So I wasn't surprised there. And I think Harkaway is right - if he had started from the beginning, it would've been very difficult to include all the stuff he included now, or to do it with the same pace.

I found the first chapter gripping enough - my only problem with it is that, looking back, it seems dishonest - even more so than the rest of the book. Because it's not just about the big twist, it's also that things are still presented in a fairly black and white way - inside the Pipe, good, outside it, bad - which, by the very end of the flashback and hence the time the first chapter ought to take place, is no longer how our protagonist sees things.