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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
It Begins and Ends in Bad Politics
It is possible for human beings to justify all behaviour, no matter how irrational and cruel. Because this is so, some philosophers justify their view that moral norms must lie outside of human control, that there must be a God who knows what good behaviour is. This justification is also irrational and frequently just as cruel.
As for example when the philosophers and theologians of Nazism preached radical anti-Semitism based on universal genetic imperatives of tribal competition. Inhumanity, therefore, is what human beings are good at. As one of Littell's characters has it, "... there is no such thing as inhumanity. There is only humanity and more humanity." This from a man whose job it was to kill wounded German soldiers who were of no further usefulness.
Nevertheless, irrationality and cruelty have to be arrived at incrementally. One's political and legal culture cannot be radically altered too suddenly lest irrationality and cruelty become obvious and rejected as such. It takes time to create new, not to say contradictory, social attitudes. War is a tried and true method for cultural change. War is preceded by exclusionary politics to prepare the collective psyche. War then has its own inevitable agenda of escalating brutality. The aftermath of war requires its own victims. These are supplied by another sort of exclusionary politics. The definition of justice, a reliable barometer of social norms, invariably changes to accommodate the times. Littell has Adolph Eichmann summarise the situation: "...politics change people."
The Kindly Ones is a fictional exploration of the process of radical cultural and political change in Germany from the 1930's to the 1950's. The protagonist and narrator, Max Aue, is a gay SS officer. This irony is compounded by the fact that he is a lawyer and classically educated into a culture of civility and reflective empathy. He writes like a German Vassily Grossman: not to defend but to merely describe his actions and motivations. Slipping slowly from unconcern to acceptance to assimilation to diseased monster, Max isn't German or inherently psychotic or evil; he is Everyman.
It is as Everyman that Max plays a role in the Final Solution for the Judaism of Eastern Europe - in fomenting 'retribution' of Jews by Poles and Ukrainians, in the Einzatsgruppen, whose job it was to murder all Jews found in Russian territory conquered by the Wehrmacht, and in the preparation and supply of victims for the death camps. The scenes depicted are well rehearsed in many other books on the Holicaust.
Littell's take is innovative only because it is created from the point of view of the murderers, capturing their experiences and mental states as the war is prepared for, progresses, and ends. What they see is the terror of their own lives in the dystopia they have created. Meditating briefly on Auschwitz, Max muses, "Wasn’t the camp itself, with all the rigidity of its organization, its absurd violence, its meticulous hierarchy, just a metaphor, a reductio ad absurdum of everyday life?" The camps are the source of a new German culture: "a breeding ground for mental illnesses and sadistic deviations."
Max knows he is participating in a war like none before, "... when the State is democratized —then all of a sudden war becomes total and terrible ..." Only modern democracy is capable of the atrocities of war on a scale which would not have been tolerated in any other form of government. The democratic state has powers of coercion over its own citizens that could never be claimed by any monarch.
Democracy also possesses the cultural force necessary to turn evil into good through purely social sanctions. The murderer of wounded soldiers, for example, "...killed people or had them killed, so he’s Evil; but within himself, he was a good man to those close to him, indifferent to all others, and, what’s more, one who respected the law. What more do we ask of the individual in our civilized, democratic cities?"
Judging by the evidence of the 20th century, democracy uses its powers more frequently and with less cause than any other form of government. Democracy inhibits conscience and promotes evil just as effectively as the alternatives. In fact by legitimatising greed for reputation and ambition for power, democracy provides a welcoming framework for their development. This is one of the principle messages of the book. A message as relevant in the age of Trump and Putin as it was in the age of Hitler and Stalin. There may be no Cosmic Organizer but there should be at least a few resistors who can stand against the flow of insanity that pops up from time to time in democracies. As Max knows, "The past is never over."
It is possible for human beings to justify all behaviour, no matter how irrational and cruel. Because this is so, some philosophers justify their view that moral norms must lie outside of human control, that there must be a God who knows what good behaviour is. This justification is also irrational and frequently just as cruel.
As for example when the philosophers and theologians of Nazism preached radical anti-Semitism based on universal genetic imperatives of tribal competition. Inhumanity, therefore, is what human beings are good at. As one of Littell's characters has it, "... there is no such thing as inhumanity. There is only humanity and more humanity." This from a man whose job it was to kill wounded German soldiers who were of no further usefulness.
