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sylviaisme's review against another edition
4.0
[b:Le benevole|9703057|Le benevole|Jonathan Littell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459074223s/9703057.jpg|2916549] è un romanzo impegnativo, anche perché di fatto, leggendolo, si ha la sensazione che del romanzo questo libro abbia poco, tanta è l'immedesimazione che suscita nel lettore.
Max Aue, protagonista e voce narrante, è un ex-ufficiale delle SS e criminale di guerra che in seguito alla caduta del Reich trova rifugio in Francia dove, sotto falso nome, ricomincia una vita apparentemente normale come direttore di un'azienda che produce merletti. Ma Max è ciò che di meno ordinario ci si possa aspettare da un Obersturmbannführer del suo livello: è omosessuale, ossessionato dalla sorella gemella Una che è l'unico vero amore della sua vita e con cui ha un rapporto incestuoso; è coprofilo, un soggetto psicologicamente disturbato ma eccezionalmente colto, una personalità eccessiva che soffre di deliri e allucinazioni che risulta difficile considerare totalmente irreali e che trascinano il lettore nel suo stesso buio più nero e profondo. Un buio in cui si resta invischiati, un inesorabile declino (fisico, psicologico, di un'intera nazione) ed un orrore, quello della guerra e dell'attuazione della Soluzione Finale, che si rivive a braccetto con il protagonista in ogni fase e dettaglio più crudo, nonostante egli non influenzi in modo sostanziale il corso degli eventi.
Ma per quanto Max sia morboso, eccessivo, fortemente disturbato, è estremamente convincente nel suo tentativo di corrompere il lettore se non a compatirlo almeno a giustificarlo ("Io sono colpevole, voi non lo siete, mi sta bene. Ma dovreste comunque essere capaci di dire a voi stessi che ciò che ho fatto io, l’avreste fatto anche voi. Forse con meno zelo, ma anche con meno disperazione.") e lascia al lettore il delicato compito di giudicarlo.
È incredibile ed altrettanto notevole il lavoro di immedesimazione e ricostruzione storica di Littell nel comporre un'opera di questo calibro, quasi a metà tra narrativa e saggistica per il grado di dettaglio e fedeltà alla realtà storica. Affrontare [b:Le benevole|9703057|Le benevole|Jonathan Littell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459074223s/9703057.jpg|2916549] è stato un'esperienza di lettura lunga, spesso faticosa, scomoda -l'ultima parte poi è davvero delirio allo stato puro-, e sento di doverla far decantare il tempo necessario, ma ammetto di sentirmi sollevata di esserne arrivata alla conclusione per poter prendere le distanze da quell'orrore... per quanto mi riguarda, vivere con Max Aue per 16 giorni è stato abbastanza.
Max Aue, protagonista e voce narrante, è un ex-ufficiale delle SS e criminale di guerra che in seguito alla caduta del Reich trova rifugio in Francia dove, sotto falso nome, ricomincia una vita apparentemente normale come direttore di un'azienda che produce merletti. Ma Max è ciò che di meno ordinario ci si possa aspettare da un Obersturmbannführer del suo livello: è omosessuale, ossessionato dalla sorella gemella Una che è l'unico vero amore della sua vita e con cui ha un rapporto incestuoso; è coprofilo, un soggetto psicologicamente disturbato ma eccezionalmente colto, una personalità eccessiva che soffre di deliri e allucinazioni che risulta difficile considerare totalmente irreali e che trascinano il lettore nel suo stesso buio più nero e profondo. Un buio in cui si resta invischiati, un inesorabile declino (fisico, psicologico, di un'intera nazione) ed un orrore, quello della guerra e dell'attuazione della Soluzione Finale, che si rivive a braccetto con il protagonista in ogni fase e dettaglio più crudo, nonostante egli non influenzi in modo sostanziale il corso degli eventi.
Ma per quanto Max sia morboso, eccessivo, fortemente disturbato, è estremamente convincente nel suo tentativo di corrompere il lettore se non a compatirlo almeno a giustificarlo ("Io sono colpevole, voi non lo siete, mi sta bene. Ma dovreste comunque essere capaci di dire a voi stessi che ciò che ho fatto io, l’avreste fatto anche voi. Forse con meno zelo, ma anche con meno disperazione.") e lascia al lettore il delicato compito di giudicarlo.
