time’s arrow

Content:
The book contains a story about a German doctor who works for the Nazis in a concentration camp during the second world war – born about 1915, dieing in the 80′s.

Style:
Time’s arrow is written backwards, beginning with the death of the doctor, ending with his birth. The naive narrator is situated in the head of the main character, without knowing why, without knowing who he is, without knowing what has happened or is going to happen. Time is running backwards, the whole book. The naive narrator interprets what is going on in the world all the time, argues that he doesn’t understand the world, makes philosophical comments on things that happen, and even builds up opinions about and relationsships with other people, for example the women the doctor has.
Of course, there is no way for him to interact with the world, the only thing he can do is simply watch.

To some extent, the book is simply extremely funny. The narrator has the strange feeling that something is wrong with the world, but he never gets the clue that time is running backwards. He wonders about cabs, for instance: You enter a cab, the driver gives you money, and he goes exactly where you want to go without asking questions or even knowing where to go. When you exit the cab, you name the place where you came from, and that’s it.
He wonders about eating, going to the toilet, and the greatest creative powers in life are fire and the garbage. Nearly everything comes out of the garbage, or out of the fire. Relationships are so subtle and nice, and if people decide to not see each other again, they always behave very kind and gentle, meet a last time, eat dinner in a beautiful restaurant, kiss for the last time, and go their ways. A girl escapes into childhood (the doctor is sleeping with her until she is twelve: “Mary had her 13. birthday today, which means she is twelve now.”); funny, bizarre.
On the other hand, the book is serious, morbid and dark, concerning the whole Nazi topic. You can imagine yourself about how the work in a concentration camp looks if time runs backwards: The nice people carrying all the dead bodies into the showers, some kind high ranked officers who give the dead Jews golden teeth and necklaces, rings and other stuff, then the transformation process, everybody is reborn, looking really bad, but sooner or later, everybody recovers and leaves the camp.
Very recommendable!

Rating: 2+