The Zone of Interest

by Martin Amis, Matthew Lloyd Davies (reader)

From one of England's most renowned authors, an unforgettable new novel that provides a searing portrait of life-and, shockingly, love-in a concentration camp.

Once upon a time there was a king, and the king commissioned his favorite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn't show you your reflection. It showed you your soul-it showed you who you really were.

The wizard couldn't look at it without turning away. The king couldn't look at it. The courtiers couldn't look at it. A chestful of treasure was offered to anyone who could look at it for sixty seconds without turning away. And no one could.

The Zone of Interest is a love story with a violently unromantic setting. Can love survive the mirror? Can we even meet each other's eye, after we have seen who we really are?

In a novel powered by both wit and pathos, Martin Amis excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Holocaust, War, World War II, Historical, Literary Fiction

1 pages, Audio CD

First published September 30, 2014

About the author

Martin Amis was an English novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His works included the novels Money, London Fields and The Information.

The Guardian writes that "all his critics have noted what Kingsley Amis [his father] complained of as a 'terrible compulsive vividness in his style... that constant demonstrating of his command of English'; and it's true that the Amis-ness of Amis will be recognisable in any piece before he reaches his first full stop."

Amis's raw material is what he sees as the absurdity of the postmodern condition with its grotesque caricatures. He has thus sometimes been portrayed as the undisputed master of what the New York Times has called "the new unpleasantness."

Reviews

[Violet wells · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s like some accident befell Martin Amis half way through his career. Without ever quite writing the masterpiece expected of him he did write a series of brilliant and very funny novels. Then, all of a sudden, he collapsed. He lost his mojo. Yellow Dog is probably the worst novel in history written by a first rate novelist. Since then we’ve had House of Meetings, The Pregnant Widow and Lionel Asbo, all lacking the vitality and high wire virtuosity of his earlier work. Now he’s chosen to write about the Holocaust for the second time. In his afterword he tells us how difficult it has always been for him to gain entrance into the Holocaust, to secure any kind of understanding of its “wild fantastic disgrace”, the electric severity with which it repels our contact and our grip”, until he stumbled upon an interview with Primo Levi in which Levi said the actions of the Nazis should always remain beyond comprehension because the act of comprehension is, in some way, to find justification. So Amis makes no effort in his novel to comprehend what happened at Auschwitz – here named Kat Zet; rather, he focuses predominantly on the banality and ethical undertow of its evil, distils the evil into workplace and social tensions at the camp, most notably, sexual rivalry. The insane industrial slaughter takes place offstage (we draw on our own stock of brutal images to provide the pathos), its stink the most pervasive toxin of the reeling barbarity of the camp.

The novel has three rotating narrators. Doll, the camp commandant is psychotic, deluded, vain, self-pitying, pulsing with self-righteous bluster and as such a familiar Amis creation. Thomsen, the protected playboy nephew of Martin Bormann, is some kind of middle manager responsible for the camp’s workforce and the production of synthetic rubber. He is more morally ambivalent. To begin with he sees Doll’s wife, the most vocal conscientious objector in the novel, as the latest challenge for his sexual vanity but his blossoming feeling for her begins to humanise him. The third narrator is Szmul, head of the Sonderkommando, the workforce of prisoners detailed to dispose of the bodies - "nearly all our work is done among the dead, with the heavy scissors, the pliers and mallets, the buckets of petrol refuse, the ladles, the grinders".

In a nutshell, Doll is the perpetrator of the horror, Thomsen the bystander and Szmul the victim. Without question the most difficult character for Amis to imagine is Szmul, the electric insanity of the work he’s forced to do every day beggaring belief. Somewhere in the novel Amis states that the Third Reich forced people to see who they were, made it impossible to hide from themselves. Szmul though and the ethical and physical horror he undergoes every day, not surprisingly, eludes Amis. But you feel this is intentional. Szmul is a ghost, remains a ghost throughout the novel and as such, conversely, works better than the other two narrators because he is what haunts everyone.

What we have is a novel set in Auschwitz that is almost bereft of dramatic tension. It’s engaging and highly intelligent without ever being truly enthralling or disturbing. The writing is consistently good without ever being thrillingly brilliant. As you’d expect with a writer of Amis’ exalted comic gifts he does a great job of mocking the Nazis. But all in all I found it an oddly unemotional experience. The aftermath, when after the war Thomsen seeks out Hanna, is genuinely moving but overall this novel is not a moving experience. Ultimately I’m not sure why Amis wrote this novel. Time’s Arrow was a brilliant dramatization of the monumental insanity of the Holocaust – to understand which will always be like trying to decode the speaking in tongues of the mentally deranged. Why, when you’ve succeeded once, attempt the same subject again?

Incidentally, Hannah will do nothing to change the widespread conviction that Amis can’t write women.

I’d recommend it but add a note of caution about getting your hopes up.

[Meike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oscar for Best International Feature Film 2024
Of course the movie is much smarter, as it only shows the mansion of commandant Rudolf Höß from the inside, with Auschwitz concentration camp existing in sounds and sights that intrude on the cynic idyll from behind the garden walls - a set-up that underlines the brutality of the Nazi regime and the schizophrenic psychological divide inside the minds of the perpetrators. Amis, on the other hand, has a tendency to turn atrocities into spectacle. Mostly set inside Auschwitz, he gives us three alternating narrators: Officer Angelus "Golo" Thomsen (note the references to Walter Benjamin's Angelus Novus, the angel of history, as well as to historian Golo Mann), Höß' stand-in Paul Doll, the commandant of Auschwitz, and Szmul Zacharias, leader of a Jewish Sonderkommando, so a group of prisoners forced to aid with the disposal of corpses before being killed themselves.

The plot is rather implausible: Golo, SS fuckboy and nephew of Hitler's close buddy Martin Bormann, falls in love with commandant Doll's wife Hannah - God knows why, she is just as much of a caricature as everyone else in this novel. They hardly ever meet, they never have sex, she mainly uses Golo in order to try to find out what happened to her former Communist lover, but hey, somehow this love is supposed to reform Golo, because: reasons. Meanwhile, Paul Doll is an alcoholic, women-hating loser who nonchalantly stands at the ramp when trains arrive, and he is rendered as a full-on satire of Nazi masculinity, which: Good idea. Szmul, who by all estimation should be the most interesting character, hardly gets any pages, and they remain obscure: A missed opportunity.

What makes this novel borderline unreadable for a German speaker is the use of German words that Amis sprinkles in, apparently for the vibes. They are often the opposite of idiomatic which leads to a comic effect that is probably not intended, at other times the grammar is plain wrong - Amis simply doesn't have command of the German language (and no editor who saves him from himself), so he achieves no aesthetic goals whatsoever, it's just added gibberish (a "Kat Zet"? A man looking at a woman's "Geschlechtsorgan"? No, just no).

Amis' German publisher, Hanser, refused to publish "Zone of Interest", and I suspect the reason to be that in Germany, the silly love story about an SS Officer at Auschwitz reformed by his love for the mostly a-moral wife of one of the worst war criminals in history, told with lots of added detail about people being tortured and murdered, is seen as distasteful. Why? Because it IS distasteful. Which is why the movie has gotten rid of it altogether, instead focusing on the Höß family.

A novel with lots of unrealized potential.

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve noted in reviews of the three other Martin Amis novels I’ve read that he’s got this incredible knack for writing despicable people while still making them funny and entertaining. But doing a book about Nazis running a concentration camp?

Well, you can’t say the man isn’t willing to take on a challenge.*

The story is told by first person accounts from three men. Angelus Thomsen is a Nazi officer and nephew to Martin Bormann whose hobby is seducing women. He’s got his eye on Hannah, the wife of camp commandant Paul Doll who is our second narrator. The third one is Smzul, the leader of a work gang of Jews who have to search and dispose of the bodies of people murdered in the gas chambers.

Amis does a great job of riding the line of mocking the Nazis and their beliefs without ever trying to use humor to disguise the horror all around. Smzul is the character who keeps the book honest with the depiction of him as a man forced to do the unthinkable but doing it well. Thomsen is a bit trickier with his motivations initially being only a desire to sleep with Hannah and seemingly not much reaction to what’s happening around him. He only comes into focus late in the book.

