The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


This is not a love story, nor is it truly a comedy. I’ve seen those phrases inserted in front of the Auschwitz tag and they’re misleading. Is there a love story? Yes, I suppose so ... or more accurately a lust story. Is there comedy? Yes, there is, but not so much as to overwhelm the narrative, which is essentially about daily life at Kat Zet (AKA Auschwitz). This means genocide, death on a massive scale – the incredible smell that accompanies burning thousands of bodies around the clock. That said, The Zone of Interest is not a horror story either; the confusion is because it sits smugly in a niche of its own.
The narrative is shared by three characters; Golo Thomsen, a Nazi middle manager (and Martin Bormann’s nephew) involved in the planning of new camps; Phil Doll, the camp’s Commandant and biggest nut; and Szmul, a Jewish POW and leader of the team assigned to the gassing of prisoners and disposing of their bodies.

Golo, like close friend Boris Eltz, is a womaniser. He finds himself struck by Cupid’s arrow after catching sight of Mrs Hannah Doll on the very first page. Up close he realises an affair with the Commandant’s wife would be a huge gamble. (“This would be a big fuck. A big fuck: that was what I said to myself.”) Golo is not as fully committed to the war effort as others…
Commandant Doll, fond of numbers, is a genuine brute; he is aware of the threat from handsome Golo but he keeps a keen eye on his wife while running the camp. When Doll gets a spare moment he drinks to excess and terrorises poor Szmul. Doll is the mad face of the Third Reich, struggling constantly to keep the horror of what he is doing from tearing him asunder. He ought to be the story's most horrific character but Amis dresses him as a clown, and instead he becomes the comedy turn. (“Some people claim that the Zone of Interest is a dumping ground for 2nd-rate blunderers. And I would agree (if it didn’t tend to reflect badly on myself.)”)
Always lurking in the background is the infamous IG Farben, conducting horrific experiments and supporting the war effort with its huge cash reserves.
Poor Szmul is the narrator afforded the least pages, but his words do not lack impact. He attempts to help the new arrivals while counting the days to his own inevitable death. Szmul has the least hope of anyone in the story, at one point declaring himself scared to sleep in case he dreams he goes home to his wife and has to tell her what he has been doing.(“I love my wife, but I’m glad I’ll never see her again.”) The scene with Witold, a boy he knew from back home, shows how impossibly he is trapped in the war; he finds himself doing the dirty work for those who are trying to kill his people (“they recast you in their own image”). Part of Szmul’s job on the SK squad is to extract any valuables from the cavities of the dead.
The background to this story is well known, and Amis sticks to the script with minimal ad-libbing (anyone who has read Koba the Dread will find the themes and descriptions familiar). In Zonehe leans on history for his scenario, leaving himself free to provide the frills. Making the running of an extermination camp enjoyable is a tough task, but he manages it with a style that flows as well as anything he has written before. Crucially, he indicates and gestures, there are no stark signposts, and style does not trump content. This book reads well a second and third time, both for plot and detail. E-readers will utilise their online dictionaries as there is a fair smattering of German and French. The author has done his homework and wants it to show.
Amis’ trick to the story is the way the viewpoints of the three characters twist and combine to reveal the truth to the reader (boozer Doll is especially negligent where the truth is concerned as he narrates). The last chapter ties up the story lines and gives a glimpse of what life was like after the war; while the careful film noir ending is suited to the time period. In the Afterword Amis takes the opportunity to think out loud regarding his own feelings in coming to terms with the holocaust (if such a thing is possible). His research has enabled him to include many real life incidents (and people) in Zone.
The Booker brouhaha is old hat; all you can say is the list must be full to the brim this year with authors tackling serious subjects while still being able to entertain. As with any Amis novel, those that need ammunition will no doubt dig to find it. The rest of us can get on with enjoying a very good book.
In the latter part of his career Amis has somewhat made his own bed, what with his comments about writers declining in their later years. He's set himself a challenge that will stand to the last word he types. In The Zone of Interest there is no sign of decline, nor of losing the battle.