Nevertheless, irrationality and cruelty have to be arrived at incrementally. One's political and legal culture cannot be radically altered too suddenly lest irrationality and cruelty become obvious and rejected as such. It takes time to create new, not to say contradictory, social attitudes. War is a tried and true method for cultural change. War is preceded by exclusionary politics to prepare the collective psyche. War then has its own inevitable agenda of escalating brutality. The aftermath of war requires its own victims. These are supplied by another sort of exclusionary politics. The definition of justice, a reliable barometer of social norms, invariably changes to accommodate the times. Littell has Adolph Eichmann summarise the situation: "...politics change people."
The Kindly Ones is a fictional exploration of the process of radical cultural and political change in Germany from the 1930's to the 1950's. The protagonist and narrator, Max Aue, is a gay SS officer. This irony is compounded by the fact that he is a lawyer and classically educated into a culture of civility and reflective empathy. He writes like a German Vassily Grossman: not to defend but to merely describe his actions and motivations. Slipping slowly from unconcern to acceptance to assimilation to diseased monster, Max isn't German or inherently psychotic or evil; he is Everyman.
It is as Everyman that Max plays a role in the Final Solution for the Judaism of Eastern Europe - in fomenting 'retribution' of Jews by Poles and Ukrainians, in the Einzatsgruppen, whose job it was to murder all Jews found in Russian territory conquered by the Wehrmacht, and in the preparation and supply of victims for the death camps. The scenes depicted are well rehearsed in many other books on the Holicaust.
Littell's take is innovative only because it is created from the point of view of the murderers, capturing their experiences and mental states as the war is prepared for, progresses, and ends. What they see is the terror of their own lives in the dystopia they have created. Meditating briefly on Auschwitz, Max muses, "Wasn’t the camp itself, with all the rigidity of its organization, its absurd violence, its meticulous hierarchy, just a metaphor, a reductio ad absurdum of everyday life?" The camps are the source of a new German culture: "a breeding ground for mental illnesses and sadistic deviations."
Max knows he is participating in a war like none before, "... when the State is democratized —then all of a sudden war becomes total and terrible ..." Only modern democracy is capable of the atrocities of war on a scale which would not have been tolerated in any other form of government. The democratic state has powers of coercion over its own citizens that could never be claimed by any monarch.
Democracy also possesses the cultural force necessary to turn evil into good through purely social sanctions. The murderer of wounded soldiers, for example, "...killed people or had them killed, so he’s Evil; but within himself, he was a good man to those close to him, indifferent to all others, and, what’s more, one who respected the law. What more do we ask of the individual in our civilized, democratic cities?"
Judging by the evidence of the 20th century, democracy uses its powers more frequently and with less cause than any other form of government. Democracy inhibits conscience and promotes evil just as effectively as the alternatives. In fact by legitimatising greed for reputation and ambition for power, democracy provides a welcoming framework for their development. This is one of the principle messages of the book. A message as relevant in the age of Trump and Putin as it was in the age of Hitler and Stalin. There may be no Cosmic Organizer but there should be at least a few resistors who can stand against the flow of insanity that pops up from time to time in democracies. As Max knows, "The past is never over."
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Geen flauw idee hoe ik op dit boek uitgekomen ben, nee.
In een notendop: 1400 bladzijden, zonder paragrafen. Geschreven door een Amerikaan, als de autobiografie van een half-Duitse, half-Franse nazi. Die verliefd is op zijn tweelingzus, een kleine maar belangrijke rol had in de Einsatzgruppen en later in het beheer van de concentratiekampen, en die ergens in de tweede helft van het boek zijn moeder en pleegvader vermoordt, en dan achternagezeten wordt door twee politieagenten.
Niet dat het ook maar één moment een politieroman of zo is. Jonathan Littell kreeg er in 2006 tegelijk de Nobelprijs en de Oscar van de Franse literatuur voor: zowel de Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française als de Prix Goncourt. En dat is het boek wel, literatuur.