Like many other Amis characters, Doll is a stupid brute without the self-awareness to realize what a pathetic joke he actually is. Amis does some of his sharpest work here in highlighting the utter terrifying banality of Nazi evil by making Doll a clown, but then pointing out that things can go seriously wrong when the clowns start running the circus.

I’m struggling to put my finger on why this didn’t do more for me, and I think it’s just comes down to the setting. Amis manages this delicate tone about as well as anyone could, and obviously reading this should make someone feel uneasy at the very least. Maybe my problem is that I have genuinely enjoyed reading when Amis puts an awful person front and center despite them doing some pretty terrible things, but you can’t get into that same mindset when the terrible things actually happened.

* I know that another Amis book, Time's Arrow, also features a Nazi character, but I haven't read that one yet so I can't compare it to this one.

[Gabriela Pistol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuvintele mele sunt prea sărace pentru a descrie incredibila măiestrie lingvistică a lui Amis, în primul rând. Despre conținut, cu atât mai puțin, e de o subtilitate în relevarea terorii cum nu am mai întâlnit în niciuna dintre multele cărți serioase despre Holocaust pe care le-am citit.
Doar o astfel de măiestrie - sau cea mai seacă relatare, cea a victimelor - poate începe să redea ceva din grozăvia acelui anus mundi, iadul concentraționar, Zona de interes.
La început mi-a amintit, în complexitate, de incredibila Binevoitoarele. Dar o depașește ca scriitură.

[Hank1972 · Rating 4 out of 5]

# Memoria # Aspettando il film

E’ un oggetto letterario che scotta questo. Perchè, in una delle più immani tragedie della storia, l’olocausto degli ebrei - e zingari, omosessuali, dissidenti politici, … - si pone dal punto di vista dei carnefici e delle loro vite “ordinarie” che scorrono parallele al massacro: mogli e figli, dissidi familiari, problemi di “lavoro”, cene e feste, avventure erotiche. Utilizzando anche registri ironici e grotteschi…quando qualcuno disse che dopo Auschwitz neppure la poesia poteva più essere scritta.

Ed è un oggetto letterario notevole. Per la caratterizzazione dei 3 personaggi principali e dei molti personaggi secondari. Per la ricostruzione del campo di concentramento di Auschwitz e della Zona di Interesse dove risiedevano i militari nazisti e le loro famiglie. Per le solide basi storiche su cui è intessuta la finzione, documentate dallo stesso Amis nell'ultimo capitolo in cui l’autore sembra avere quasi il bisogno di intervenire per darci la sua visione.


da sinistra: Josef Mengele, Rudolf Höss (comandante di Aushwitz), Josef Kramer, ufficiale non identificato, in un momento di pausa ad Aushwitz via Holocaust Encyclopedia

Sono sei capitoli, ciascuno composto da 3 paragrafi in cui in prima persona parlano a turno i protagonisti. Il comandante di Auschwitz Paul Doll (non sono usati i nomi reali), un ubriacone, sottomesso dalla forte moglie Hannah, indegno padre di due gemelle, quasi una macchietta. L’ufficiale nazista Golo Thomsen, nipote di quel Bormann segretario di Hitler, innamorato di Hannah con cui tenterà fino all’ultimo di avere una relazione, impegnato nella costruzione di una grande fabbrica che, in collaborazione con la IG Farben e lo sfruttamento dei prigionieri, avrebbe dovuto produrre gomma e combustibile per sostenere lo sforzo bellico tedesco. Szmulz, ebreo polacco, internato assieme ai suoi 2 figli, la moglie Shulamith rimasta in un ghetto polacco, è capo del Sonderkommando, le squadre speciali di prigionieri che coadiuvavano i nazisti nelle atroci attività del campo di concentramento.

Ecco, dicevo, mentre nella Zona di Interesse e oltre la vita degli allegri nazisti e dei loro famigliari si svolge, se vogliamo, “banalmente” (banalità del male come è stato detto), ma mai inconsapevole e innocente, nel campo continuano ad arrivare i treni con il loro carico umano destinato alla terribile selezione, fila di destra e fila di sinistra, la casetta nel bosco con le docce per la “disinfezione” lavora a pieno regime, l’aria e l'acqua sono pregne dell’odore e sapore della morte. La neve si farà grigia e poi marrone.

Un minimo barlume di speranza e riscatto lo ritroveremo, in ultimo, in Hannah, in Golo, in Szmulz.

Come dice quest’ultimo, il lager è uno specchio dove uno è condannato a guardare la propria anima. E la terribile domanda che ci dobbiamo fare è: cosa avremmo fatto noi se fossimo stati, in quelle precise circostanze, nei panni di un soldato tedesco, di un tedesco, di un Sonder? Avremmo avuto la forza di guardare la nostra anima?


Anselm Kiefer, Dein Aschenes Haar, Sulamith

Il libro, tra gli altri, é dedicato a Primo Levi e Paul Celan, annichiliti, col tempo, dalla Shoah. Del primo, Amis ricorda il suo “Warum?”, perché tutto questo, che continuerà a riecheggiare per sempre, assieme alla "Fuga di Morte" di Celan:

Todesfuge
…
Nero latte dell’alba ti beviamo la notte
ti beviamo al meriggio e al mattino ti beviamo la s'era
beviamo e beviamo
nella casa c’è un uomo i tuoi capelli d’oro Margarete
i tuoi capelli di cenere Sulamith egli gioca coi serpenti
egli urla suonate la morte suonate più dolce la morte è un maestro tedesco
egli urla violini suonate più tetri e poi salirete come fumo nell’aria
e poi avrete una tomba nelle nubi lì non si sta stretti
…
i tuoi capelli d’oro Margarete
i tuoi capelli di cenere Sulamith


______________________________________________

SUL FILM

La zona di interesse per me è notevole, in linea con le aspettative che avevo dopo la lettura del libro di Amis, a cui il film e' allineato per idea e nucleo della storia, con alcune varianti e tagli. Ed anche in comparazione agli altri mille mila altri libri e film letti e visti, ed a convegni, testimonianze e visite ai campi di concentramento (Dachau nel mio caso).

La paura e l’orrore prodotti senza mai entrare nel KL. Per via sonora, tutti quei rumori provenienti dal campo non si dimenticano facilmente. Per via visiva, spezzoni di torri di guardia e filo spinato, bagliori notturni dai camini, il fumo dei treni in arrivo, la luce gelida sempre, cenere ovunque. Con qualche accenno, anche per via olfattiva.

Il punto di vista del carnefice, del comandante Hoss e famiglia, amplifica l’orrore per contrasto con la vita ordinaria, “banale”, figli da crescere, feste con amici, la bella casa da curare, lo status sociale, i riconoscimenti sul lavoro. E quel punto di vista può essere il nostro? Cosa avremmo fatto noi, fossimo stati tedeschi a quel tempo?

Belle le scene della ragazza resistente inquadrata con visore notturno e che poi suonerà quel brano al piano da una partitura ritrovata, ultimo messaggio/ricordo lasciato da chi probabilmente e già cenere.

Bello il salto temporale finale, altro orrore evocato in via indiretta e, nella mia interpretazione, invito a non confinare l’olocausto ad una visione storica e museale, e a non dimenticare e non rimanere indifferenti ora per allora, e per l’oggi e per il domani.

[Grazia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tutti quanti avevamo scoperto, o non avevamo potuto fare a meno di rivelare, chi eravamo. Chi ciascuno era realmente. Questo era stata, la zona d’interesse."

Martin Amis è stato uno scrittore estremamente originale e divisivo. E sicuramente non banale. Come non banale è il modo che ha trovato per raccontare l'inenarrabile.
Difficile, corrosivo e destabilizzante.
Avevo pertanto paura ad affrontare questo suo testo perché ero certa che mi avrebbe devastato: e così è stato.

Perché ciò che leggi è l'orrore di ciò che si è incredibilmente consumato.


"I fatti, esposti in una storiografia di decine di migliaia di volumi, sono piú che assodati; ma in un certo senso restano incredibili, o al di là di ogni immaginazione, e non possono essere assimilati appieno."(*)

Le voci narranti sono alternate e sono tre.

