Best Novel 2009
Submitted by rkrahn on Sun, 01/03/2010 - 13:15
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- 01. Jonathan Littell - The Kindly Ones [HarperCollins] This literary masterpiece, which had Gallimard, its original French publisher, decide a few years ago to momentarily halt its pressing of the newest Harry Potter in order to free up room on the print-line, failed to make much of a splash on this side of the pond when it was translated into English this year. This is quite unfortunate because not only is The Kindly Ones a harrowing rehash of the sordid details of political genocide (the focus of most North American reviewers and the origin of accusations of ‘sensationalism’), it is also an admirable investigation into the manner in which ideology is able to appear as something else entirely, as well as the way enjoyment and desire are connected to this ideological symbolic system under fascism, serving a certain political function. Furthermore, Littell’s 1000+ page work is remarkable insofar as it presents the ultimate challenge to the hyperbolic, infinite hospitality to the other (including the Nazi other) endorsed by late capitalist postmodernity.