È incredibile ed altrettanto notevole il lavoro di immedesimazione e ricostruzione storica di Littell nel comporre un'opera di questo calibro, quasi a metà tra narrativa e saggistica per il grado di dettaglio e fedeltà alla realtà storica. Affrontare [b:Le benevole|9703057|Le benevole|Jonathan Littell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459074223s/9703057.jpg|2916549] è stato un'esperienza di lettura lunga, spesso faticosa, scomoda -l'ultima parte poi è davvero delirio allo stato puro-, e sento di doverla far decantare il tempo necessario, ma ammetto di sentirmi sollevata di esserne arrivata alla conclusione per poter prendere le distanze da quell'orrore... per quanto mi riguarda, vivere con Max Aue per 16 giorni è stato abbastanza.
bottim's review against another edition
dark
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Incest, Sexual content, Rape, and Murder
laurapk's review
2.0
There is no reason why this book needed to be this long. It started off as a potentially interesting exploration of the banality of evil, it promised accuracy but then it got bogged down in fever dreams. Hundreds of thousands of words that are a fever dream. You want to understand how the Holocaust was possible and how it may happen again and may be starting again as we speak? Read "The Escape Artist", read the "Night" trilogy, read from the perspective of the victims as well. Of course we are all capable of re-enacting the holocaust. The proof is in this novel's publication as well: Ellie Wiesel had to cut down his account of real events written from the perspective of a Jewish man who survived Auschwitz to a merely 100 pages, because we cannot tolerate such atrocities described by the victim. But when the atrocities are written from the perspective of the perpetrator? We will publish a 970 page book without paragraphs. The French published both works. And one received accolades right off the bat. Explain that to me.
The whole banality of evil is also undermined by the author's decision to have the main character be gay and incestuous. That cliche was being challenged for its homophobia and inaccuracy back in 2007 when the book was published, so the author cannot claim not to have know. It was a conscious decision which cheapens the reality: that a lot of people, not a few special ones, collaborated enthusiastically in the evil acts of WW2 and will do so again (may try to do so again, based on recent events). I do not care for the myth of the Androgyn, for subverting the expectation of beauty, for the Dostoevskyan philosophy, for the War and Peace comparisons. The final result is a repulsive tone-death experiment that failed to contain itself. An editor and some discipline could have made this an interesting interrogation of evil and xenophobia. Instead it became the fever dream of a deranged incestuous homosexual. And do not compare it with "2666" -- that novel actually bothered to insert an anchor in the name of Lalo; 2666 actually made the reader understand how we become enured to evil, without forgetting about the victims, without spitting on them. There was light in that novel; there was only indulgence in "The Kindly Ones" and insufficient thought on harm. Go ahead and defend this novel, but I learned more about the themes and history of this book from the perspective of Holocaust survivors. I regret the time I spent reading this novel, it did not deliver on its promises.
The whole banality of evil is also undermined by the author's decision to have the main character be gay and incestuous. That cliche was being challenged for its homophobia and inaccuracy back in 2007 when the book was published, so the author cannot claim not to have know. It was a conscious decision which cheapens the reality: that a lot of people, not a few special ones, collaborated enthusiastically in the evil acts of WW2 and will do so again (may try to do so again, based on recent events). I do not care for the myth of the Androgyn, for subverting the expectation of beauty, for the Dostoevskyan philosophy, for the War and Peace comparisons. The final result is a repulsive tone-death experiment that failed to contain itself. An editor and some discipline could have made this an interesting interrogation of evil and xenophobia. Instead it became the fever dream of a deranged incestuous homosexual. And do not compare it with "2666" -- that novel actually bothered to insert an anchor in the name of Lalo; 2666 actually made the reader understand how we become enured to evil, without forgetting about the victims, without spitting on them. There was light in that novel; there was only indulgence in "The Kindly Ones" and insufficient thought on harm. Go ahead and defend this novel, but I learned more about the themes and history of this book from the perspective of Holocaust survivors. I regret the time I spent reading this novel, it did not deliver on its promises.