Paul Doll, il comandante responsabile di Auschwitz, Angelus Golo Thomsen, nipote di Martin Bormann segretario di Hitler, innamorato di Hanna, moglie di Paul Doll e Szmulz, ebreo polacco, capo del Sonderkommando, le squadre speciali di prigionieri che erano a supporto dei nazisti nell'esecuzione delle atroci attività del campo.

E la misura di questo romanzo è il sarcasmo e il grottesco. Strumenti che nelle mani di uno scrittore mediocre avrebbero potuto avere un effetto disastroso e irrispettoso. Mentre qui, almeno così è stato per me, ciò che si amplifica è l'orrore.

"Non sarà questa mattina, non sarà neanche questo pomeriggio. Sarà a fine giornata, al calar delle tenebre.

Sebbene viva nel presente, e lo faccia con patologica costanza, ricordo tutto quello che mi è successo da quando sono arrivato al Lager. Tutto. Per ricordare un’ora impiegherei un’ora. Per ricordare un mese impiegherei un mese.

Non posso dimenticare perché non posso dimenticare.

E infine tutti questi ricordi ora dovranno essere dispersi. C’è solo un esito possibile, ed è l’esito che voglio. Con ciò dimostrerò che la mia vita è mia, e mia soltanto."

Un romanzo che va affrontato con consapevolezza e anche conoscenza dell'autore. (Non partirei da qui per leggere Amis)

Il film che ho visto, seppur di grande impatto, usa solo l'idea del romanzo: descrivere Auschwitz ai confini di Auschwitz, ovvero dalla villa del comandante del campo di concentramento senza mai entrare nel campo.

(*) Dalla postfazione dell'autore.

[Maciek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Time's Arrow, Martin Amis's earlier book, was an interesting experiment - it begins at the end, and has a Nazi doctor return from death and life his life backwards. He talks in reverse and acts in reverse - hurts healthy patients before sending them home, breaks up with women before seducing them, and grows increasingly younger. The novel's trick is Todd not being its narrator - there entity narrating the events is never named but can be seen as his conscience (or soul, if you prefer) as it nears the inescapable Holocaust - the horrible event which makes sense only when inverted: from death back to life, from suffering back to happiness.

With The Zone of Interest Amis returns to the theme of the Holocaust, albeit in a very different way. The Zone of Interest is set in Nazi Germany in 1942, and describes the Holocaust from the point of view of the Germans. The novel has three different narrators, and each offers his perspective on the events - Paul Doll, an alcoholic and delusional Commandant,loathed by his wife, Hannah; Angelus "Golo" Thomsen, a Nazi official and a nephew of Martin Bormann, who falls in love with Doll's wife; and Szmul - a former Jewish inmate turned Volksdeutsch and enrolled into the Sonderkommando, now personally responsible for organizing the Final Solution in practice by sending other Jews to the gas chambers, and collecting the loot from their dead bodies.

Time's Arrow was a chronological reversal; The Zone of Interest is reverses the perspective. It is a well known adage which says that history is written by the winners, but there's at least one instance where this isn't true - the Holocaust. Much - if not - all of Holocaust literature focuses on the lives of prisoners and the inner working of the camp as seen through their eyes; here readers see the lives of its perpetrators and executioners. This is a particularly important approach, as actions of the Nazis became a contemporary benchmark of evil and entered everyday language - just think of Godwin's law. Paradoxically, this has largely restricted possible attempts at comprehending the Nazis - we know how evil they actions were, but can we understand why have they committed them?

The Nazis have been moved into the territory of absolute evil - completely beyond human comprehension and understanding, with the Nazis themselves considered to be evil incarnate and Hitler being the devil himself. In the afterword, Amis quotes writer Michael Andre Bernsteinand his statement that "dealing with the Nazi genocide is central to our self-understanding"; but he also quotes Primo Levi who argued that the Holocaust cannot be understood as understanding implies justification - no normal human being will ever be able to identify with Hitler, Goering and Eichmann. Nazi hatred is not human hatred - it is entirely outside man. Amis sees Levi's statement not as an evasion, but as "lifting of the why, and opening "the door in" - which looks to me to be a bit evasive in itself - we need to understand while at the same time we'll never be able to, and mustn't even try. This, I believe, is a grave mistake - by stripping the Nazis from their humanity we collectively shrug them off with conviction that what they did couldn't happen here, to us, and most importantly that we would never do anything as horrifying as they did. But what gives us this certainity?

As historical fiction the book is mediocre - there's barely a plot and the descriptions of places and events are bare; if not for the obvious fact that it's set in a concentration camp we wouldn't know that it's the 1940's, as just a few other historical events are mentioned. I could never become completely interested in the characters and their tribulations, which didn't help as they are the crux of this text. The fault is largely mine - being who I am, a Pole, we're more than familiar with the history and circumstances of the period. The Holocaust has been written about and studied extensively by both scholars and survivors, and the why question is and always will be central to understanding it. But do we, in 2014, need another novel about it? This is the second Holocaust novel published this year by an important writer - the other one being J by Howard Jacobson. I think that both books brought us no closer to understanding the Holocaust, which asks the question why bother write them in the first place. I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I enjoyed the last Amis - Lionel Asbo: State of England much better - with its low-brow Chav humor it was a bittersweet satire on contemporary generation, surprisingly well done by someone his age. In Zone of Interest I actually enjoyed most the ending essay, where Amis lists the historical books he used for research and ruminates on his motivations for writing this book, which unfortunately does not bring us any further towards answering the haunting why.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Amis novel since my abandonment in 2010 following an enraged reading of House of Meetings (no doubt devoured in part on an ice-cold bus from Inverness following a disappointing summer), a meview that begins with a flounce: “This is the last Amis novel I will ever read.” Four years hence, why the flipflop, why once again do I part the enormous hardback covers for a peek into Amisland? Because I remember the good times—The Information, London Fields, Money. The Good Times. And now, The Zone of Interest has brought me back into the Amis bosom. A mordant and amusing short novel with three Nazi voices that pokes around in the banal backrooms of evil, boasting Amis’s trademark pizazz and more chatty dialogue than expected that detracts from Amis’s trademark pizazz. His handling of the holocaust has the same opaque violence as Time’s Arrow—that which happened is a brutal backdrop (despite a few overt stomach-churners) to the tedious love hankerings and existential miseries of the Nazi bunglers. That which happens in the novel is not too interesting—the comedic aspect seems to revolve around using German words for the female anatomy at choice moments—although the graceful and musical bounce of the prose and dialogue keep the reader entranced and in wait for the explosion of horror that never quite arrives. Subdued and amusing. Decent Amis.

[Mihaela Juganaru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pentru mine nu a fost doar o carte despre holocaust, a fost "o stare", o încântare datorită scriiturii, o tensiune dureroasă aproape permanentă, din cauza ororilor, m-a informat, m-a pus să gândesc, să citesc și să aflu lucruri, să visez cum ar fi o lume care să învețe ceva, orice, din atrocitățile de atunci.

"Nu mai existase o normalitate la care să te întorci, nu după 1914, nu în Germania. Trebuia să ai pe puțin 55 de ani ca să mai păstrezi o amintire de matur a ceea ce însemna normalitate."

[Kansas · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2023...

“Un amigo mio que ya ha muerto decía que el Tercer Reich era una larga Walpurgisnacht. Y hablaba de la frontera entre la vida y la muerte, y de que tal frontera parecía haber desaparecido."

La Walpurgisnacht es la noche en la que se puede cruzar la frontera entre el mundo de lo visible y lo invisible, pasar del mundo de la luz al mundo de las tinieblas más absolutas y tal como muestra la cita elegida para comenzar la reseña, esto metafóricamente hablando se puede decir que fue la pesadilla del Tercer Reich porque una vez cruzada la frontera del mundo tal como se conocía, se entraba en el reino del terror, una larga noche casi interminable. Hace un par de meses leí Trieste de Dasa Drndic y ya ahí me encontré reflexionando sobre la definición acuñada por Hannah Arendt en torno a la banalidad del mal; hace una semana se me cruzó por recomendación inesperada, How to quiet a vampire de Borislav Pekic que más o menos aborda esta normalización del terror (entre otras cosas), y en cuanto también hace unos días me encontré con la novela de Martin Amis (relacionada con la adaptación que acaba de estrenar Jonathan Glazer), decidí continuar con mi miniciclo en torno a este mismo tema arendtiano, miniciclo que tengo que terminar con la lectura de la misma Hannah Arendt, qué mínimo ;-) Así que se me cruzó sin planearlo esta Zona de Interés, de un autor, Martin Amis, al que no había leído todavía, y realmente ha sido una buena elección para añadir a este miniciclo en torno a la banalidad del mal.

