wound and stick a rusty nail in it. This is life in reverse and as a writing style the sheer novelty of it was interesting but then it began to drag somewhat in the first half and parts of it I had trouble following. But also as a book about a Nazi war criminal you constantly want to to get to the main bit so to speak. So after a few name and location changes we end up with the name Odilo Unverdorben at Auschwitz just as the Russians 'scurried eastward'. It should be mentioned here that the conscience has no understanding of History like the reader does so whilst we automatically go in with judgements about the horrors of Auschwitz the conscience goes in with no information other than the backwards life it has lived to this point. So when we learnt that Odilo 'personally removed the pellets of Zyklon B and entrusted them to a pharmacist in his white coat' we learn the level of his involvement in the mass murders but the conscience sees them being rescued which makes the whole thing much more darker and twisted. Amis also details bodies of the dead being resurrected with gas and where then given clothes and glasses etc
'to prevent needless suffering, the dental work was usually completed while the patients were not yet alive... most of the gold we used came directly from the Reichsbank. But every German present...gave willingly of his own store'. The whole second part of the book takes place in Auschwitz Odilo contains to heal jews and his relationships suffer as his partner cannot understand how he can do it. The level of discomfort the reader feels through this section is high, there are constantly this f********kkk moments (I cant think of a better word, reading this book did literally make me say f*** in a long drawn out fashion).
Whilst writing this review I realise that whilst this is not going to be a book I read again and again or one that anyone can snuggle down into. It is a book that is going to stick with me for a while and will keep me thinking about it. So maybe for the power of the book it deserves more than three stars.
Very interesting way of telling a story and looking at history through the eyes of one on the side of evil.
I think my main issue with Time’s Arrow is the tone of the narrator - I would describe the prose as convoluted without adding substance. But, there are moments of genuine humour and sufficient narrative intrigue to keep it chugging along smoothly enough.