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tinkerer's review
4.0
Reviewed for the Portland Book Review.
It’s not uncommon to see portrayals or stories of torture on news and TV programs, but an examination or reflection on torture is more rare. The topic is either viewed as a bygone consideration or a foregone conclusion due to exceptional historical circumstances or solitary people, yet Francois Bizot has written Facing the Torturer to call to mind the very near, human missteps and configurations that underpin torture. Bizot describes that while imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge under Comrade Duch, he acted differently and was viewed differently than other prisoners; it is now Bizot’s endeavor to instigate a different view and show that “the butcher of Tuol Sleng” and our shared humanity with him needs broader scrutiny if we care at all about preventing torture. His book is recounted mostly in an impressionistic and anecdotal fashion, dropping graphic details and emotions along the way. Only towards the end of the book does “objective” court testimony and post-Khmer Rouge encounters with Duch appear and bring welcome grounding of the subject, but it is the mythic language that provides equal lucidity. Francois Bizot provides an authentic account of the process of "facing the torturer" which follows its own pace.
Some of my favorite passages in the book had to do with writing, language, and translation, which I did not expect in this book but were beautiful words. As I wrote, the book to me was mainly impressionistic, and doesn't get very graphic; I do not know whether Bizot keeps this sort of distance now because he already churned it out when he wrote The Gate, about his time imprisoned, but I'm intrigued enough about that and about the before and after of his arrest when he remained in Cambodia working to want to read The Gate.
It’s not uncommon to see portrayals or stories of torture on news and TV programs, but an examination or reflection on torture is more rare. The topic is either viewed as a bygone consideration or a foregone conclusion due to exceptional historical circumstances or solitary people, yet Francois Bizot has written Facing the Torturer to call to mind the very near, human missteps and configurations that underpin torture. Bizot describes that while imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge under Comrade Duch, he acted differently and was viewed differently than other prisoners; it is now Bizot’s endeavor to instigate a different view and show that “the butcher of Tuol Sleng” and our shared humanity with him needs broader scrutiny if we care at all about preventing torture. His book is recounted mostly in an impressionistic and anecdotal fashion, dropping graphic details and emotions along the way. Only towards the end of the book does “objective” court testimony and post-Khmer Rouge encounters with Duch appear and bring welcome grounding of the subject, but it is the mythic language that provides equal lucidity. Francois Bizot provides an authentic account of the process of "facing the torturer" which follows its own pace.
Some of my favorite passages in the book had to do with writing, language, and translation, which I did not expect in this book but were beautiful words. As I wrote, the book to me was mainly impressionistic, and doesn't get very graphic; I do not know whether Bizot keeps this sort of distance now because he already churned it out when he wrote The Gate, about his time imprisoned, but I'm intrigued enough about that and about the before and after of his arrest when he remained in Cambodia working to want to read The Gate.
loppear's review
4.0
When we prosecute "crimes against humanity", should we indict humanity or insist on masking the accused as an inhuman monster, separate from ourselves? The question has not let Bizot go for 50 years.
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