time's arrow

This book is doing crazy things to my life.

I literally think I am living my life backwards.

Let me explain with a mini synopsis of Time's Arrow (but don't worry I won't ruin the book for you because I want you to read it. All of you. It's amazing.):

The book begins with an old dead man who comes back to life, and the story moves from his death to his life, back through time. But not just backwards - his life is lived in rewind. So characters walk backwards, dialogue begins with the last thing said and moves to the first. It's like someone pressed the rewind on a VCR. The whole story is narrated by some kind of spirit inside the man, but it is not the man's spirit. And the spirit doesn't understand that a backward life isn't normal. This leads to passages like this:

"Eating is unattractive too. First I stack the clean plates in the dishwasher, which works okay, I guess, like all my other labour-saving devices, until some fat bastard shows up in his jumpsuit and traumatizes them with his tools. So far so good: you select a soiled dish, collect some scraps form the garbage, and settle down for a short wait. Various items get gulped up into my mouth, and after skillful massage with tongue and teeth I transfer them to the plate for additional sculpture with knife and fork and spoon."

This passage is one of my favourites:

"A child's breathless wailing calmed by the firm slap of the father's hand, a dead ant revived by the careless press of a passing sole, a wounded finger healed and sealed by the knife's blade."

Martin Amis is a genius. He makes you think about everyday things in a new way. He makes comments about destruction and creation - in the book destruction takes time, it's difficult, and creation is easy and mindless. So he's really saying the opposite. Right?

Oh - and the story (don't worry this part is on the back flap of the book) is the backwards life of a Nazi war criminal.

READ IT.