The Twinkling of an Eye opens with Aldiss heading off to Burma, to join the XIV Army, the "Forgotten Army," in driving the Japanese from that country toward the end of World War II. This sets a topic to be returned to throughout the book: Aldiss' wide-ranging travels. Aldiss follows with a series of chapters, ordered somewhat impressionistically, which tell of his young life, his less than idyllic experience in public schools, and of his somewhat difficult relationship with his parents.

Aldiss continues with a description of his years in the Army, mopping up the Japanese in Burma, then spending a couple of years in India just prior to independence, and in Sumatra. After leaving the Army, Aldiss moved to Oxford, and worked in a couple of bookshops. At this time he got married, sold his first stories, started writing the sketches which became The Brightfount Diaries, and had his first son.

The rest of the book is a bit more episodic. The sections concerning his first marriage, and especially its breakup, are very moving, even as Aldiss is still understandably reticent about the details. The pain and sense of failure he felt, and the agony of losing his children, especially his newborn daughter, are keenly portrayed. This dovetails into a period of depression and poverty, coupled with increasing artistic success in his fiction. It seems that Aldiss' marriage to Margaret Manson largely brought him out of his funk. Just as he keenly portrayed his depression over the failure of his first marriage, he is able to convey quite wonderfully his love for Margaret, and the happiness she brought him. Later, a rocky patch in their marriage, coinciding with Aldiss' contracting Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, or, as he prefers, Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome (PVFS), is described with bitter honesty.

A life is not a story, really. Thus Aldiss does not tell this book in a linear fashion, nor does he hew to a narrative structure. The later chapters are mini-essays, covering various aspects of his later life: travels to places like Yugoslavia and Denmark; the United States and China; his feelings about Science Fiction, its history, and worth, and its treatment by mainstream critics; a look back at a critical year spent in Sumatra, and his later return to that island; the writing of a select few of his books, most notably the Helliconia trilogy; his experiences with acting and movie-making, including time spent working on a (never completed) project with Stanley Kubrick; his relationships with his wife and children and sister; some brief comments on political matters; and finally a fascinating account of his visit to Turkmenistan, which occurred only after he had written a book set there.

I was quite absorbed by this book, and quite moved. I found it fascinating reading throughout. Aldiss has always been a bit of a peripheral figure in my reading: I've read several of his books, but not by any means most of them; I certainly admire his writing but he's never made my list of favourites. This book will spur me to try more. But quite aside from that, if you don't read his fiction at all, I think this is a very worthwhile account of the life of a man in this century. Definitely recommended.