“Me reconfortaría infinitamente si, una vez a la semana, los jueves, pongamos, a las cuatro de la tarde, salieses y dieses una vuelta de cinco minutos por el jardín. Yo te veré desde el edificio de lo alto de la colina, y sabré que estás bien (y que estás paseando en el jardín por mí).”

Al principio no estaba segura de que esta historia fuese una historia de amor, tal como la venden los resúmenes de la novela, o en todo caso no empezó como una historia de amor, empezó más bien como un cazador intentando añadir una presa más a su colección y sí que es cierto que se va definiendo en otra cosa, y finalmente, sí que se podría haber convertido en una historia de amor, y aunque Martin Amis construye su novela bajo esa premisa, es solo una excusa para abordar otro tema. El supuesto cazador es Angus Thomsen un oficial nazi que pone su vista sobre Hannah Doll, la esposa de Paul Doll, comandante de un campo de concentración que bien podría ser Ausschwitz y a partir de aquí Martin Amis introduce al lector dentro de esta larga Walpurgisnacht, donde los creadores del terror nazi se pasearan a sus anchas en conversaciones aparentemente banales tanto en actos sociales como en reuniones de trabajo o durante la vida doméstica, los veremos desde dentro. El escenario será el KZ, el campo de concentración, donde la nieve en invierno será parda y el olor insoportable como resultado del humo proveniente de las chimeneas de las cámaras de gas. Sin embargo, los personajes de esta novela parecerá que hayan normalizado esta vida viviendo a costa del terror de otros.

“Si lo que estamos haciendo es bueno ¿por qué huele tan lacerantemente mal? En la rampa, por la noche, ¿por qué sentimos la necesidad ineludible de emborracharnos, de forma tan desenfrenada? ¿Por qué hemos hecho que el prado se agite y escupa? ¿Por qué la nieve se nos vuelve parda? ¿Por qué hacemos eso?”

Martin Amis construye esta novela en torno a tres narradores, lo que la convierte en muchos momentos en una lectura fragmentada aunque sabemos claramente quién está ejerciendo la primera persona en todo momento. Tres puntos de vista interesantes y muy diferentes:

- por una parte, está la perspectiva del comandante del campo de concentración, Paul Doll, imponente, misógino, abusivo, hecho para fertilizar a las hembras y para el trabajo físico. En él crea Martin Amis a un estereotipo en toda regla y aunque en un principio no parece que se cuestione nada, en un arranque de humor negro muy soterrado, el autor compara el estrés laboral en el que permantemente vive el comandante Doll con el del ejecutivo que tiene que ajustarse a unos objetivos productivos (“ unverzüglich…,el trabajo sin demora”). El comandante es quien recibe los trenes cargados de judíos cuando llegan al campo, y a partir de aquí se produce la selección: quienes irán a las cámaras de gas directamente y quiénes serán elegidos para trabajar como “esclavos” en los Buna-Werke, centros industriales donde científicos y técnicos trabajaran para perfeccionar la producción de caucho sintético. Los trenes irán llegando cada vez más masivamente lo que incluso producirá atascos en la estación en la cual espera el comandante, lo que contribuye a escenas caóticas en la que Martin Amis está abordando lo grotesco de la situación…

"Las instrucciones que me ha dado me han puesto la carne de gallina. ¿Le habré oído bien? No puedo cumplir semejante orden mientras Hannah siga en el KL. ¡Dios santo! Esto va a ser una auténtica pesadilla."

- la segunda perspectiva en la que se detiene Amis será la de Angelus Thomsen, el oficial nazi que fija la mirada en la esposa de Paul Doll. Thomsen es el sobrino de un alto cargo ario, Martin Boorman, secretario privado de Hitler, al que nunca se referirá nadie en la novela por su nombre sino que lo conoceremos como el Jefe. Thomsen sirve como una especie de enlace entre las fábricas y los altos cargos nazis, y volvemos a ese simil que construye Martin Amis comparando esta parafernalia nazi con un negocio en toda regla, hablando incluso de personajes en trajes de negocios, y de alguna forma el autor se hace eco de Hannah Arendt cuando decía que todo este tinglado iba más allá del tema judío. Thomsen, que es un personaje que está en medio de dos orillas, parece desencantado con el régimen nazi, aunque es como un camaleón que se mimetiza con el entorno:

“Cuando el futuro mire hacia atrás a los nacionlsocialistas los considerará tan exóticos e inverosimiles como a los carnivoros de la prehistoria (¿habían existido realmente…, el velociraptor, tiranosaurio?) Ni humanos, ni mamíferos, No son mamíferos. Son mamíferos de sangre caliente y ovoviviparos.”

- y llegamos al tercer punto de vista, y quizás el más interesante, el más controvertido, el de Szmul, jefe del Sonderkommando (prisioneros judios que organizaban los cuerpos en las cámaras de gas, a los que se les llamaba también los cuervos del osario). Szumul es un gestor eficiente de estas cámaras de gas y Amis confronta su punto de vista con el continuo conflicto interno en el que ve a los suyos morir en las cámaras y sin embargo, es capaz de realizar un trabajo inmaculado de orden y gestión: “Los judios solo pueden prolongar su vida ayudando a su enemigo a lograr su victoria…” Szumul, judio con una tristeza crónica, al que Amis describe con la mirada continuamente baja, se convierte poco a poco en uno de esos personajes al que el lector va desenterrando de su invisiblidad.

"O te vuelves loco en los primeros diez minutos, se dice con frecuencia, o te acostumbras a ello. Podría argüirse ue aquellos que se acostumbran a ello, de hecho se vuelven locos. Y aun existe una tercera posibilidad: ni te acostumbras a ello ni te vuelves loco.
Cuando terminamos de trabajar nos reunimos, aquellos que no nos hemos acostumbrado a ello y no nos hemos vuelto locos, y charlamos y charlamos."

Es una novela que a pesar del tema que toca, está construida con un cierto humor muy entre lineas (los momentos en los que conocemos a la familia Boorman son impagables en ese aspecto) porque de alguna forma Martin Amis está abordando la locura que fue esta parafernalia nazi, y al mismo tiampo entiendo que no carga las tintas en lo referente a esta aberración ejercida sobre los judIos, no pasa de puntillas pero sí que es cierto que el acercamiento que hace es muy inteligente: arremete contra esta normalización del terror de la manera más inteligente, no eludiendo sino incidiendo en lo grotesco de la situación. Las conversaciones, los diálogos pueden resultar banales, artificiales porque el lector es consciente del horror que se está sucediendo, pero tiene todo el sentido del mundo ya que estamos siendo testigos de cómo ciertos personajes se pasean por una escena casi teatral de figuras espectrales víctimas de horrores que a día de hoy podrían parecer una distopía ficticia. Lo caricaturesco de algunas situaciones sobre todo en torno a la figura de la mujer, a la idea preconcebida que se tenía de ellas, es otro de los conceptos que resalta continuamente Martin Amis en esta novela:

“Lo convencional por aquellos pagos era que hablabas con las mujeres mientras tomabas la sopa; después una vez que daba comienzo la conversación general, ya no se esperaba oír a las mujeres (éstas se convertían en cojines acolchados; se convertían en amortiguadores)."

"Las chicas alemanas se supone que no llevan tacones. Los tacones son para las furcias remilgadas de París y Nueva York, con sus medias de seda y sus ligueros de satén y sus..."

