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koeniginmag's review against another edition
3.0
A story of déja-vu, written thousands and thousands of time, but this time with one of the best hands of this century. A masterpiece of literature skills, a little too gore for me at some point, though.
mr_houses'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.
gilmusings's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
tim_g's review
4.0
A 975-page novel probably isn't the best for the first "microreview," especially one as widely praised and condemned as Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones.
The book won two of France's highest literary awards before being translated into English -- although it is written by an American. It is the fictional, but exceptionally well researched, memoir of Max Aue, a Nazi SS officer who survived the war and remains unapologetic about National Socialism, its aims and his involvement in what became known as the Holocaust. When you combine Aue's lack of guilt with his incest, scatological references, brutal homosexual encounters and possible murder of his mother and stepfather, this is not a pleasant read. Still, it is an unquestionably intriguing and unvarnished exploration of the psychology -- or abnormal psychology -- of Nazism's true believers.
The readability of the work is not helped by its typography. Littell uses a quotation style with which Americans are unfamiliar, he loves commas and he avoids paragraph breaks. Thus, many paragraphs in the book's seven chapters, all named for 17th Century dances, can run on for two or more pages. Substantively, The Kindly Ones can be criticized as at times far-fetched given Aue's somewhat miraculous escapes from death and his personal contact with a true rogue's gallery -- Himmler, Heydrich, Speer, Eichmann and even, in a somewhat ludicrous scene, Hitler. But Littell's focus isn't necessarily external events or history. He tries to look much deeper, to take us inside how seemingly ordinary men committed such horrendous acts. He forces us to examine the question of evil in man, whether banal or otherwise. These are inherently unpleasant inquiries.
Littell sometimes lets Aue expound on history, philosophy and the arts at perhaps too much length. That said, the unique, albeit disturbing, perspective The Kindly Ones gives on some of history's greatest atrocities makes it a book that can and should be considered an "important" work of fiction.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
The book won two of France's highest literary awards before being translated into English -- although it is written by an American. It is the fictional, but exceptionally well researched, memoir of Max Aue, a Nazi SS officer who survived the war and remains unapologetic about National Socialism, its aims and his involvement in what became known as the Holocaust. When you combine Aue's lack of guilt with his incest, scatological references, brutal homosexual encounters and possible murder of his mother and stepfather, this is not a pleasant read. Still, it is an unquestionably intriguing and unvarnished exploration of the psychology -- or abnormal psychology -- of Nazism's true believers.
The readability of the work is not helped by its typography. Littell uses a quotation style with which Americans are unfamiliar, he loves commas and he avoids paragraph breaks. Thus, many paragraphs in the book's seven chapters, all named for 17th Century dances, can run on for two or more pages. Substantively, The Kindly Ones can be criticized as at times far-fetched given Aue's somewhat miraculous escapes from death and his personal contact with a true rogue's gallery -- Himmler, Heydrich, Speer, Eichmann and even, in a somewhat ludicrous scene, Hitler. But Littell's focus isn't necessarily external events or history. He tries to look much deeper, to take us inside how seemingly ordinary men committed such horrendous acts. He forces us to examine the question of evil in man, whether banal or otherwise. These are inherently unpleasant inquiries.
Littell sometimes lets Aue expound on history, philosophy and the arts at perhaps too much length. That said, the unique, albeit disturbing, perspective The Kindly Ones gives on some of history's greatest atrocities makes it a book that can and should be considered an "important" work of fiction.
(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie)
nikaisokay's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bustink's review
challenging
dark
tense
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
4.75
A phenomenal book, which took me a while to finish. Legitimate doubts have been raised by some reviewers over the abundant presence of explicitly violent and sexual scenes. Are they really necessary to this story? I am not sure, but I do think that the twisted mind of protagonist Max Aue makes everything in this story so much more real, his sexual dreams, hallucinations, desires in a perverse sense seem to mirror the experiences of violence and gore, the insane dehumanization of death and suffering, in the everyday lifeworld, as if a sick and disturbed society cannot lead to anything else but severe problems in the psyche -which is largely true, I guess.
chantal_i's review against another edition
Un livre très dur qui parle de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale du point de vue d'un officier SS. On part de Berlin pour se retrouver à Stalingrad, en chemin on a des descriptions terrible sur la manière dont les nazis tuaient les gens, pour se retrouver à Berlin en passant par différents camps de concentration. Les descriptions sont horribles, le personnage principal Max Aue est monstrueux. C'est rare d'arriver à terminer un livre si volumineux alors qu'on a aucune sympathie pour le personnage. Dans les rares moments où on le prend presqu'en pitié, tout de suite un nouvel évènement nous le fait détester encore plus.
Impossible de donner des étoiles à ce livre. Je ne peux pas dire que je l'ai aimé, mais je l'ai trouvé intéressant. Parfois, c'était presqu'une fascination morbide pour le personnage - on espére presque qu'il finisse par devenir humain.
Impossible de donner des étoiles à ce livre. Je ne peux pas dire que je l'ai aimé, mais je l'ai trouvé intéressant. Parfois, c'était presqu'une fascination morbide pour le personnage - on espére presque qu'il finisse par devenir humain.
starrover's review against another edition
5.0
Това не е роман, това е целият Ад, набутан между две корици.
Има книги, за чието съществуване ни се иска да забравим, защото показват най-уродливата и отблъскваща страна на човешката природа, страна, за която не ни се иска да повярваме, че изобщо съществува. “Доброжелателните” е една от тях. Тази книга е нелицеприятна, нищо красиво, достойно и доблестно няма в “Доброжелателните”, както и във войната. Нито една положителна емоция няма да изпитате от четенето й. Въпреки това я препоръчвам силно, защото това е книга, която човек да си задава въпроси и да търси отговори, като едновременно с това припомня колко грозна може да е човешката природа понякога.
Има книги, за чието съществуване ни се иска да забравим, защото показват най-уродливата и отблъскваща страна на човешката природа, страна, за която не ни се иска да повярваме, че изобщо съществува. “Доброжелателните” е една от тях. Тази книга е нелицеприятна, нищо красиво, достойно и доблестно няма в “Доброжелателните”, както и във войната. Нито една положителна емоция няма да изпитате от четенето й. Въпреки това я препоръчвам силно, защото това е книга, която човек да си задава въпроси и да търси отговори, като едновременно с това припомня колко грозна може да е човешката природа понякога.