Difficult (But Worthwhile) Summer Reading...

'The Kindly Ones'- Jonathon Littel

I am a squeamish reader by trade. I couldn't even make it through 'American Psycho.' So why did a book that read similarly to this but dealt with Nazi atrocities during WWII intrigue me so? I think it had to do with the mastery of Jonathon Littel, who penned this epic novel. I truly think anyone interested in either this war, the legal system, or Post-traumatic Stress Disorder should read this amazing book at once.

Since I am from a strictly Jewish family, and my grandmother is a survivor, I have heard only heartbreaking and anguishing tales about the Holocaust. The Holocaust is reffered to now almost as some sort of unbelievable event, or some maudlin tale, or else it is used in unfair historical comparisons such as "Bush was Hitler." Mind you, Bush was a fool of a man, certainly, but he did not believe in mass genocide of an entire "race" of people.

"The Kindly Ones" strips away all the nonsense about the actual events of war, and tells it EXACTLY like it is. Littell researched extensively for five years, and the narrative covers the beginning of the war in Germany all the way to its end. The protagonist argues at the beginning that "I am a man, just like you!" To argue for the "humanity" of the narrator, an effete SS Soldier who is homosexual and likes to read Flaubert while marching, Little gives the readers two sides of an enigmatic and tortured soul who at the end of the novel is simply making lace at a Parisan factory, living out a farce of a marriage and a generally boring life.

What divides critics on the novel is not, in fact, the painstaking detail given to the beauracracy of the SS and the Jewish atrocities. Rather, it is the "humanizing" of the protagonist by giving him family issues, severe PTSD, and sexual practices that most people would rather not read about, thus giving it the unfortunate label of "Nazi Porn." I think, however, that this objection to the novel is extremely unfair. What could be more inhuman then having no desires, or fears, or secrets, no matter how loathsome they may be? As a psychologist, I was perhaps not as offended by some at the protagonists' shameful actitivies. Rather, as the book progressed towards more and more surreal fantasies, I was taken with how accurate this view of repressed sexuality could be. In addittion, having worked around severe PTSD people even today with the Iraq war, nothing could be more relevant than the effects of severe PTSD that the protagonist experiences, although the degree of it is exaggerrated for effect.

The truth of the matter is that people have these doubts because the book argues two (seemingly contradictory things): 1. The Germans were not evil, because they were merely acting in a manner that they believed to be right. 2. The SS soldiers harbored secrets that turned them into monsters. However, a good look into these arguements shows them both to be true. 'The Kindly Ones' argues simply that if a nation, or a person, commits a crime, no matter how unspeakable, then he/she should be judged according to all the facts. If they are guilty, then they should be punished. However, some who commit unspeakable crimes will always escape the axe... but they will not escape themselves. The fall out from World War II has had a profound effect on the German cultural psyche, and indeed there was a time when it was impossible for the Holocaust to even be taught in schools to German schoolchildren. As Shakespeare (and Littel) argue, "All are punished." Whether the punishment is psychological, physical, cultural, or otherwise, the solution of murder always has a price.

These digressions aside, the protagonist caught in a Greek tragedy of his own making is clearly a metaphor for Germany itself. As he falls into delusions and madness, so does the Third Reich come crumbling down around his ears.In the beginning of the book he is certain about his ideas and the solution for killing Jews, at the end he is no longer so sure that he did the right thing. And in the end, punishment does come for him (but not in the way he expected.) Germany was torn in two by the end of the war, but for many the axe never fell upon them. For the clever, the crafty, and the desperate, there was always another way to find a meal (as evidenced by the sinister Dr. Mandelbrod in the book.) Like Germany, the narrator finds a way to return to peace and quiet, but is always haunted by the past, which has set a hold in him and never lets him free.

In conclusion, if you want to read a different kind of WWII story, something that you may have never thought of considering before, 'The Kindly Ones' is an excellent book to start. Having read this work of fiction, I now feel that I am truly ready to read far more horrifying works, such as Mein Kamp, simply because they are true.