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A review by mattdube
Detective Story by Imre Kertész
3.0
This is a very slight book that reads pretty quickly from Novel Laureate Kertesz.
There's a lot to like here, especially if you're interested in "from the inside" looks at totalitarianism. This is almost like the unreconstructed pre-humanist version of the E German film "Lives of Others." Only here, you're really not expected to develop a sympathy for the interrogator/ intelligence agent. Still, the story that is told is powerful and as it grinds toward its conclusion, shocking.
I wonder about some things: is there a reason why there are so many frames thrown around this story that I'm not quite getting? Is there a reason why the story is set in Latin America and not in the former Soviet Union? I don't think I really grasped the fullness of this book, but I still appreciated it.
There's a lot to like here, especially if you're interested in "from the inside" looks at totalitarianism. This is almost like the unreconstructed pre-humanist version of the E German film "Lives of Others." Only here, you're really not expected to develop a sympathy for the interrogator/ intelligence agent. Still, the story that is told is powerful and as it grinds toward its conclusion, shocking.
I wonder about some things: is there a reason why there are so many frames thrown around this story that I'm not quite getting? Is there a reason why the story is set in Latin America and not in the former Soviet Union? I don't think I really grasped the fullness of this book, but I still appreciated it.