Admito que iba con dudas cuando me puse con esta novela pero Amis me ha dado una perspectiva nueva sobre tema del terror en el Tercer Reich. Ese punto de equilibro que es capaz de crear el autor entre el genocidio y el mundo doméstico y laboral desde dentro, me han maravillado, sobre todo por lo dificil en un tema tan espinoso como este, así que sí, se puede decir que Martin Amis ha conseguido el más dificil todavía. Una novela interesante que es una extraña mezcla entre sátira, historia e introspección psicológica.

"Antes sentía el mayor de los respetos por las pesadillas, por su inteligencia y arte. Ahora pienso que las pesadillas son lastimosas. Son absolutamente incapaces de concebir algo siquiera remotamente tan terrible como lo que yo hago durante todo el día."

( (Re-subo y re-edito, con las capturas de la película, la reseña de mayo'23 debido a que por fin he visto la largamente esperada adaptación al cine de Jonathan Glazer. Realmente decidí leer en su momento la novela debido a esta adaptación que estaba por venir, así que tiene sentido que conecte ya esta novela a la película, aunque son dos obras totalmente diferentes, y a mi entender la película que lleva el texto a su propio terreno, ha resultado ser una obra muy superior a la novela. Jonathan Glazer toma la carcasa del concepto inicial de la novela de Martin Amis, para explorar nuestra capacidad como humanos para ignorar el mal y el terror que nos circunda y normalizarlo con nuestra rutina diaria. Y aunque esté ubicada en la era del terror nazi, Jonathan Glazer se las arregla para extender este concepto a la actualidad y hacernos reflexionar: ¿Ha evolucionado en algo la raza humana?? ¿No seguimos ignorando el terror que nos llega diariamente, normalizándolo, nos ponemos las orejeras, deslizamos la pantalla del móvil por las imágenes sin detenernos, ignorando..., pasando..., ubicados en nuestra zona de confort? La película triunfa a la hora de exponer y hacer una reflexión sobre este concepto de la banalidad del mal.) "All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present, not to say look what they did then, rather look what what we do now. Our film shows how deshumanization leads at its worst. It's shaped all our past and present.", Jonathan Glazer








The zone of interest, 2023, Jonathan Glazer

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, thought provoking novel, which attempts to look at the holocaust from the human perspective of four different characters. Firstly, there is Paul Doll, Commandant of a concentration camp; ruler of who he surveys, but oddly uncomfortable in his own marriage and battling bureaucracy in Berlin over numbers, cost and the various details of committing mass murder for the least cost and most profit. His wife, Hannah Doll, is also an important character. A woman, a wife, a mother and far more aware of what is going on around her than her husband realises. Thirdly, is Angelus ‘Golo’ Thomsen, who falls for Hannah. Golo looks like an SS poster boy – all blonde hair and jutting jaw- plus, much to Doll’s disgust, he has a degree of protection through his uncle, Martin Bormann. Lastly, there is Szmul, a Jewish prisoner, who works at the ramp where the prisoners arrive on the trains and who is a witness to all the atrocities that happen around him.

In a way, this reminded me of another novel I read earlier this year – “The Commandant of Lubizec,” by Patrick Hines. Both books look at the normalisation of horror and the sheer scale of killing that happened in the holocaust. Humanity was turned on its head, as previously normal people beat, starved and gassed other people to death. We have Doll, an ardent National Socialist, who bans the anti-Semitic newspaper, “Der Sturmer,” in favour of scientific evidence to condone his actions, industrialists tiptoeing around bodies as they lay out their factories, a professor of zoology who has to dig Doll’s garden, locals who complain they cannot drink the water because of the smell coming from the camp, but do not question too deeply, businessmen who argue that they do not realise what all the fuss about the Jews is for anyway, but go along with it, guards who drink and obviously feel increasingly uncomfortable with what they are doing, but still obey orders… This is murder as a business, where prisoners worth is measured in the work they can do, where finance is built upon bodies and transport schedules constantly roll in unloading their victims.

Martin Amis does an incredible job of showing us the reality of the holocaust, while wrapping the storyline around a moving love story. Much of this novel is incredibly moving – Szmul’s reaction when Hannah Doll speaks to him is one of the most touching moments in the book – and yet often it is also extremely funny. I thought this a wonderful novel; Amis made the seemingly impossible –a funny book about the holocaust – possible. He shows how mass murder became normalised and how, and why, normal people became brutal and barbaric. This is an important novel and I am glad I read it. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley.

[João Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

”A Zona de Interesse” não é “apenas” mais um livro sobre o campo de extermínio nazi de Auschwitz – décimo quarto romance que o escritor britânico Martin Amis (n. 1949) publicou em 2014.
Martin Amis subdivide o romance em Seis Capítulos e um Rescaldo; em cada Capítulo a narrativa é partilhada por três narradores: Angelus "Golo" Thomsen, um jovem oficial nazi, sobrinho de Martin Boormann, secretário particular do chefe (Martin Amis nunca menciona o nome de Hitler nem de Auschwitz), Paul Doll, o comandante do campo, leal e obediente, e Szmul Zacharias, um sonder, que pertence ao Sonderkommando, o SK, que são ”os homens mais tristes que alguma vez existiram, também somos os mais repugnantes”, um judeu polaco encarregue de eliminar os corpos das vítimas das câmaras de gás.
De uma forma excepcional, Martin Amis confere a cada um dos três narradores – todos personagens masculinas – um estilo e uma linguagem própria, que vai variando ao longo da narrativa, conferindo autenticidade e induzindo o leitor na apatia e na indiferença aos crimes hediondos que são sistematicamente praticados; para nos concentrarmos nas histórias, sobretudo, as de amor, que fugindo à vulgaridade, muitas das vezes, revelam alguma comicidade, apesar de intercaladas com as brutais sequências de horror e crueldade.
”A Zona de Interesse” é um romance ambíguo, numa combinação complexa entre o dramatismo associado ao campo de concentração de Auschwitz e à sátira sombria sobre as personagens que habitando nele se interrogam: ”Se aquilo que estamos a fazer é bom porque é que cheira tão atrozmente mal?(…) Porque é que os loucos, e só os loucos, parecem gostar disto aqui? Porque é que aqui a conceção e a gestação prometem não uma nova vida, mas a morte certa tanto para a mulher como para a criança?(…) Porque é que fazemos com que a neve fique castanha?(...) Fazer com que a neve pareça merda dos anjos?” (Pág. 253); incorporando inúmeras reflexões, as personagens nazis insistem em serem pessoas perfeitamente normais, que agem e têm comportamentos como qualquer outro homem; num contexto em que a rivalidade, a vaidade, a decepção, o ciúme e a luxúria estão sempre presentes.
Mais um surpreendente romance de Martin Amis…

[Stella Popa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martin Amis, recunoscut drept una dintre cele mai influente și inovatoare voci ale literaturii britanice contemporane, ne oferă cu „Zona de interes” o lucrare provocatoare și profundă, care merge dincolo de poveste, devenind o oglindă a moralității și umanității. Este o carte ce îmbină brutalitatea istorică a lagărelor de concentrare naziste cu fragilitatea și complexitatea relațiilor interumane, explorând teme ca dorința, gelozia, trădarea și conștiința.

Romanul ne poartă în inima unuia dintre cele mai întunecate capitole ale istoriei: un lagăr de concentrare nazist. Aici, Amis construiește o poveste complexă care combină atrocitatea regimului nazist cu dinamica unui **triunghi amoros**. Povestea îi urmărește pe Thomsen, un ofițer ambițios și aparent tipic pentru perioada respectivă, pe soția comandantului lagărului, Hannah Doll, și pe Paul Doll, comandantul lipsit de scrupule, consumat de gelozie și furie.

Flirtul aparent naiv dintre Thomsen și Hannah se transformă treptat într-o amenințare la adresa stabilității vieții domestice și psihologice a lui Paul Doll. Gelozia acestuia culminează cu o decizie extremă: planificarea uciderii soției sale. Amis lasă însă deznodământul deschis interpretării, invitând cititorul să descopere finalul tensionat și imprevizibil.

Ceea ce face romanul atât de captivant nu este doar povestea sa, ci felul în care Amis ridică întrebări fundamentale despre moralitate și identitate. „Zona de interes” devine o metaforă pentru locul în care fiecare personaj este forțat să-și confrunte propria umanitate – sau lipsa acesteia.

