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**stadiaKab** · 03-12-2009, 02:26 PM

Goncourt jury member Jorge Semprun, a Spanish writer who went into exile in France after the rise of the Franco regime, fought in the Resistance and was captured and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, called "Les Bienveillantes" "the most important book" of the last half-century. In the next 20 years, he added, "every book about the Holocaust will be measured against Littell's work."

The executioner's song - Haaretz - Israel News

This article, by the Israeli Haaretz paper, does a good job of getting at the angles of the controversy surrounding the book. I do not think it is wise to denounce a book that one has not even attempted to read (hypocrite that I am, I have always done this with Harry Potter). If the basis of the rejection is simply that the author did not live through the event, we may as well denounce all historical fiction written by anyone. That the book is "badly written" or that it "cashes in" on the Holocaust are different sets of problems. I agree that there are too many books and glossy Hollywood spectacles riding on the back of the "Holocaust industry," but would certainly not go about accusing Mr. Littell of doing so unless I've cracked the spine of his hefty tome. Let us keep in mind that Ms. Kakatuni, along with almost all of Littell's other detractors, did not live through the Holocaust either.

03-12-2009, 02:26 PM	#25
stadiaKab Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 422 Senior Member	Goncourt jury member Jorge Semprun, a Spanish writer who went into exile in France after the rise of the Franco regime, fought in the Resistance and was captured and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, called "Les Bienveillantes" "the most important book" of the last half-century. In the next 20 years, he added, "every book about the Holocaust will be measured against Littell's work." The executioner's song - Haaretz - Israel News This article, by the Israeli Haaretz paper, does a good job of getting at the angles of the controversy surrounding the book. I do not think it is wise to denounce a book that one has not even attempted to read (hypocrite that I am, I have always done this with Harry Potter). If the basis of the rejection is simply that the author did not live through the event, we may as well denounce all historical fiction written by anyone. That the book is "badly written" or that it "cashes in" on the Holocaust are different sets of problems. I agree that there are too many books and glossy Hollywood spectacles riding on the back of the "Holocaust industry," but would certainly not go about accusing Mr. Littell of doing so unless I've cracked the spine of his hefty tome. Let us keep in mind that Ms. Kakatuni, along with almost all of Littell's other detractors, did not live through the Holocaust either.
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