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lidotchka's review against another edition
5.0
English review below
| FR |
Des raccourcis un peu faciles, de la psychologie de comptoir, un bras d'honneur à l'histoire... Tout me prédestinait à ne pas aimer ce roman !
Mais j'ai quand même tenté l'aventure en me disant que ça devait être amusant de refaire l'histoire avec des "si". Et je ne regrette pas du tout cette décision: ce livre est génial !
On suit en parallèle deux histoires (attention, la compréhension est parfois un peu compliquée si on n'est pas concentré à 100%): celle du Adolf Hitler que nous connaissons tous et qui est malgré tout un peu beaucoup romancée, et celle de l'homme qu'il aurait pu devenir s'il avait été reçu aux Beaux-Arts de Vienne. Bien entendu, c'est un peau facile de penser qui s'il avait eu l'opportunité de devenir peintre, tout aurait vraiment changé, mais c'est une œuvre de fiction après tout !
Bref, le concept de ce livre est clairement amusant et donne l'occasion de refaire le monde le temps d'une lecture.
| EN |
Some easy leaps, pop psychology, a V-sign to history... I should have hated this book!
Anyway, I tried to read it, thinking it could be fun to recreate history, and I don't regret this decision because this book is terrific!
There are two stories simultaneously (the comprehension could be a little bit hard sometimes if you're not 100% concentrate): the story of the Adolf Hitler we all know and which is quite fictionalized, and the story of the man he could have become if he had been accepted to the Beaux-Arts of Vienne. Of course, it may be quite easy to think if Adolf Hitler became a painter, everything would have been different, but that's fictional after all!
The concept of this book is clearly fun and gives us a chance to recreate history during the time of the reading.
| FR |
Des raccourcis un peu faciles, de la psychologie de comptoir, un bras d'honneur à l'histoire... Tout me prédestinait à ne pas aimer ce roman !
Mais j'ai quand même tenté l'aventure en me disant que ça devait être amusant de refaire l'histoire avec des "si". Et je ne regrette pas du tout cette décision: ce livre est génial !
On suit en parallèle deux histoires (attention, la compréhension est parfois un peu compliquée si on n'est pas concentré à 100%): celle du Adolf Hitler que nous connaissons tous et qui est malgré tout un peu beaucoup romancée, et celle de l'homme qu'il aurait pu devenir s'il avait été reçu aux Beaux-Arts de Vienne. Bien entendu, c'est un peau facile de penser qui s'il avait eu l'opportunité de devenir peintre, tout aurait vraiment changé, mais c'est une œuvre de fiction après tout !
Bref, le concept de ce livre est clairement amusant et donne l'occasion de refaire le monde le temps d'une lecture.
| EN |
Some easy leaps, pop psychology, a V-sign to history... I should have hated this book!
Anyway, I tried to read it, thinking it could be fun to recreate history, and I don't regret this decision because this book is terrific!
There are two stories simultaneously (the comprehension could be a little bit hard sometimes if you're not 100% concentrate): the story of the Adolf Hitler we all know and which is quite fictionalized, and the story of the man he could have become if he had been accepted to the Beaux-Arts of Vienne. Of course, it may be quite easy to think if Adolf Hitler became a painter, everything would have been different, but that's fictional after all!
The concept of this book is clearly fun and gives us a chance to recreate history during the time of the reading.
spellboundchapters's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
bynoha's review against another edition
1.0
Simplicity is often a good thing, but it needs a context that allows for a lot to be expressed in very little - it's not always necessary to have an enormous narrative apparatus to make a good book, nor perfectly detailed characterizations are always necessary. This book has a very simple style - it's big, but not a long read. However, I think the flaw of this book lies exactly in its simplicity, in the sense that everything, in this book, from the premise to the execution, is an over-simplification that, especially in the part relative to "Adolf H.", is, at times, unnerving.
