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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
There is a lot to process here. Definitely not to be classified as the light-hearted, feel-good book of the month.
The Kindly Ones is a novel told from the point of view of an S.S. officer about his experiences during World War II. The book is well researched and beautifully written and there are sentences within it that I wish I had written.
It took me two months to read this book. I am not a slow reader, but the book is 975 pages and I could only take reading it in measured doses, not because of its difficulty, but the subject matter and how one human being could treat another because of his/her religious beliefs was difficult for me to read.
Scenes are written in excruciating detail and there are some parts related to the protagonist's bodily functions that I could have happily spent the rest of my life without reading. There were so many characters that a Cast of Characters section would have been helpful. In addition, there was liberal use of French and German words, and since I speak neither, I am sure that I missed out on some plot intricacies.
The surprise ending was good, although I had several unanswered questions (and I dislike finishing a book with unanswered questions). The book ends with the end of the war and I had to return to the prologue to know what happened after the war. The last thing I wanted to do was read the prologue again after reading 975 pages.
I would not recommend this book for everyone, but I would recommend it for World War II or history buffs, writers of literature, and people with a lot of time on their hands or who like to read gross and/or disturbing things.
It took me two months to read this book. I am not a slow reader, but the book is 975 pages and I could only take reading it in measured doses, not because of its difficulty, but the subject matter and how one human being could treat another because of his/her religious beliefs was difficult for me to read.
Scenes are written in excruciating detail and there are some parts related to the protagonist's bodily functions that I could have happily spent the rest of my life without reading. There were so many characters that a Cast of Characters section would have been helpful. In addition, there was liberal use of French and German words, and since I speak neither, I am sure that I missed out on some plot intricacies.
The surprise ending was good, although I had several unanswered questions (and I dislike finishing a book with unanswered questions). The book ends with the end of the war and I had to return to the prologue to know what happened after the war. The last thing I wanted to do was read the prologue again after reading 975 pages.
I would not recommend this book for everyone, but I would recommend it for World War II or history buffs, writers of literature, and people with a lot of time on their hands or who like to read gross and/or disturbing things.
Very disturbing. The main character was a Nazi soldier and was a bit messed up even before he went through all he did. I did learn some things I didn't know. This was a CD I listened to and it was 30 CD's long!!
dark
reflective
slow-paced
The Kindly Ones is a densely-packed, minutely-detailed look into the eastern front of Hitler’s battle for world supremacy. Mr. Littell leaves no character actionless and no detail indistinct in this tome. Rather, he feels that a reader must have all of the details in order to best assess the psychological impact of the war and the Nazi doctrine on party members, collaborators, and unwilling participants alike, and he truly means all of the details. Dialogue is excruciating as every major and minor soldier has a line, no matter how trivial it may be. The unfamiliar German military ranks only serve as added weight to an already endless narrative, as does the pre-Cold War geography. The narrative and dialogue occur as if a reader is there next to Aue, watching the scene unfold firsthand and with the appropriate level of historical context to be able to understand the major players and meaning behind their actions. For readers without the historical knowledge, this makes the entire novel slow, ponderous, and more than a little confusing.
There is no doubt The Kindly Ones is controversial. In fact, it rivals American Psycho for its descriptions of the sick and perverted things one human can enact against another. The matter-of-factness with which Dr. Aue’s contemporaries and fellow soldiers execute the Jews and the gypsies and anyone else on the official “no friend to the Nazis” list, including inmates and hospital patients is terrifying. Similarly, the imagery is stark and gruesome. While Mr. Littell acknowledges that most soldiers struggled with the mass murders, this admission in no ways lessens the impact of such scenes. However, it is not these scenes with which readers will take the most offense. The controversy lies in Aue’s fantasies. As the war progresses, his hallucinations become more ghastly and more extreme, fueled by the strain of hiding his sexuality from the outside world and the compounded trauma associated with the war and the damage incurred by his highly inappropriate relationship with his sister. The last chapter is the culmination of this toxic stew and will simultaneously turn readers’ stomachs as well as render them breathless with Aue’s pain and suffering.