De titel verwijst naar de Erinyen, de Griekse wraakgodinnen die het vooral hadden voor oudermoordenaars. Bij nader inzien blijkt het hele boek parallel te lopen aan de Oresteia, met Maximilien Aue als Orestes, een afwezige en wellicht oorlogsmisdadige vader als Agamemnon, de moeder die hier eigenlijk niets misdeed als Clytaemnestra, Thomas Hauser als Pylades, en zelfs een kort optreden voor een Helena (van Troje).
Aue heeft, Zelig- of Forrest Gump-gewijs, verdacht veel cruciale punten van de oorlog meegemaakt: de einsatzgruppen in Oekraïne en de Caucasus (incluis Babi Yar), Stalingrad, bezet Frankrijk, een stafpositie rechtstreeks onder Himmler, werkbezoeken in verschillende concetratiekampen (onder meer Auschwitz, jawel), de verbanning van de Joden uit Hongarije, de bezetting van Pommeren door het Rode Leger, de val van Berlijn, en zelfs één van de laatste dagen van Hitler in de Führerbunker.
Meesterlijk, denk ik, is wel een redelijke manier om het boek te omschrijven. Bijzonder goed gedocumenteerd, enorm ambitieus, niet voor de hand liggend, maar tegelijkertijd uiterst leesbaar. Natuurlijk is het bij momenten totaal onrealistisch -- alleen al dat Aue op al die plaatsen in de oorlog geweest is, is weinig plausibel -- en akkoord dat geen mens ter wereld spreekt zoals de personages in het boek, maar dat hoort erbij. Het zijn de memoires van een bijzonder onbetrouwbare verteller, en het is zeer bewust literair Frans.
Dat geeft dan bijvoorbeeld een dialoog tussen een Russische vroeger belangrijke maar wegens redenen gedemoveerde revolutionair, waar het over de merites van nationaal-socialisme versus communisme gaat. Met aan de ene kant Aue en aan de andere kant een man die al gemarteld was en na het gesprek zal geëxecuteerd worden, maar wat geen van beide tegenhoudt om ellenlange monologen af te steken en elkaar op het scherp van de intellectuele snee te bevechten. De communist beweert bijvoorbeeld dat de nazi's alles gestolen hebben van de communisten:
En een paar pagain's later, Aue over communisme:
Vuurwerk. Leutig. Niet, denk ik, om aan één stuk door in één ruk uit te lezen: ik heb er een maand over gedaan, met hier een paar bladzijden en daar een paar tiental. Maar geen moment verveeld, geen moment spijt gehad, en met enorm veel plezier tot de allerlaatste zin gelezen.
Zeer aangeraden. Geen idee hoe overeind het blijft in vertaling, dat wel.
In een notendop: 1400 bladzijden, zonder paragrafen. Geschreven door een Amerikaan, als de autobiografie van een half-Duitse, half-Franse nazi. Die verliefd is op zijn tweelingzus, een kleine maar belangrijke rol had in de Einsatzgruppen en later in het beheer van de concentratiekampen, en die ergens in de tweede helft van het boek zijn moeder en pleegvader vermoordt, en dan achternagezeten wordt door twee politieagenten.
Niet dat het ook maar één moment een politieroman of zo is. Jonathan Littell kreeg er in 2006 tegelijk de Nobelprijs en de Oscar van de Franse literatuur voor: zowel de Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française als de Prix Goncourt. En dat is het boek wel, literatuur.
De titel verwijst naar de Erinyen, de Griekse wraakgodinnen die het vooral hadden voor oudermoordenaars. Bij nader inzien blijkt het hele boek parallel te lopen aan de Oresteia, met Maximilien Aue als Orestes, een afwezige en wellicht oorlogsmisdadige vader als Agamemnon, de moeder die hier eigenlijk niets misdeed als Clytaemnestra, Thomas Hauser als Pylades, en zelfs een kort optreden voor een Helena (van Troje).
Aue heeft, Zelig- of Forrest Gump-gewijs, verdacht veel cruciale punten van de oorlog meegemaakt: de einsatzgruppen in Oekraïne en de Caucasus (incluis Babi Yar), Stalingrad, bezet Frankrijk, een stafpositie rechtstreeks onder Himmler, werkbezoeken in verschillende concetratiekampen (onder meer Auschwitz, jawel), de verbanning van de Joden uit Hongarije, de bezetting van Pommeren door het Rode Leger, de val van Berlijn, en zelfs één van de laatste dagen van Hitler in de Führerbunker.