Amis adresează teme incomode: ce înseamnă să trăiești cu propriile reflexii într-o perioadă în care conștiința umană era pusă la grea încercare? Într-un moment tulburător, personajele ajung să se confrunte cu propriile suflete, privindu-se prin oglinda Holocaustului: „În perioada național-socialismului, te uitai în oglindă și-ți vedeai sufletul. Te vedeai pe din afară.”

Această explorare profundă nu se limitează doar la victimele regimului nazist, ci se extinde și asupra celor care au contribuit la acest sistem – fie ei comandanți, colaboratori sau martori. Amis nu face distincție între cei care au participat activ și cei care au tăcut; pentru el, tăcerea și pasivitatea sunt la fel de vinovate.

Un element unic al cărții este fuziunea dintre realismul istoric și simbolismul subtil. Amis reușește să construiască o lume detaliată și realistă a lagărelor de concentrare, dar introduce și straturi de introspecție morală și psihologică. Aceste elemente creează o lectură care nu este doar o poveste, ci o provocare intelectuală.

Un alt strat al poveștii explorează relațiile intime, infidelitatea și limitele morale ale monogamiei. Cartea devine astfel o „oglindă” a percepțiilor fiecărui cititor: până unde este permisă dorința, gelozia sau intruziunea într-un cuplu? Martin Amis nu oferă răspunsuri clare, lăsând aceste întrebări să persiste în mintea cititorului.

Martin Amis este un maestru al limbajului. Stilul său complex și încărcat de subtilități necesită o atenție sporită și poate fi uneori dificil de urmărit. Romanul abundă în expresii rare, dialoguri cu sensuri ascunse și descrieri care adaugă profunzime, dar care cer răbdare și o oarecare experiență literară.

Amis folosește un limbaj care este, în același timp, captivant și provocator. Spre exemplu, metaforele sale creează o atmosferă în care violența și grotescul coexistă cu ironia și umorul fin: „Nu a fost ca ultima dată, când m-am cufundat treptat în provocarea logistică a gazării publicului. Nu.”

Cartea nu este doar o poveste istorică sau un roman despre dragoste și trădare. Este o lecție despre limitele umanității, despre cum tragedia personală și colectivă se întrepătrund și despre cum oamenii își pot dezvălui cele mai ascunse laturi în circumstanțe extreme.

Puncte forte:
- Personajele bine conturate, fiecare cu propriile conflicte morale.
- Dialogurile mature și ritmul bine dozat, care mențin atenția cititorului.
- Abordarea subtilă și profundă a temelor morale și istorice.

Aspecte mai dificile:
- Limbajul dens și complex, care poate părea greu de digerat pentru unii cititori.
- Îmbinarea elementelor de realism și introspecție simbolică poate crea confuzie, mai ales pentru cei care caută un fir narativ simplu.


„Zona de interes” de Martin Amis este o lectură captivantă, dar solicitantă, potrivită pentru cititorii care apreciază provocările intelectuale și emoționale. Este o carte care îți lasă un gust dulce-amărui, te face să te întrebi ce ai fi făcut în locul personajelor și îți oferă o perspectivă unică asupra unuia dintre cele mai tragice momente din istorie. Dacă aveți o pasiune pentru romanele istorice și pentru literatura care te pune pe gânduri, aceasta este o carte pe care nu trebuie să o ratați.
O lectură provocatoare și fascinantă, care rămâne mult timp cu tine după ce ai întors ultima pagină. 😊

[Radu Popovici · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5 *

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Germany to probe Nazi-era medical science

Description: From one of England's most renowned authors, an unforgettable new novel that provides a searing portrait of life-and, shockingly, love-in a concentration camp.

Once upon a time there was a king, and the king commissioned his favorite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn't show you your reflection. It showed you your soul-it showed you who you really were.

The wizard couldn't look at it without turning away. The king couldn't look at it. The courtiers couldn't look at it. A chestful of treasure was offered to anyone who could look at it for sixty seconds without turning away. And no one could.

The Zone of Interest is a love story with a violently unromantic setting. Can love survive the mirror? Can we even meet each other's eye, after we have seen who we really are? In a novel powered by both wit and pathos, Martin Amis excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.

Opening: I was no stranger to the flash of lightening; I was no stranger to the thunderbolt. Enviably experienced in these matters, I was no stranger to the cloudburst, and then the sunshine and the rainbow.

That opening paragraph did not inspire further reading, yet ploughing through to the main harrowing narrative proved worth the dedication. If you are looking for a text that will show you why what is happening in UK and US is lamentable, this is for you.
Kellyanne C's specific brand of human nature has been seen before, not least in WWII, and specifically piquant to this character trait investigation is Irma Grese.

America, you will need a lot of Jeyes Fluid to clean up after your foray into fascism goes tits up, yet feel most of us will scrub alongside to get the job done quicker.

[Titi Coolda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spusă prin vocile a trei personaje povestea lui Amis nu face decât să întărească ideea Hannei Arendt cu privire la "banalitatea răului". Moțăiala gândirii duce, inevitabil, la fătarea de monștri, chiar dacă hilari, tot monștri rămân fie că se numesc Paul Doll sau Koba cel cumplit, aka Stalin, personajul principal dintr-o altă carte a lui Martin Amis. Requiescat in pace.

[Martina ⭐ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una storia raccontata con tre punti di vista diversi, sempre a contatto con l'atrocità e la crudezza dei lager nazisti. Un miscuglio di sarcasmo, black humor e frivolezza che si ritrovano ad impattare con la carneficina avvenuta nei campi di concentramento. Forte, duro, quasi fastidioso. Tutto per far comprendere la vergogna di quello che è accaduto. Certi passaggi non sono stati facili da comprendere, per lo stile di narrazione e i molti personaggi presenti, ma nel complesso rappresenta un quadro ben delineato e completo di questa parte di storia, che vorremmo ma che non possiamo dimenticare.

"Non posso dimenticare perché non posso dimenticare [...] E per questa ragione non tutto di me morirà."

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black humor e sarcasmo. Lenti di ingrandimento che non immagineresti mai di usare per descrivere un lager nazista e invece Amis lo fa. E questi strumenti rimandano spaccati e sensazioni veramente inusuali e disturbanti di quel delirio inumano, di quel carnaio di sofferenza. Le varie voci narranti e la scrittura non semplice, rendono questo viaggio arduo quanto sorprendente.

[Paul Dembina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the film and novel have the same titles they have very different focuses on similar subject matter.

The film portrays the camp commandant Rudolf Hoss and his family as rather ordinary people and cleverly chooses to portray the atrocities being perpetrated via the soundtrack. The family are mostly shown enjoying their home and (in his wife's case) the garden she is very proud of, but which is situated immediately outside the perimeter wall of the concentration camp. They cast a blind eye to the atrocities within Auschwitz but it's affects are alluded to.

Martin Amis's novel has a different angle of attack. Although the (fictionalised) commandant and his family are still centre stage there are a wider range to characters and events in the camp are brought more to the fore. There's also more intrigue.

[Oana David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarcabilă carte și remarcabilă traducere (doamna Mihaela Ghiță, pentru editura Trei, colecția Anansi).

O să las citatul ăsta aici:

"Când viitorul are să se aplece asupra național-socialiștilor, o să-i găsească la fel de exotici și neverosimili precum carnivorele preistorice (se poate să fi existat cu adevărat velociraptorul, tiranosaurul?). În niciun caz oameni, și nici mamifere. Nu sunt mamifere. Mamiferele, cu sângele lor cald și puii născuți vii." (pag. 212)

[Matt · Rating 1 out of 5]

FWIWWIW: I saw the movie and it was quite good. Glad it was a loose adaptation of the book.

FWIW: all this was written before I had even heard of the movie version, which I'm told is excellent and have not seen.

Here's a polished, neatened-up version of my review: http://artsfuse.org/116991/fuse-book-...


It’s safe to say that Martin Amis has never shied away from controversial subjects. Over a three-decade career, the eminent novelist and essayist has consistently delved into prickly subjects like nuclear war (Einstein’s Monsters), Thatcherite greed (Money), terrorism (Yellow Dog) and Stalinist horror (The House of Meetings). After the breakthrough success of The Rachel Papers, his second book bore the title Dead Babies. One critic called Amis a harbinger of what he called “the new unpleasantness.” Amis’s fiction, bleak though it often is, paradoxically remains compelling and pleasurable to read because of how well he writes about dreadful things.

