This Martin Amis novel might be described as a philosophical chew toy. A toy because the narrative of a man's life runs backward in time, starting on Page 1 with his death, giving a playful and at times humorous quality; and philosophical because that choice by the author would seem to be a supreme statement of fatalism. And yet, the story of a physician who served the Nazis' murder machine, when run backwards, has him saving Jews. He herds them them onto trains for home rather than to death camps; he withdraws injections of crippling poisons and restores them to health. There is nothing extraordinary about this man, but the reversal of time serves to shine a disturbing light on the problem of evil.
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