it's a long wait....

really really slow start.... does get interesting in the last hour or so of listening but not going to be everyone's cup of tea

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Can you escape your past? Or your future?

Deeply unsettling and brilliantly conceived, but requires full concentration and an intellect greater than mine to follow at times. Dark and powerful enough in its study of banal cruelty and evil to give me vivid nightmares

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1 person found this helpful

Brilliant, difficult listening

This is a difficult book to listen to but it is worth persevering. When I finished it, I started again from the start. The novel is told backwards as is probably known to most people but even forewarned, it takes some getting used to and it develops very slowly at first, perhaps to give us time to get used to the backwards motion of the narrative. The most difficult bits are the conversations because we hear them in reverse - like a very black version of an old Two Ronnies' sketch (which I'm sure is no accident - the book is bleakly/blackly funny in parts). Steven Pacey's narration/performance is brilliant and really gives it life, Listening a second time, I can hear all the subtle hints that are dropped in the earlier, more innocuous-seeming parts of the novel. It's profoundly moving by the end and can be a hard read/listen but well worth the effort.

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powerful & disturbing - needs concentration!

This is a story told backwards. It takes a bit of getting used to; you need to concentrate much harder, particularly with dialogue. The mysterious narrator, however, does not know that he is telling the story backwards, and his increasingly grotesque misinterpretation of events is both painfully funny and increasingly disturbing - particularly as it is all expressed in Martin Amis' quite brilliant prose. A very powerful and thought provoking book. Steven Pacey, who has narrated several of Ammis' books, turns in a tour de force - absolutely superb.

In short a disturbing book, but a very worthwhile book. I would strongly recommend it, but it is not a light listen!

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5 people found this helpful

Superb dark brilliance..

As ever Mr Amis has impressed. What a mind he has, to create such dark yet poetic marvellousness. Highly recommended.

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cracking

awesome book. thought provoking and highly original.
well worth a listen.


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Not meant for audio format

As its backwards, conversation are awkward to follow, in print you would read it back

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1 person found this helpful