But let's proceed in order: Schmitt's point was to prove that evil exists in all - to do this, his book starts by dividing into two different timelines, in which only one factor is altered: in the first, ours, Adolf Hitler gets rejected by the Vienna School of Arts, in the second he is accepted. While the first narration, which focuses on the real-life Hitler, often simplifies but also offers some interesting insights into certain parts of the darkest page of our history, it's in the second one that, in my opinion, problems begin to arise - for one, the pacing seems to be all over the place. More than five chapters are dedicated to "Adolf H." overcoming an obstacle early in his career and several more to his various love stories, while relevant events like the first world war or even his therapy sessions are very quickly liquidated. The language is very simple - too much, at times, which doesn't always suit the narrative.
Even more simple though, and in ways that sometimes struck me as almost lazy, is the characterization of the alternative Adolf Hitler. It's kinda overdone - is it plausible that Adolf Hitler, by the simple virtue of being accepted into an art school and following a few (and not very well written either) therapy sessions would turn into a perfectly good person, be a famous painter and marry a Jewish woman?
I get where the author wanted to go, but I frankly thought that part was overdone and had very limited introspection, which would have been fundamental to develop this (frankly interesting) concept better.
But let's proceed in order: Schmitt's point was to prove that evil exists in all - to do this, his book starts by dividing into two different timelines, in which only one factor is altered: in the first, ours, Adolf Hitler gets rejected by the Vienna School of Arts, in the second he is accepted. While the first narration, which focuses on the real-life Hitler, often simplifies but also offers some interesting insights into certain parts of the darkest page of our history, it's in the second one that, in my opinion, problems begin to arise - for one, the pacing seems to be all over the place. More than five chapters are dedicated to "Adolf H." overcoming an obstacle early in his career and several more to his various love stories, while relevant events like the first world war or even his therapy sessions are very quickly liquidated. The language is very simple - too much, at times, which doesn't always suit the narrative.
Even more simple though, and in ways that sometimes struck me as almost lazy, is the characterization of the alternative Adolf Hitler. It's kinda overdone - is it plausible that Adolf Hitler, by the simple virtue of being accepted into an art school and following a few (and not very well written either) therapy sessions would turn into a perfectly good person, be a famous painter and marry a Jewish woman?
I get where the author wanted to go, but I frankly thought that part was overdone and had very limited introspection, which would have been fundamental to develop this (frankly interesting) concept better.
erine05_'s review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
0celia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
__hel__'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wow, honnetement, full interessant!! Je trip pas trop romans historiques, mais ça ctais fckn bon et je recommande.
qls's review against another edition
2.0
something about this book felt extremely masculine to me, probably both the very idea of re-taking power over this figure, of humiliating him, as well as the roles women play and the way they are described.
in the end it's a potentially interesting premise, done in a very silly way and rather uninteresting way.
in the end it's a potentially interesting premise, done in a very silly way and rather uninteresting way.
solau2007's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Ceci était ma première lecture du renommé Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt et je dois dire que je n’ai pas été déçue. Car, même si Hitler est un personnage largement documenté, personne n’a abordé le sujet tel que l’auteur de La Part de l’Autre. En effet, E. E. S. a eu l’audace d’aborder celui-dont-il-ne-faut-pas-prononcer-le-nom et le culot d’avouer que ce monstre n’est autre qu’un homme qui aurait aussi bien pu être vous ou moi. C’était la meilleure claque que j’avais reçue de ma vie!
Je trouvais que le roman - en tant que simple amas de chapitres - était bon, mais lorsque j’ai lu le journal de l’auteur, le livre s’est illuminé! L’œuvre est devenue lourde de sens; tabous à éclairés, mensonges décortiqués, secrets dévoilés…
Je n’ai pas l’habitude des romans historiques ni biographiques, mais celui-ci était, malgré tout, une lecture agréable. Quelqu’un qui se passionne de l’histoire, des arts, de la vie du dictateur, appréciera certainement cette œuvre. Un seul point faible à noter, le livre comportait certaines longueurs qui de dévalorisent cependant pas le roman.
Bref, Schmitt est un brillant auteur qui peut se venter de la finesse de sa plume. J’ai dévoré son livre en attendant le moment fatidique où l’homme deviendrait la bête, en regardant se creuser une profonde tranchée entre ce qui fut et ce qui aurait pu être.
Je donne 4,25 à ce travail qui est bien plus qu’un livre, qui est une œuvre d’art.
miadesjardins's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
zephir's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5