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Time's Arrow
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Plot Summary of Time's Arrow
"Life is weird for the narrator of Time's Arrow. Things just don't seem to make sense. People walk backwards. Cars drive backwards. More importantly, he can't really seem to get inside the head of the body he inhabits, that of Dr. Tod Friendly: it's as though they are two separate selves. The man ditches his lovers, has sex with them, and then seduces them. Every Sunday he takes money out of the collection plate at church. He finds bits of himself in the trash: teeth, hair, and so forth. The man works as a doctor, breaking small children who come to see him. The narrator talks about his aversion to the doctor, describing the heinous acts he performs both on the children and in everyday life.

Life goes on for the two of them until time finally flows backwards to the one era and place in which it all makes sense for the narrator: the source of the doctor's literal, and spiritual, guilt. This causes a crisis of identity within the narrator. Has he been a separate entity all along, or just another part of the doctor? What could have caused time to flow backwards and morality to reverse in the first place?"

Miranda, Resident Scholar



Review Analysis of Time's Arrow
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book? - thoughtful
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over - vague finding self/purpose in life (i.e. no plot to book)
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - doctor
Age: - 40's-50's
Eccentric/Mental Yes
Eccentric: - deluded - emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality - German
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 6 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - Germany
City? Yes
City: - New York

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very explicit references to deaths and torture
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - actual description of hetero sex
Unusual Style: - a lot of flashback and forwards - a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to Time's Arrow
A Quest Among the Bewildered by Wulf Zendik
Seduction of the Minotaur by Anais Nin
The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
Next Year in Jerusalem by Brian C Petti
Heroes by Robert Cormier


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Martin Amis Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Miranda  

SCHOLARS:
Gary Johns  


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