Martin Amis' "Time's Arrow"

Possibly Pointless Book Review #2:


What if the order of time is nothing more than human perception? In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five,” a theory is proposed that the individual moments in life are the essential components of existence, no matter what order those events take place. At one point, the protagonist, Billy, perceives a war film in reverse: Instead of building bombs, the factory workers in the film dissemble their weapons. They are bringers of peace, not war.

Martin Amis expertly weaves this concept throughout a serpentine plot in “Time’s Arrow,” where the world runs in reverse to everything we’ve ever known. Humans are born from the grave, growing younger and younger until they begin an intense platonic relationship with a woman who eventually becomes their only love, their mother, whose breasts they will suckle for countless hours; until the day they enact the most intimate act imaginable, merging with their caretaker. In the end, their father will use sex to rip the last spark of their existence in two, stealing their life energy for himself.

Amis ups the ante by spinning his story around a Nazi-era doctor. In this world, physicians bring corpses to life, insert cancer into healthy patients, and break perfect bones. And the Nazis aren’t burning Jews: They’re creating them—by the millions.

"Gargantua and Pantagruel"

I thought I'd pop off a few short book reviews of tomes that may be of interest:


First up is “Gargantua and Pantagruel”:

A 16th-century medical doctor and Catholic monk, François Rabelais spent decades writing a series of five books, collectively known as “Gargantua and Pantagruel,” that became wildly popular for their dark and bawdy humor. To this day, the massive tome still ruffles religious feathers. The current edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia calls Rabelais “a revolutionary who attacked all the past, scholasticism, the monks; his religion is scarcely more than that of a spiritually-minded pagan…. His vocabulary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy.”

Sex, drinking, utopian ideals, and heretical philosophy populate this fantastical saga that follows the adventures of a giant and his son. What’s even more intriguing are the multitude of hidden messages, Gnostic insights, alchemical secrets, and herbal obsessions (e.g., cannabis) that bubble far beneath the surface of these tall tales.

Hey, the book is dated, no doubt. But it can still get the Church's metaphorical cloisters all bundled up in a ruffle... so don't let the Pope catch ya readin' it, son.