In spite of all of The Kindly Ones’ faults, Dr. Aue is a fascinating character by whom to study the psychology of peer pressure and justification of actions. Early on in the novel, Aue has this to say about guilt:
“What I did, I did with my eyes open, believing that it was my duty and that it had to be done, disagreeable or unpleasant as it may have been. For that is what total war means: there is no such thing as a civilian, and the only difference between the Jewish child gassed or shot and the German child burned alive in an air raid is one of method; both deaths were equally vain, neither of them shortened the war by so much as a second; but in both cases, the man or men who killed them believed it was just and necessary; and if they were wrong, who’s to blame?…I think I am allowed to conclude, as a fact established by modern history, that everyone, or nearly everyone, in a given set of circumstances, does what he is told to do; and, pardon me, but there’s not much chance that you’re the exception, any more than I was.” (p. 18-20)
It is with this in mind that a reader enters the first chaotic scene of the Germans following the Soviets into Poland and Czechoslovakia and beyond. These few statements not only provide keen insight into Aue’s frame of mind as he writes his memoirs, the fruit of which becomes the novel, but also a curious sense of remoteness as the reader ponders whether Aue is correct in his conclusions – something that leaves quickly upon a reader’s increasing emotional involvement within the story. It definitely raises one’s awareness about the idea of complicity, something that has plagued Germans since the end of the war.
The Kindly Ones is meant for readers with tough stomachs and even tougher psyches. Any scene involving the Jews is achingly brutal in the unflinching details. It is one thing to know of their fate; it is quite another to have their fate described down to the last blood drop or twitch. The nonchalant attitudes of the Germans are equally difficult to accept, as is their sometimes bizarre justifications for their actions. Still, it does no one any good to forget such things, and Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones makes it impossible to forget.
There is no doubt The Kindly Ones is controversial. In fact, it rivals American Psycho for its descriptions of the sick and perverted things one human can enact against another. The matter-of-factness with which Dr. Aue’s contemporaries and fellow soldiers execute the Jews and the gypsies and anyone else on the official “no friend to the Nazis” list, including inmates and hospital patients is terrifying. Similarly, the imagery is stark and gruesome. While Mr. Littell acknowledges that most soldiers struggled with the mass murders, this admission in no ways lessens the impact of such scenes. However, it is not these scenes with which readers will take the most offense. The controversy lies in Aue’s fantasies. As the war progresses, his hallucinations become more ghastly and more extreme, fueled by the strain of hiding his sexuality from the outside world and the compounded trauma associated with the war and the damage incurred by his highly inappropriate relationship with his sister. The last chapter is the culmination of this toxic stew and will simultaneously turn readers’ stomachs as well as render them breathless with Aue’s pain and suffering.
In spite of all of The Kindly Ones’ faults, Dr. Aue is a fascinating character by whom to study the psychology of peer pressure and justification of actions. Early on in the novel, Aue has this to say about guilt:
“What I did, I did with my eyes open, believing that it was my duty and that it had to be done, disagreeable or unpleasant as it may have been. For that is what total war means: there is no such thing as a civilian, and the only difference between the Jewish child gassed or shot and the German child burned alive in an air raid is one of method; both deaths were equally vain, neither of them shortened the war by so much as a second; but in both cases, the man or men who killed them believed it was just and necessary; and if they were wrong, who’s to blame?…I think I am allowed to conclude, as a fact established by modern history, that everyone, or nearly everyone, in a given set of circumstances, does what he is told to do; and, pardon me, but there’s not much chance that you’re the exception, any more than I was.” (p. 18-20)
It is with this in mind that a reader enters the first chaotic scene of the Germans following the Soviets into Poland and Czechoslovakia and beyond. These few statements not only provide keen insight into Aue’s frame of mind as he writes his memoirs, the fruit of which becomes the novel, but also a curious sense of remoteness as the reader ponders whether Aue is correct in his conclusions – something that leaves quickly upon a reader’s increasing emotional involvement within the story. It definitely raises one’s awareness about the idea of complicity, something that has plagued Germans since the end of the war.
The Kindly Ones is meant for readers with tough stomachs and even tougher psyches. Any scene involving the Jews is achingly brutal in the unflinching details. It is one thing to know of their fate; it is quite another to have their fate described down to the last blood drop or twitch. The nonchalant attitudes of the Germans are equally difficult to accept, as is their sometimes bizarre justifications for their actions. Still, it does no one any good to forget such things, and Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones makes it impossible to forget.
