Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis, author of the marvelous The Information http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-information-by-martin-amis-is-first.html - 9 out of 10

 

Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis, author of the marvelous The Information http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-information-by-martin-amis-is-first.html

9 out of 10

 

 

The father of the author, Kingsley Amis, is one of my favorite authors and very likely the one with a personal record, for I have read the biggest number of books in this case, very recently I have finished the spectacular The Russian Girl and that may have been novel number sixteen (it is not a technical issue we need to argue over here, but if we were, then among those there is the fabulous Memoirs, which is a different genre) http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/10/note-on-memoirs-by-kingsley-amis.html

 

It is more than intriguing, baffling to have this rara avis, the one called the best writer of comedies in the second half of the twentieth century, and then in the same family, the son becomes one of the most acclaimed authors in his turn, both father and son are included on The All-TIME 100 Novels list https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/all/ and not only in this prestigious selection

The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read compilation has Martin Amis with three works, The Information, Money and London Fields, while his father has only one, phenomenal Lucky Jim https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction though I am putting twenty of his on my recommendations

 

Lucky Jim is the quintessential comedy, nec plus ultra, nothing can be better if you ask me, and I look forward to reading it again…and again http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis.html

If I could read much more of the magnum opera of the father, I must say that I have enjoyed The Information very much, and found Money way more challenging http://realini.blogspot.com/2020/03/money-suicide-note-by-martin-amis-10.html

 

Nonetheless, Time’s Arrow has been a Bridge To Far, in that I am not equipped to take it on, at least not further than the thirty percent I have reached on the Kindle, or if I could get to the end, it would not be a rewarding experience

At least it does not look like it in the current climate, maybe it is the war in Ukraine, the colder weather and the rising energy prices, the prospect of economic crisis that is hitting more and more places.

 

I could also blame the lamentable sight that I have to face every morning, when I jog at the Mogosoaia Palace, a couple of miles away, where they have the ‘public’ lights on, but access for the public is…forbidden

 

 

However, this would be in many ways beside the point, for yes, the circumstances, the background where the book is taken on do matter, but I fear that in another context, Time’s Arrow would have presented the same challenge.

It has to do with focusing on the pages, which is getting harder – this could be because I am approaching thirty-five in my dreams, and fifty-nine in reality – and this could be something plaguing everybody.

 

In the age of the smart phone, people are becoming stupid (to quote a joke made by Bill Maher on his comedy show) and they cannot stay on the same page for long, especially if we are talking Kafka or Beckett.

The latter refers to To the Hermitage http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html in which Malcolm Bradbury argues over the advantage that fictional characters have over the real ones, the former are wiser, more enticing, attractive than the latter, for most of the time…

 

If we are not talking about Kafka or Beckett, the events in the literary world are more interesting, challenging, thought provoking and we can get there from our room or bed, and immerse into the ‘five thousand lives that the readers have access to’ according to Umberto Eco, who says that this is eternity backwards

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world