A review by elisereading
La mort est mon métier by Robert Merle

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

i liked this book a lot even though the topic was so dark and hard to process. i’ve read it in french and all i can say is that the execution is incredible. the writing alone made me cry several times. i don’t understand why tf i felt sorry for so many men in this book. i definitely shouldn’t. but it made me think a lot and now i cannot properly describe what i feel. i definitely recommend it. and the ending… it broke me and it made me think how rudolf was a child, just a child, and how i felt sorry for him, and how he became truly a monster, and i couldn’t feel sorry for him anymore. 

the author’s preface sums it up perfectly:

“Tout ce que Rudolf fit, il le fit non par méchanceté, mais au nom de l’impératif catégorique, par fidélité au chef, par soumission à l’ordre, par respect pour l’État. Bref, en homme de devoir : et c’est en cela justement qu’il est monstrueux.”