Meesterlijk, denk ik, is wel een redelijke manier om het boek te omschrijven. Bijzonder goed gedocumenteerd, enorm ambitieus, niet voor de hand liggend, maar tegelijkertijd uiterst leesbaar. Natuurlijk is het bij momenten totaal onrealistisch -- alleen al dat Aue op al die plaatsen in de oorlog geweest is, is weinig plausibel -- en akkoord dat geen mens ter wereld spreekt zoals de personages in het boek, maar dat hoort erbij. Het zijn de memoires van een bijzonder onbetrouwbare verteller, en het is zeer bewust literair Frans.
Dat geeft dan bijvoorbeeld een dialoog tussen een Russische vroeger belangrijke maar wegens redenen gedemoveerde revolutionair, waar het over de merites van nationaal-socialisme versus communisme gaat. Met aan de ene kant Aue en aan de andere kant een man die al gemarteld was en na het gesprek zal geëxecuteerd worden, maar wat geen van beide tegenhoudt om ellenlange monologen af te steken en elkaar op het scherp van de intellectuele snee te bevechten. De communist beweert bijvoorbeeld dat de nazi's alles gestolen hebben van de communisten:
Là où le Communisme vise une société sans classes, vous prêchez la Volksgemeinschaft, ce qui est au fond strictement la même chose, réduit à vos frontières. Là où Marx voyait le prolétaire comme le porteur de la vérité, vous avez décidé que la soi- disant race allemande est une race prolétaire, incarnation du Bien et de la moralité ; en conséquence, à la lutte des classes, vous avez substitué la guerre prolétarienne allemande contre les États capitalistes. En économie aussi vos idées ne sont que des déformations de nos valeurs. Je connais bien votre économie politique, car avant la guerre je traduisais pour le Parti des articles de vos journaux spécialisés. Là où Marx a posé une théorie de la valeur fondée sur le travail, votre Hitler déclare : Notre mark allemand, qui n'est pas soutenu par l'or, vaut plus que l'or. Cette phrase un peu obscure a été commentée par le bras droit de Goebbels, Dietrich, qui expliquait que le national-socialisme avait compris que la meilleure fondation d'une devise est la confiance dans les forces productives de la Nation et en la direction de l'État. Le résultat, c'est que l'argent, pour vous, est devenu un fétiche qui représente le pouvoir producteur de votre pays, donc une aberration totale. Vos relations avec vos grands capitalistes sont grossièrement hypocrites, surtout depuis les réformes du ministre Speer : vos responsables continuent à prôner la libre entreprise, mais vos industries sont toutes soumises à un plan et leurs profits sont limités à 6 %, l'État s'appropriant le reste en sus de la production.
En een paar pagain's later, Aue over communisme:
Le problème n'est pas le peuple : ce sont vos dirigeants. Le Communisme est un masque plaqué sur le visage inchangé de la Russie. Votre Staline est un tsar, votre Politbüro des boyards ou des nobles avides et égoïstes, vos cadres du Parti les mêmes tchinovniki que ceux de Pierre ou de Nicolas. C'est le même autocratisme russe, la même insécurité permanente, la même paranoïa de l'étranger, la même incapacité fondamentale de gouverner correctement, la même substitution de la terreur au consensus commun, et donc au vrai pouvoir, la même corruption effrénée, sous d'autres formes, la même incompétence, la même ivrognerie. Lisez la correspondance de Kourbsky et Ivan, lisez Karamzine, lisez Custine. La donnée centrale de votre histoire n'a jamais été modifiée : l'humiliation, de père en fils. Depuis le début, mais surtout depuis les Mongols, tout vous humilie, et toute la politique de vos gouvernants consiste non pas à corriger cette humiliation et ses causes, mais à la cacher au reste du monde. Le Pétersbourg de Pierre n'est rien qu'un autre village à la Potemkine : ce n'est pas une fenêtre ouverte sur l'Europe, mais un décor de théâtre monté pour masquer à l'Occident toute la misère et la crasse sans fin qui s'étalent derrière. Or on ne peut humilier que les humiliables ; et à leur tour, il n'y a que les humiliés qui humilient. Les humiliés de 1917, de Staline au moujik, ne font depuis qu'infliger à d'autres leur peur et leur humiliation.