So that was a lot. I went into this book thinking the idea was to show how an ordinary person became a monster as a Nazi, so I was surprised that the main character really seemed to be bizarre from the start. It would almost have been more interesting if the story had just been about discovering his incestuous obsession with his sister and murder of his mother and stepfather while also being drawn to Nazi ideology, but instead there's that plus the holocaust and other horrors of WWII. So he's surrounded by ugliness both internally and externally--which leads to a lot of shit. I mean, literally. There's a lot of diarrhea in this book. When the narrator isn't experiencing it or coming across it in others, he's dreaming about it.
It's a lot.
Weirdly, the parts I found myself most interested in were times when the narrator would fall into some conversation about different racist theories. The theories were obviously false, but it was interesting listening to people expound on them to justify themselves or oversimplify the situation in WWII.
It's a lot.
Weirdly, the parts I found myself most interested in were times when the narrator would fall into some conversation about different racist theories. The theories were obviously false, but it was interesting listening to people expound on them to justify themselves or oversimplify the situation in WWII.
I have spent the month of September tackling this weighty tome and unfortunately I dont have many nice things to say about it. In fact i’ll cut straight to the chase and admit that this book is an unholy mess. Here’s why.
As such it’s not the plot which made me want to chuck this book out of the window, It’s well researched, it’s potentially interesting and it’s main protagonist Maximillian Aue is a character that will be remembered in contemporary literature. In a nutshell The Kindly Ones is about a Nazi SS high rank official, who both a homosexual and in love with his twin sister. Aue is in all the right moments of the second world war – Poland 1941 , Stalingrad, and the dissolution of the concentration camps. As I said earlier it’s meticulously researched and it shows that there was a lot of work involved. There is a ton of detail, and that’s not bad at all. Although Aue is not a realistic character Littell creates a very memorable recreation of Germany, Poland, Russia and Hungary during World War II (at least as I;ve read about it in history books) It’s also worth nothing that the whole novel is based on various greek tragedies and Littel also brings this comparison/ homage out nicely.
What makes this book a torturous read is the AWFUL translation. It is as if the person involved just translated the book sentence by sentence instead of seeing the paragraphs as whole. So there’s a slew of disjointed sentences, non flowing prose and in many cases some passages don’t make sense. The Kindly Ones was written originally in French. To date i have never ever read a badly translated French novel. I’ve always thought the beauty and simplicity of the language fares well in English. Obviously i’ve been proved wrong.
Disappointed? I’m absolutely gutted that this potentially great novel turned out to be sludge due to a half-assed translation!
As such it’s not the plot which made me want to chuck this book out of the window, It’s well researched, it’s potentially interesting and it’s main protagonist Maximillian Aue is a character that will be remembered in contemporary literature. In a nutshell The Kindly Ones is about a Nazi SS high rank official, who both a homosexual and in love with his twin sister. Aue is in all the right moments of the second world war – Poland 1941 , Stalingrad, and the dissolution of the concentration camps. As I said earlier it’s meticulously researched and it shows that there was a lot of work involved. There is a ton of detail, and that’s not bad at all. Although Aue is not a realistic character Littell creates a very memorable recreation of Germany, Poland, Russia and Hungary during World War II (at least as I;ve read about it in history books) It’s also worth nothing that the whole novel is based on various greek tragedies and Littel also brings this comparison/ homage out nicely.
What makes this book a torturous read is the AWFUL translation. It is as if the person involved just translated the book sentence by sentence instead of seeing the paragraphs as whole. So there’s a slew of disjointed sentences, non flowing prose and in many cases some passages don’t make sense. The Kindly Ones was written originally in French. To date i have never ever read a badly translated French novel. I’ve always thought the beauty and simplicity of the language fares well in English. Obviously i’ve been proved wrong.
Disappointed? I’m absolutely gutted that this potentially great novel turned out to be sludge due to a half-assed translation!
Very interesting from the historical perspective, but excessively shocking in the treatment of some subjects. Wouldn't recommend it.
Sorry not sorry, I’m DNFing this I can’t read it because it’s so hard on the eyes and the brain.
There is absolutely no breathing space on the page.
I’m not kidding, it’s just blocks and blocks of ink for about 900 pages. And I just can’t read it.
For my defense, my mom bought this for me years and years ago, she picked it up because it won prizes and the likes, and I somehow lost it for a few more years and it just reappeared recently (it was at the very bottom of a multi stacked bookshelf) and I thought I’d give it a try but well...I think I’ll just give it to library, where someone might enjoy it when I couldn’t.