It’s unfortunate that The Zone of Interest, his latest novel, has far more dread in it than beauty. In his best work, Amis can write beautifully about grotesquerie, relying on his technical excellence and caustic humor to carry the reader along. Granted, it would be very difficult for any writer, no matter how talented, to pull off a combination love story and office comedy set within the higher bureaucracy of a concentration camp.

Amis shows some admirable ambition in setting a literary challenge for himself and the reader, attempting to summon emotion and humor out of the least likely of scenarios. Unfortunately, The Zone of Interest isn’t even close to his best work. Most of the rather feeble attempts the novel makes at either romance or comedy crumble under the ominous load of its premise.

The novel’s anti-hero protagonist is Angelus “Golo” Thomsen, nephew to Nazi Party Chancellery Martin Bormann, who has an authoritative but undefined position (“I liase”, he explains) at a concentration camp named Buna- Werke where prisoners produce synthetic rubber for IG Farben as cheap labor. He longs for Hannah, the wife of his particularly boorish camp commander Paul Doll. Golo plans to seduce Hannah away from the dullard Doll, partly because Hannah’s beauty and physical robustness makes her desirable and partly for the perennial appeal of shagging the boss’s wife. Sadly, this is essentially the sum total of the love story plot.

Amis’s decision to write about the Holocaust doesn’t categorically put him in bad taste, or even because he wants to portray highly improbable emotions with a concentration camp as a backdrop. Novelists should be free to write about whatever subject they choose, but the question is not in what one writes about as much as in how well they write about it. If you’re going to try and make a concentration camp funny, or (god help us) romantic, you really must make it work on the page in order to make it worth the reader’s time and imaginative effort. Amis has written a novel dealing with the Holocaust before, the Vonnegut-esque Time’s Arrow, which at least had the saving grace of being innovatively structured and briskly paced.

Characterization has never really been Amis’s strong suit, and the motivation behind Golo’s desire for Hannah is scant at best. Golo falls for Hannah at first sight, but doesn’t seem to give the reader any finer point to his emotions beyond acknowledging her beauty and the surreptitious thrill of insubordinate adultery. One wouldn’t necessarily expect a Nazi to have much of a romantic side, but Golo doesn’t seem to have much else to him aside from the sinister punctiliousness of a bureaucrat in a death camp. Sizing up the sturdily built Hannah, Golo bluntly remarks to himself that she would be “a big fuck”, telling us nothing other than that the real zone of interest, for Golo at least, is found below his belt.

If the reader is expected to believe love- even a truncated understanding of it in nightmarish times- is really at stake for these characters, the fact that Golo himself is barely able to articulate what he feels either to Hannah or the reader is a major narrative weakness. The reader doesn’t get a sense of what Hannah means to Golo at all. Hannah, for her part, despises her psychotic husband but seems to feel nebulous at best towards Golo, adding little to the dramatic tension. Their story eventually leads to a denouement as underwhelming for the reader as it is for Golo.

The rest of The Zone of Interest is a black-as-pitch parody of the desk-chair brutalities of shuffling around the paperwork for the death trains. Different characters calculate the amount of labor that can be extracted from the prisoners in relation to calorie intake, others prefer numbers to words, attend ballet recitals and hold office meetings under a cloud of “cigarette smoke and existential unhappiness.” Doll obliviously gloats over the immanent German victory at Stalingrad. A grisly humor makes an appearance from time to time. As one camp commando says to Golo, cracking a joke to cover up their mutual unease: “well, we’re not savages. At least we’re not eating them.”

Another glaring issue is the style, or lack thereof, which is tantamount to an aesthetic disaster for a stylist like Amis. Amis’s prose is often justly celebrated for its caustic exuberance; his wicked satiric eye is matched only by the Nabokovian zest of his language. Very few contemporary novelists can be as engaging and fun to read while delivering rather devastating indictments on the absurdities of modern life. Unfortunately, none of his literary strengths are on display here. Sentences pass by as if being recorded as blips on a dim radar screen. The prose in Zone is eerily compressed, flattened, and eventually rather numbing in its sense of omnipotent dread.

It’s a shame that Amis decided to handicap himself by rejecting his usual stylistic brio in favor of a prose that explores the banality of evil by being oppressively banal itself. Whenever the novel takes up a particular theme, it drops it without having delved deeply enough into it to have anything to say. Peculiar effort that it is, The Zone of Interest ironically fails as a novel because it breaks the cardinal rule Henry James once made for all fiction, which is that whatever it says or does, it at must at least be interesting.

[Tony Vacation · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some Reviewerly Hmmm-ing Before the Review

A thought I had the other night during a long night of swapping lies with a friend: What if Hitler hadn’t been the prissy genocidist that we unfortunately all know too well, and instead had written Mein Kampf as a staggering work of satire to rank with Gulliver’s Travels or Les 120 journées de Sodome? The question led then to the question: Would Swift have managed over the cannibalization of the Irish poor (to make a metaphor with a different work of the author’s than mentioned in the sentence above) to save God and Queen some money if given parliamentary approval? Would De Sade, armed with a pack of thugs, have locked himself away in a villa with 46 innocents for nearly two hundred days’ worth of rape, murder, and every other form of excess and degradation the mind can imagine? It’s an impossible question to answer, and although we hope Swift would have known better, who can speak for that embittered, morbidly obese Frenchman? The contract we make with an author when we read, admire, and appreciate his or her work is that no matter how offensive, shocking, or titillatingly taboo, that the author is of the right-minded stance of being mordantly opposed to the subject matter of their artistic endeavor. Now this is clearly not always the case but I’ve said it before and, as the cliché goes, I’ll say it again: good-to-great satire must be upsetting in some fundamental way because that is one of the only ways one can make an audience metaphorically get off of their ass and actually question their pat, stock opinions on matters worth discussing. But what about Mein Kampf? Say we were to take the historical inescapability that the Holocaust did happen, and that, “a sleepy country of poets,” singlehandedly orchestrated the most systematic mass atrocity the world has ever been blighted with; say we were to snap our fingers and momentarily do away with all that wretched history and do a quick re-write that goes something like: “Young Hitler died from dysentery soon after completing his book, which was published several months later.” In this alternate timeline, without Hitler around to muck up critical response or reader interpretation, would his book have been construed as a work of satiric ferocity? The answer is undoubtedly no. Why? Well, because Hitler was a humorless twat.

And Now the Actual Review

Recommended for fans of the American version of The Office and the Holocaust (both being a program/pogrom that lasted for far too long). Martin Amis’s new novel The Zone of Interest lets out a roar of verbal excellence guaranteed to silence all naysayers about his position as today’s King of English prose. Dividing each chapter into three sections, each narrated by a different narrator, Amis tackles not the “why's” of the Final Solution, but the “how's”. As in how can ordinarily sane and normal people play their own collective part in murdering millions of people? The answer is good old-fashioned bureaucratic transference: “Don’t blame me, blame my boss.” “Hey, I just work here.”

When not cataloguing the banality of how to put people in camps and then efficiently exterminate them in mass groups, the novel focuses on the intrigue involving a love/hate triangle between two of the novel’s narrators—one a young, rakish Nazi with a high-ranking uncle; the other “a quivering condom of neurosis and ineptitude” whose long-suffering duty is to manage the camp’s executions—the development of which drags in the novel’s third and final narrator, a Jewish collaborator who lives a deadened existence of incomprehensible woe. Despite fields of rotting bodies and storms of human ash, Amis is on his best behavior in this book (there’s even a strong, determined female character whose using her place as the center of the aforementioned love triangle to sabotage the death camp’s works), working with an exhaustively researched canvas that shows his all-encompassing respect for the endless litany of the Holocaust’s victims and his admiration for those who survived. So while not as jazzy as Money, or as wild and decadently bloated as London Fields, The Zone of Interest’s utter disgust with the Holocaust and its perpetrators (describing Nazis as being fairly well-mannered about their concentration-camp duties is not a compliment) sizzles from every page. And you, dear reader, should be disgusted too that all it takes to make a nation of people culpable in the most extravagant display of genocide ever is cost efficient business practices.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comic novel set in Auschwitz is always going to be a hard feat to pull off but Amis' thrilling virtuosity with language quickly overrides all misgivings. In fact Amis' comedy works better at evoking the sheer insanity of the Nazis than the gravitas of the soul searching later in the novel. The story revolves around the commandant's difficult relationship with his wife and the challenge a serial womaniser, a nephew of Martin Bormann, sets himself to seduce her. All the insane horror of the camp is thus a backdrop to an elaborate tussle of sexual pride. I can think of few writers who write better than Amis does.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does an author – who was not alive at the time – write about arguably mankind’s darkest and most evil moment? Does he write in hushed whispers or clear outrage? Or does he accept the absurdity and senselessness of the Holocaust and use his art to convey that illogicality?