bookherd's review
I'm not rating this because I only got to p. 73. I'm not tough enough to read this book, although I would like to be able to. The narrator, Dr. Aue, is a fascinating character who has enough self awareness to describe his getting involved with the Nazis as being drawn in by the Devil, but who also deceives himself about his ability to cope with the atrocities he has committed. However, I can't cope with reading in harrowing detail about the atrocities, so I will leave this book for others to review.
vision__'s review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sloatsj's review against another edition
4.0
Reading “The Kindly Ones” is like roaming around a dilapidated mansion – it begs you to explore; it is both fascinating and repulsive. The book is very ambitious, and it’s a pleasure to read literature that takes on a serious if uncomfortable subject, and literature that takes itself seriously. I would have given this five stars, and I do find it largely successful, but there are some snags in the subplot that don’t quite work.
The overarching historical plot works well. The protagonist, Maximilien Aue, visits the WWII hot spots: Babi Yar, Stalingrad, Auschwitz, and Berlin as it falls. I found the perspective gripping. And rather than finding his interaction with actual notorious Nazis ridiculous - Himmler, Speer, Eichmann, Höss, Mengele, Hitler and Bormann, his mustache brush - I found the approach better than fictionalizing the bigwigs with aliases we’d have to guess at. Mostly, I appreciated the point of view – I’ve read other WWII novels but few if any in which we’re escorted through by a perpetrator of the Holocaust. It’s a privileged if disgusting view. While there is obscene crime in the book, no need to get all righteous about it and refuse to read on. (If your stomach is weak, don’t even try this book.) The protagonist would tell you that everything that happened in WWII was caused by human beings, not monsters or genetic mutants. Aue himself doesn’t seem designed to represent some horrid beast. For the most part, he appears to be a cultivated, educated but otherwise ordinary man sucked into the infernal machine.
And yet – and here comes my problem with the subplot – he’s not some ordinary man. He is one fucked-up cookie with some heavy issues, mostly being obsessively in love with his twin sister, with whom he longs to be one. And he unfairly despises his French mother, whom he feels betrayed his German father, thus setting up psychologically Aue’s allegiance to the Fatherland. And he is not just compelled to murder as a consequence of war, but he’s also an out-and-out murderer. Aue would also have preferred to be a woman. No sin there, but definitely not some ordinary guy tricked into doing the devil’s business. His sexual perversions don’t stop at desiring his sister. He also gets it on with a specially whittled tree branch at the tail-end of an excessive and prolonged masturbatory orgy. The fantasies! Ugh. I was both surprised and not surprised that “The Kindly Ones” won the “Bad Sex Award” for fiction in 2009. Not for sex that takes place – rather a wet dream. Oy.
At the end, Aue is pursued both by oncoming Russians but also by “the kindly ones,” aka the Furies, for his personal crimes. I both enjoyed this mix of main plot/subplot and found it distracting. And in all cases, Aue knows he is guilty and yet doesn’t seem to regret anything, for various reasons.
On the downside, the author does tend to go off on tangents that can be worse than tedious – they’re sometimes hard to follow. Many deal with bureaucratic issues, but for me the most exasperating was the long monologue on Caucasian linguistics by Aue’s friend Voss. I suppose the point about the difficulty and/or futility of being able to identify a language’s/people’s true origins was clear, still the author really begged the reader’s patience. I can only imagine that such passages are intended to play up the contrast of how tedium exists alongside horror. Nevertheless, whereas I would have given up on other books, this was too interesting to put down. Once the dull spots were slogged through, it was easy to get caught up again.
My favorite parts of the book were the hallucinatory segments. When Aue’s arm frees itself from his body of its own accord and goes off shooting wildly, disconnected from him. When he is shot in Stalingrad and suddenly he’s swimming the Volga, then floating about in a dirigible with a mad scientist type. When the masturbatory episode exhausts itself and Aue imagines a dead figure in the snow.
