I bought this because I read an essay in which someone referred to it, and when looking up the origin of the reference, it struck me as an premise for a book. It turns out that the book works as an interesting thought experiment, and an exercise in highly impressive technical writing but it is not a work of beauty.
The basic premise of the book is that it is narrated by an observer (an entity of some kind of spiritual/mental nature) who accompanies a person throughout his life, but the observer experiences time backwards rather than forwards. The observer can see through the person's eyes, and hear things (conversations are related backwards, but thankfully each line is written forwards - nonetheless, it isn't very easy to read as a result). The observer is also aware of the person's moods.
So, the story starts with the death of the person, which is experienced as a birth by the observer.
The rest of the story basically involves going through a life backwards. That's about it.
It is quite an interesting life, I suppose... (I won't say what the character did when he was younger).
And it was actually worth reading, just because the writing must have involved a lot of thought, and was thus able to offer up a new perspective on human actions. Ethically, for example, being a doctor looks strange when you observe it backwards: it appears that all these healthy people are gradually disassembled and made unwell by the doctor.
This worked again and again for different aspects of human experience. It was intellectually stimulating purely on that front. But still, it was not a pleasant read, and I would definitely not recommend it for enjoyment.
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