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A review by treedog669
Kapo by Aleksandar Tišma
3.0
Our protagonist has cheated death. Along the way, he used his position to rape various people stuck in the camps. Life goes on for him. He sticks to himself, (in my opinion) out of shame, knowing that what he did was wrong.
There's something about the way he delivers one of his final lines in the end, when he introduces himself to Lifka: "It's me, Kapo Furfa," a little too relaxedly for my taste. It's sorta like his opinion was that "we all have a part to play".
As clarified in the afterword, the miracle of this book is that it avoids kitsch: our protagonist has escaped death, and his shame isn't overflowing, but nor is he a villain from the bowels of the Earth: he has his shame and knows what he did was wrong, and grapples with his relationship with women. He has done some of the most shameful things you can: how do you live with yourself?
The afterword is particularly powerful because it shows how the Jewish community's views on kapos has changed over the interceding years: they were originally deemed as enemies of all, but later (currently?) are viewed as victims in their own way: everyone had a part to play, and you couldn't necessarily escape it. He's a complicated person.
He's a human; be careful, they walk among us.
There's something about the way he delivers one of his final lines in the end, when he introduces himself to Lifka: "It's me, Kapo Furfa," a little too relaxedly for my taste. It's sorta like his opinion was that "we all have a part to play".
As clarified in the afterword, the miracle of this book is that it avoids kitsch: our protagonist has escaped death, and his shame isn't overflowing, but nor is he a villain from the bowels of the Earth: he has his shame and knows what he did was wrong, and grapples with his relationship with women. He has done some of the most shameful things you can: how do you live with yourself?
The afterword is particularly powerful because it shows how the Jewish community's views on kapos has changed over the interceding years: they were originally deemed as enemies of all, but later (currently?) are viewed as victims in their own way: everyone had a part to play, and you couldn't necessarily escape it. He's a complicated person.
He's a human; be careful, they walk among us.