Finally, I liked the figure of Helene. It was important to me that she was part of the book. The scene where Aue tells her what the deal out east really is brings it home for me. She says the German people will have to pay for their crimes, and Aue responds, yes, if they lose, their enemies will be pitiless. But Helene says even if the Germans win they are going to pay. So true! I found her a sobering anchor-point in this sprawling book. Unfortunately, Helene has to be abandoned, because Aue is guilty and condemned and although human, he must be divorced from human comfort.
The overarching historical plot works well. The protagonist, Maximilien Aue, visits the WWII hot spots: Babi Yar, Stalingrad, Auschwitz, and Berlin as it falls. I found the perspective gripping. And rather than finding his interaction with actual notorious Nazis ridiculous - Himmler, Speer, Eichmann, Höss, Mengele, Hitler and Bormann, his mustache brush - I found the approach better than fictionalizing the bigwigs with aliases we’d have to guess at. Mostly, I appreciated the point of view – I’ve read other WWII novels but few if any in which we’re escorted through by a perpetrator of the Holocaust. It’s a privileged if disgusting view. While there is obscene crime in the book, no need to get all righteous about it and refuse to read on. (If your stomach is weak, don’t even try this book.) The protagonist would tell you that everything that happened in WWII was caused by human beings, not monsters or genetic mutants. Aue himself doesn’t seem designed to represent some horrid beast. For the most part, he appears to be a cultivated, educated but otherwise ordinary man sucked into the infernal machine.
And yet – and here comes my problem with the subplot – he’s not some ordinary man. He is one fucked-up cookie with some heavy issues, mostly being obsessively in love with his twin sister, with whom he longs to be one. And he unfairly despises his French mother, whom he feels betrayed his German father, thus setting up psychologically Aue’s allegiance to the Fatherland. And he is not just compelled to murder as a consequence of war, but he’s also an out-and-out murderer. Aue would also have preferred to be a woman. No sin there, but definitely not some ordinary guy tricked into doing the devil’s business. His sexual perversions don’t stop at desiring his sister. He also gets it on with a specially whittled tree branch at the tail-end of an excessive and prolonged masturbatory orgy. The fantasies! Ugh. I was both surprised and not surprised that “The Kindly Ones” won the “Bad Sex Award” for fiction in 2009. Not for sex that takes place – rather a wet dream. Oy.
At the end, Aue is pursued both by oncoming Russians but also by “the kindly ones,” aka the Furies, for his personal crimes. I both enjoyed this mix of main plot/subplot and found it distracting. And in all cases, Aue knows he is guilty and yet doesn’t seem to regret anything, for various reasons.
On the downside, the author does tend to go off on tangents that can be worse than tedious – they’re sometimes hard to follow. Many deal with bureaucratic issues, but for me the most exasperating was the long monologue on Caucasian linguistics by Aue’s friend Voss. I suppose the point about the difficulty and/or futility of being able to identify a language’s/people’s true origins was clear, still the author really begged the reader’s patience. I can only imagine that such passages are intended to play up the contrast of how tedium exists alongside horror. Nevertheless, whereas I would have given up on other books, this was too interesting to put down. Once the dull spots were slogged through, it was easy to get caught up again.
My favorite parts of the book were the hallucinatory segments. When Aue’s arm frees itself from his body of its own accord and goes off shooting wildly, disconnected from him. When he is shot in Stalingrad and suddenly he’s swimming the Volga, then floating about in a dirigible with a mad scientist type. When the masturbatory episode exhausts itself and Aue imagines a dead figure in the snow.
Finally, I liked the figure of Helene. It was important to me that she was part of the book. The scene where Aue tells her what the deal out east really is brings it home for me. She says the German people will have to pay for their crimes, and Aue responds, yes, if they lose, their enemies will be pitiless. But Helene says even if the Germans win they are going to pay. So true! I found her a sobering anchor-point in this sprawling book. Unfortunately, Helene has to be abandoned, because Aue is guilty and condemned and although human, he must be divorced from human comfort.
fevi's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
As Benevolentes é um livro com muitas partes boas, discussões interessantes e com partes curiosas. Não é um livro fácil. Não só pela temática, mas também pelo tamanho e complexidade. Com certeza deixei de pegar inúmeras referências. Littell fez uma pesquisa grandiosa e colocou o que pode no livro.