Martin Amis has chosen the latter route. Let me first say that the publicist’s blurb has done the book a huge disservice: “The Zone is Interest is a love story with a violently unromantic setting.”

Well…no. Or at least, not really. The story is less about love than it is about death: the death of the collective souls of virtually everyone involved: “the malefactors, the collaborators, the witnesses, the conspirators, the outright martyrs…and even the minor obstructors. We all discovered, or helplessly revealed, who we were.”

Martin Amis utilizes three main narrators: Golo Thomsen, the nephew of Martin Bormann, a real-life prominent Nazi official and private secretary to Hitler…Paul Doll, the numerically-obsessed and more than slightly crazy Commandant, and Szmul, head of the Sonderkommando, who states, “We are the saddest men in the Lager. We are in fact the saddest men in the history of the world.” It falls on his shoulders to send other Jews to the gas chambers and to ferret out their “riches” after the dirty deed is done.

Golo Thomsen lusts after Paul Doll’s wife, Hannah, who likely reciprocates his feelings -- which comprises the barebones of the promised “love story.” In reality, self-love – or any love – has difficulty surviving here. The book’s main focus, I believe, is more focused on the banality of evil, the sheer stupidity of it, the ludicrousness of those unimaginable years.

In his afterword, Martin Amis quotes a Jewish-American writer, Michael Andre Bernstein, who states that “dealing with the Nazi genocide is central to our self-understanding.” Mr. Amis seems to imply that we can deal with the Holocaust but never reach that point of understanding: how, after all, can a sane person understand forcing victims to pay their own fare to get to Auschwitz, for example? For those who wonder why we need “one more Holocaust book”, read The Zone of Interest. It is proof positive that evilness will not endure, but art will. 4.5 stars.

[Tatiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was mostly incoherent (is this typical Amis?), I often didn’t understand what was happening, who the characters were and why they did what they did. Was it also some kind of satire? Was there a romance, where? I couldn’t confidently tell. However, trying to comprehend this mess, I did google a lot of things that led me to some new dark places in history. I guess an extra star for that. I do not recommend this novel.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma história de amor que floresce no meio do horror; entre os gritos de dor, o cheiro nauseante, a neve castanha...
... em Auschwitz..."São empilhados em pé. Lata de sardinhas, só que na vertical. Sardinhas verticais. Pisam os pés uns dos outros. Num único recanto. Com crianças e bebés enfiados à altura dos ombros. É só para pouparem dinheiro. O Zyklon B sai mais barato do que balas."

Martin Amis aborrece-me; não há nada a fazer. Mas ainda assim, li este livro todo, até ao fim. Porque, embora de uma forma um pouco encriptada, Amis transmite bem a frieza, a perversidade, a alienação da mente daqueles homens e mulheres que aceitaram e colaboraram na chacina de um povo, convictos que estavam a agir correctamente. E também porque nunca é demais escrever sobre o nazismo, ler sobre o nazismo, escrever sobre o que se lê sobre o nazismo.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You come to the Zone of Interest and it tells you who you are”

This isn’t, of course, the first time that Amis has grappled with the indecipherable nature of the Holocaust but this is, I think, a better novel than Time’s Arrow. It’s also a very Amis approach to that topic, shot through with the darkest, blackest humour as Kommandant Doll struggles with the ‘nightmare’ job of genocide that the Nazi bureaucrats back in Berlin just won’t understand. But it is also heightened by the desperate and tender narrative of Szmul, the leader of the Sonderkommando, the Jewish prisoners who worked for the Nazis at the camps, and his own struggles to understand whether what he is doing is bearing witness or simply staying alive.

The three main narrative voices are linked through this idea of understanding who – and what – we are, and various characters speak these sentiments, seeing Nazi Germany, or the camps themselves, as the ultimate mirror – and one of the differentiators in the book is who can bear to look himself in the eyes.

There have been some brilliant literary re-engagements with Nazism recently – this isn’t as deep, dark and twisted as The Kindly Ones, or as brilliantly performed and moving as HhHH – but it is one of the best, and possibly the most heartfelt book that Amis has written.

[Gattalucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ma gli occhi sono finestre dell'anima, quando l'anima se ne è andata gli occhi restano disabitati.

All'inizio ho fatto fatica a seguire, avevo negli occhi il film, che già di suo mi era sembrato stordente. Invece segundo i racconti dei tre protagonisti: Szmul, capo dei Sonderkommando, Paul Doll, il capo del campo di Auschwitz, e Golo Thomsen, ufficiale innamorato della di lui moglie, mi rendo conto pian piano di essere finita nell'inferno, si, ma dalla parte opposta.
Siamo abituati a pensare all'arrivo nel Campo da parte delle vittime, invece qui ti ritrovi ad aspettare i treni dalla parte dei carnefici, la noia, la paura che siano troppi e si ribellino, le trovate per tenerli calmi e abbindolarli accompagnandoli verso le “docce”, promettendo loro che presto saranno ripuliti e avviati al lavoro.
E quella neve sempre sporca, quell'odore che supera il muro che divide l'orrore dalla Zona, il Kat Zet, in cui gli ufficiali tedeschi vivono senza problemi con le loro famiglie.
"Chiusi nei nostri pastrani ci siamo affrettati lungo la Via dei Ciliegi, diretti all'autoparco. Non molto lontano di lì stavano collaudando i nuovi crematori Topf I e II (presto ci sarebbero stati il III e il IV)”.
Sicuramente deve essere stato un esercizio difficile anche per Amis. Le stelle, per un libro così, potrebbero essere anche venti.

[Ion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Înțeleg de ce i-a enervat pe nemți (și nu e vorba despre neasumarea istoriei).
Mi-a venit să dau cu ea de pământ. Dar tocmai asta e frumusețea Zonei de interes.
Amis ficționalizează lumea interioară a celor mai teribile personaje din lagărul de la Auscwitz:
„Ochii îi erau de un căprui închis nepatriotic, precum caramelul topit, cu un licăr vâscos.”
Până și în cele mai triviale aspecte, creionează automințirea colectivă a acestor personaje care credeau că fac ceva glorios, dar care pe final ajung la nevoia de a-și raționaliza tot mai mult ceea ce fac, nu din mustrări de conștiință, ci din evidența faptului (foarte târziu înțeleasă) că realitatea exterioară „nu se mai pupă” cu convingerile fanatice și propaganda lor.
Bineînțeles că nu e totul alb și negru, apar personaje foarte apropiate liderului lagărului, care îi pun oglinda în față, oglindă în care el refuză să se privească.
Evident, cea mai grea parte a fost să citesc perspectiva evreilor, a conducatorului groparilor recrutați din rândul lor: „Și cine ar fi bănuit cât de imperios necesar este, în relațiile cu ceilalți, să vezi ochii? Însă ochii sunt ferestrele sufletului și, când sufletul e mort, și ochii sunt goi.”

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brave idea - an illicit romance set against the backdrop of the concentration camp at Auschwitz. By focusing on the everyday lives of the commandant's family living next door to the horror, Amis exposes the true evil behind what was happening, and the uncaring, unfeeling ambivalence of those tasked with enacting the holocaust. The delusion and inhumanity of the Nazi plan is exposed by the way they disregard human lives. The film adaptation focuses on this element and jettisons the love story intrigue. Not a perfect book, but a powerful and necessary one.