Vuurwerk. Leutig. Niet, denk ik, om aan één stuk door in één ruk uit te lezen: ik heb er een maand over gedaan, met hier een paar bladzijden en daar een paar tiental. Maar geen moment verveeld, geen moment spijt gehad, en met enorm veel plezier tot de allerlaatste zin gelezen.
Zeer aangeraden. Geen idee hoe overeind het blijft in vertaling, dat wel.
I typed quite a long reviiew of this book, and then went back to correct something and Good Reads lost everything I typed.
To sum up, this is an interesting realistic, surreal, badly writtten, badly translated, and badly edited book.
I dopn't feel like rewriting everything that Good Reads lost right now -- maybe another time, thoguh by then I probably won't remember what I said or why I said it.
To sum up, this is an interesting realistic, surreal, badly writtten, badly translated, and badly edited book.
I dopn't feel like rewriting everything that Good Reads lost right now -- maybe another time, thoguh by then I probably won't remember what I said or why I said it.
Long. Numbing. Disturbing. Boring. Overwrought.
Amazing. My life was this book while I read it. I love books this long, since I read so fast. Having a novel overwhelm me and take almost 3 months of my time was incredible. This book occasionally showed glimpses of Kafka, spiralling into itself, usually just plodded- but plodded intentionally... bonus: won a LR Bad Sex award for TWO of the sex scenes, exciting.
There is no way to eview this book, i'm finding.
The main character is well-drawn, a useless sort who is self-depreciating and intelligent. The novel actually really never loses sight of this character study, a great feat given its length and the prevarication to wander around Nazi occupied Europe both historically and spatially.
Highly recommended.
Amazing. My life was this book while I read it. I love books this long, since I read so fast. Having a novel overwhelm me and take almost 3 months of my time was incredible. This book occasionally showed glimpses of Kafka, spiralling into itself, usually just plodded- but plodded intentionally... bonus: won a LR Bad Sex award for TWO of the sex scenes, exciting.
There is no way to eview this book, i'm finding.
The main character is well-drawn, a useless sort who is self-depreciating and intelligent. The novel actually really never loses sight of this character study, a great feat given its length and the prevarication to wander around Nazi occupied Europe both historically and spatially.
Highly recommended.
This is heavy. I mean it literally and figuratively- 983 pages in hardcover is a strain on the wrists. But this is also a fictional memoir of a former SS officer during WWII, where he participated in the extermination efforts of the Jews, the Russians, the Poles, the gypsies, the disabled and mentally ill. And it's graphic. But the premise, that you and I would have done the same things he did, were we in his shoes, is intriguing and gives one pause.
There's some really distasteful stuff in here, and that's putting it mildly. Aue is a twin and has an unhealthy fixation with his sister, his only sibling. She is the perfect woman, in his mind, and therefore he cannot have a relationship with any other female. His relationship with his mother is virtually estranged, and I've got my own theory on where the twins came from that she was fostering came from. And the war... I read a brief article about the amount of research Littell put in while writing this and I can't imagine he took too much license. If you can step back and view the story in a theoretical, philosophical light, it's very, very interesting. But so much loss, so much pain, so much hate.
Food: cold meat and hard bread, but it's all you have. You take just a few nibbles here and there at first, because it's not what you want, but eventually, the hunger is enough to take bigger bites.
There's some really distasteful stuff in here, and that's putting it mildly. Aue is a twin and has an unhealthy fixation with his sister, his only sibling. She is the perfect woman, in his mind, and therefore he cannot have a relationship with any other female. His relationship with his mother is virtually estranged, and I've got my own theory on where the twins came from that she was fostering came from. And the war... I read a brief article about the amount of research Littell put in while writing this and I can't imagine he took too much license. If you can step back and view the story in a theoretical, philosophical light, it's very, very interesting. But so much loss, so much pain, so much hate.
Food: cold meat and hard bread, but it's all you have. You take just a few nibbles here and there at first, because it's not what you want, but eventually, the hunger is enough to take bigger bites.
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Incest