O livro poderia ser menor, mas não sei o que o autor poderia tirar. Sinceramente, nem se consigo analisar direito. Mas tenho certeza que ninguém sai ileso da leitura.
É uma história que pode ser várias coisas e pode não ser uma leitura agradável. Nem todo mundo vai gostar (isso é uma certeza), mas sinto que aprendi algo lendo o livro.
Não sei se recomendo.
O livro poderia ser menor, mas não sei o que o autor poderia tirar. Sinceramente, nem se consigo analisar direito. Mas tenho certeza que ninguém sai ileso da leitura.
É uma história que pode ser várias coisas e pode não ser uma leitura agradável. Nem todo mundo vai gostar (isso é uma certeza), mas sinto que aprendi algo lendo o livro.
Não sei se recomendo.
jhouses's review against another edition
4.0
Un libro muy dificil de leer, tanto por la terrible historia como por la tremenda exigencia de conocimientos previos para paladearlo. Historia europea antigua y reciente, literatura, música, filosofía, terminología militar (especialidad 2a Guerra Mundial europea) estan entre lo mínimo que necesitas para no perderte en la narración. Aguante para tolerar la profunda maldad que describe sabiendo que es una novela pero que lo que cuenta y cosas peores ocurrieron en nuestra triste Europa y van camino de volver a ocurrir. Es fascinante, como un enorme grano de pus. Sabes que vas a sufrir pero también te ves impelido a reventarlo.
Un narrador despreciable, poco fiable, descarnado, monótono y locuaz en su monstruosidad pero que aterra más por lo semejante que por los rasgos de psicópata. Una historia en primera persona que te sumerge y solo te expulsa en ciertos momentos forzados como las secuencias oníricas y los delirios que salpican la historia.
Estructurada en partes cuyo tono refleja el crecimiento personal del personaje una triste invasión de Ucrania llena de brutalidad y exterminio amateur que va minando al protagonista.
Stalingrado donde la adversidad y derrota destruyen los últimos restos de humanidad de Aue.
Berlín: donde un Aue se acercamiento a la Solución Final como proceso industrial y despersonalizado.
El frenesí de la Solución final y el comienzo de la derrota en el frente del Este y por fin la caída del Reich y la huída tienen su contrapartida en la vida personal del protagonista que justifica los crímenes del nazismo mientras es incapaz de ver los suyos personales.
Solo las Furias, las Benévolas, podrán hacer pagar sus crímenes a quien consiguió (como Speer) escapar de la justicia de los aliados.
No se si podría volver a leerlo pero desde luego es un gran libro.
Un narrador despreciable, poco fiable, descarnado, monótono y locuaz en su monstruosidad pero que aterra más por lo semejante que por los rasgos de psicópata. Una historia en primera persona que te sumerge y solo te expulsa en ciertos momentos forzados como las secuencias oníricas y los delirios que salpican la historia.
Estructurada en partes cuyo tono refleja el crecimiento personal del personaje una triste invasión de Ucrania llena de brutalidad y exterminio amateur que va minando al protagonista.
Stalingrado donde la adversidad y derrota destruyen los últimos restos de humanidad de Aue.
Berlín: donde un Aue se acercamiento a la Solución Final como proceso industrial y despersonalizado.
El frenesí de la Solución final y el comienzo de la derrota en el frente del Este y por fin la caída del Reich y la huída tienen su contrapartida en la vida personal del protagonista que justifica los crímenes del nazismo mientras es incapaz de ver los suyos personales.
Solo las Furias, las Benévolas, podrán hacer pagar sus crímenes a quien consiguió (como Speer) escapar de la justicia de los aliados.
No se si podría volver a leerlo pero desde luego es un gran libro.
laurenhurley97's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I’ve never encountered a book more in need of an editor. If cut to its core, this book had a lot of potential to be very insightful, but the point got lost in all the tedium and useless asides.
lilinas's review
adventurous
dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Antisemitism, War, Genocide, Xenophobia, and Incest
Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, and Vomit
Minor: Rape and Torture