There is absolutely no breathing space on the page.
I’m not kidding, it’s just blocks and blocks of ink for about 900 pages. And I just can’t read it.
For my defense, my mom bought this for me years and years ago, she picked it up because it won prizes and the likes, and I somehow lost it for a few more years and it just reappeared recently (it was at the very bottom of a multi stacked bookshelf) and I thought I’d give it a try but well...I think I’ll just give it to library, where someone might enjoy it when I couldn’t.
"I live, I do what can be done, it's the same for everyone, I am a man like other men, I am a man like you. I tell you I am just like you!"
-- Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones
This is a hard book to review. It is like walking out of a David Lynch movie and feeling brain raped by the artist. How exactly to you attempt to explore the depths of Nazi Germany without feeling dark, abused, and sick afterwards? From conversations I've had with those who've hated this novel (and British critics I've read) there is far too much shit, incest, anal sex and death. Certainly. But how exactly do you descend into the depths of Nazi hell without pushing through gouts of madness, clumps of wickedness and wads of depravity? You don't.
Littell uses Obersturmbannführer Maximilien Aue (a "cultured", SS Zelig) to explore how an unrepentant rationalist, a bureaucrat, an intellectual could participate in, defend, and justify the extermination of a race. Aue doesn't wrestle any Jewish angels. No, he wrestles himself, his country, his ideology, his sanity. The slow decent of mad Max is a way for Littell to explore the absurd and tortured NAZI self-justifications for their actions.
Littell also uses Max to incriminate us all as a species. How close are we to those in Germany during WWII? We like to think we are better, more moral, kinder, respectable, innocent. Are we? Or are we simply blessed by chance because we don't find ourselves surrounded by madness, wickedness, and final solutions? Does circumstance and chance really make us better? Does the fact that we find ourselves, by fate's mad roll, distant from both victim AND victimizer give us any room to think we exist in a field that really separates us from the horrors of Germany (or Nigeria, or Sudan, or Afghanistan, or Somolia, or Serbia, or Cambodia, or Burma, or North Korea)?
Again, this is not a novel for the faint of heart (or my mother). It doesn't have a happy ending. Hell, it doesn't have a happy beginning, middle, or single clean signature. It is a cold book sewn together with sick corruptions, musical madness, and omnipresent death. It is a dance of evil, a fugue of plagues, a bile-filled nightmare on every page. Yes, I'm glad I read it, but I'm also sure as f#&k glad it is finished.
-- Jonathan Littell, The Kindly Ones
This is a hard book to review. It is like walking out of a David Lynch movie and feeling brain raped by the artist. How exactly to you attempt to explore the depths of Nazi Germany without feeling dark, abused, and sick afterwards? From conversations I've had with those who've hated this novel (and British critics I've read) there is far too much shit, incest, anal sex and death. Certainly. But how exactly do you descend into the depths of Nazi hell without pushing through gouts of madness, clumps of wickedness and wads of depravity? You don't.
Littell uses Obersturmbannführer Maximilien Aue (a "cultured", SS Zelig) to explore how an unrepentant rationalist, a bureaucrat, an intellectual could participate in, defend, and justify the extermination of a race. Aue doesn't wrestle any Jewish angels. No, he wrestles himself, his country, his ideology, his sanity. The slow decent of mad Max is a way for Littell to explore the absurd and tortured NAZI self-justifications for their actions.
Littell also uses Max to incriminate us all as a species. How close are we to those in Germany during WWII? We like to think we are better, more moral, kinder, respectable, innocent. Are we? Or are we simply blessed by chance because we don't find ourselves surrounded by madness, wickedness, and final solutions? Does circumstance and chance really make us better? Does the fact that we find ourselves, by fate's mad roll, distant from both victim AND victimizer give us any room to think we exist in a field that really separates us from the horrors of Germany (or Nigeria, or Sudan, or Afghanistan, or Somolia, or Serbia, or Cambodia, or Burma, or North Korea)?
Again, this is not a novel for the faint of heart (or my mother). It doesn't have a happy ending. Hell, it doesn't have a happy beginning, middle, or single clean signature. It is a cold book sewn together with sick corruptions, musical madness, and omnipresent death. It is a dance of evil, a fugue of plagues, a bile-filled nightmare on every page. Yes, I'm glad I read it, but I'm also sure as f#&k glad it is finished.