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A review by leischa
The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
5.0
This is just about the best book I have ever read, for sheer, immersive intensity.
It is essentially three things:
1. A moral meditation on complicity - how we, as human beings, can't disown any act committed by other humans. Even the worst atrocities are committed by people like us, often for motives we would recognise. We are taken on a psychological journey into being a Nazi.
2. A comprehensive narrative history of World War Two.
3. An investigation of Greek myth and its themes.
How well does it work?
Ultimately, I agree with Neil Acherson's excellent review: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n08/neal-ascherson/such-amateurishness-
It is too ambitious and doesn't quite hang together.
For instance, in point 1, the narrator is far from ordinary. We watch with horrified fascination rather than identification. Also, the Greek mythological themes which have the Furies chasing the narrator are a little contrived, and jar with the narrative. The mythological references break the powerful realism.
The detailed, narrative history of the war, written from the viewpoint of a participant, is probably the strongest part of the book.
Ultimately the book fails. But what a magnificent failure! This is so complex and so ambitious I feel really enriched for having lived inside it for a while.
It is essentially three things:
1. A moral meditation on complicity - how we, as human beings, can't disown any act committed by other humans. Even the worst atrocities are committed by people like us, often for motives we would recognise. We are taken on a psychological journey into being a Nazi.
2. A comprehensive narrative history of World War Two.
3. An investigation of Greek myth and its themes.
How well does it work?
Ultimately, I agree with Neil Acherson's excellent review: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n08/neal-ascherson/such-amateurishness-
It is too ambitious and doesn't quite hang together.
For instance, in point 1, the narrator is far from ordinary. We watch with horrified fascination rather than identification. Also, the Greek mythological themes which have the Furies chasing the narrator are a little contrived, and jar with the narrative. The mythological references break the powerful realism.
The detailed, narrative history of the war, written from the viewpoint of a participant, is probably the strongest part of the book.
Ultimately the book fails. But what a magnificent failure! This is so complex and so ambitious I feel really enriched for having lived inside it for a while.