12:03 PM 30 JUNE 2018
In an overdue exercise in clearing up some flotsam on my shelf, I have taken the unprecedented step of declaring this book a ‘DNF’ – ‘did not finish’ and moreover have no intention of finishing…ever! I am not easily discouraged as a rule, but I made it to page 242 (about 25% in) and it struck me as such a dispiriting book that I’ve decided to cut my losses. Life is after all too short.
The narrator of the story, Dr Max Aue is a former SS Intelligence Officer and claims he “never asked to become a murderer.” Yet, his proclivity for the function of mass killer leaves the reader with no understanding or empathy for the miserable husk of a man that he becomes, still less for the mindless atrocities in which he was complicit. Indeed, I leave the book rather disappointed that this wretched character goes on to survive the war.
The sleeve notes point out that the book has won literary accolades and I readily acknowledge that Jonathan Littell writes well, but the content is not for me. The notes also add that this is a book, ‘to which no one can be indifferent’ and that too may be true. Unfortunately I disliked it so intensely that it has the distinction of being my first unread shelf occupant. It has also been compared to ‘War and Peace’, though I am confident that Tolstoy’s masterpiece will not get the same response (it’s added to my tbr list, just to be sure). Of course it is eminently possible that I am mistaken, but I’m content with this being ‘one that got away’.
BurfoBookish 