The Kindly Ones

The Kindly Ones

By: Jonathan Littell

2006

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."

Ernest Hemingway

I have had a recurring dream since my childhood of being buried alive in garbage. The refuse fills my lungs and I scream to gasp air. I try to see what kinds of waste surround me, but I am unable to fully comprehend what is encroaching my body. It's a mass, a grey/black mass that pushes on me and directs me into a dark place where I will never be found. This is a place where I am alone. In those few moments before I wake a gasp, I attempt to struggle free. Futility renders me impotent and I accept the end. The end. 

It's odd that I have not had this dream while, or after, reading The Kindly Ones. One may say that the novel has acted as some kind of cathartic agent, allowing me (unconsciously)  to come to terms with this dream (that psychoanalysts would have a field day with.) 

But, the dream I mentioned above, I've described in a subjective, even poetic way. Does that make the dream credible? I'm not sure. All I know is if someone disclosed the same dream to me I would be concerned yet somehow ambivalent and questioning its meaning. Max Aue, our protagonist of The Kindly Ones dreams and hallucinates similar fatalistic reveries. He is haunted.

Max Aue. Max Aue is one of the most unreliable narrators I have been privileged to read in historical literature. He is a man who instead of trying to justify his actions, explains them in a bureaucratic fashion. His involvement in the extermination of the Jewish race is explained by his actions. He even criticizes the intentions of the Third Reich, even though he is a fundamental piece to its "solution to the Jewish question." 

I am conflicted writing about this novel because I felt I should analyze it in a very academic way. After careful consideration I thought it would be a disservice to the novel. Littell has formulated a novel that bridges academic historical inquiry and informal post-modernist story telling. As a reader I felt profoundly conflicted while reading this tome of a novel, and I believe that is Littell's intention with this novel. He shows the dehumanizing nature of bureaucracy. To clarify, how bureaucracy destroys the the person who perpetuates it and the people that it impacts. Littell has packed this novel with an incredible amount of research, but I feel the heart of this novel lies in Aue. It is the way he navigates through the cardinal moments of the second world war and how they affect him. 

With a little Googling I was able to find out who the Kindly Ones were. In Greek literature they are ghost like entities that follow a character around reminding him or her of their actions, which are usually associated with a murder. This is the reason why I included the quote from Hemingway above. This novel is Aue. He talks and talks and talks, he tries to explain away his actions and tries to make the reader complicit in his actions by implying that we are infallible and he is a victim of circumstance. The one moment in the novel when Aue has time away from his responsibilities in the Third Reich he secludes himself in a house, and this is when the reader starts to learn about Aue. This is when the Kindly Ones come to Aue and remind him of his atrocities. He has no way of processing these feelings in a positive way so they become manifested in incestuous thoughts and reveries. It is a dark moment of the novel. Pitch black really. 

This novel may me think of things that I may have done in my life and I have not fully processed and how my mind has tried to remind me these actions. Well I believe the dream I mentioned above is The Kindly Ones telling me that there is something I need to address. Maybe it signifies excess or superficiality, the hypocrisy of being critical of marketing and materialism, yet my apartment is filled with books and DVD's. All I know now is that I am listening. This is one of the best novels of the 00's. It is risky and a liability on your bookshelf. You have been warned.

Grade:

A+

Slow Man

Slow Man

By: J.M. Coetzee

2005

It is fitting that this novel begins with a collision. A physical, devastating collision that leads to the amputation of a limb which (obviously) impacts the protagonist's life. I refer to the first dramatic car on bike collision because it shapes how the rest of the novel is organized. The dramatic structure of a novel follows a conventional story telling arc which when utilized functions to evoke change or transformation in a character. Coetzee begins his novel by consciously skipping over exposition to give his readers a punchy climax right at the opening. This arguably unsettles or excites a reader based on their experience of reading because they do not have prior knowledge of the character or opportunity to connect with the character. A storytelling arc provides continuity to a story to facilitate flow while naturally allowing for character development or transformation. Coetzee has taken the elements of a story telling arc with Slow Man, and instead of using them in a straight forward manner, has collided them together so they operate simultaneously during pivotal moments in the novel.

But hey, starting a novel with a climax can be a liberating literary experience. Lots of Goodreaders have remarked that they were hooked by the opening chapter. Although, with such playful dramatic liberties being taken early on in the novel, readers should not have been surprised when the novel took some equally odd (though arguably behaved) turns. 

One might look squarely at the introduction of Elizabeth Costello as the awkward second (and partially redundant) climax of the story. Yes, she shows up and her attendance seeks to further propel our protagonist toward transformation. But the issue with Elizabeth is that she acts as the second collision. Is it/she necessary? Symbolically she represents an agent of conscientiousness and awareness. She is privileged with our protagonist's inner feelings and motivations and seeks to nudge him toward change and revelation. Although, her presence juxtaposes our protagonist to the point of almost complete separation.  

So, how can Coetzee arrange these characters together in a theoretical way that draws the reader back to the initial frolic of the opening paragraph? Well it never quite materializes. Although, I could not stop thinking about how all the characters in this novel never really communicate with each other, various language and philosophical barriers that are set up so they persistently collide with each other. This got me thinking about Soviet Montage, where directors would create symbolic meaning by editing seemingly disparate images together. These images usually were spliced together to discuss issues surrounding culture and politics. Montage has since been appropriated by western national cinema, and has been redefined as a process that showcases the passage of time and or progress by creating a short segment of short cuts. Slow Man takes the Soviet film convention and uses it to flesh out the characters of its story. But, the issue is that Soviet Montage is a modernist convention, where the reader/viewer expects a coherent meaning to be created by the collision of images. 

Slow Man is a post-modernist novel, with characters that are benefited with dramatic irony. Elizabeth knows things only the reader knows. In addition, as noted above Coetzee is using the conventions of the storytelling arc liberally which is also part of how post-modern stories are told. Finally, post-modernist novels seek to pose more questions then they answer. I found this infuriating, how can an authour adopt both modernism and post-modernism conventions in a novel? Well it can be done, and quite well. But not here Slow Man certainly succeeds in the fact that it poses more questions than it answers. But the rest is a jumble. Its identity is confused by theoretical anachronisms.   

Grade:

C+

That They May Face The Rising Sun

That They May Face the Rising Sun

By: John McGahern

2002

"All through the evening the pendulum clocks struck. There were seven or eight in the house, most of them on the walls of the upper room. The clocks struck the hours and half-hours irregularly, one or other of them chiming every few minutes.

Are any of those clocks telling the right time? Ruttledge asked, looking up, when he felt it was time to leave.

What hurry's on you? Jamesie countered quickly. Isn't the evening long? It's ages since ye were over."

John McGahern - That They May Face the Rising Sun


It seems like quite some time has passed since I started my academic career. Twelve years ago, to be precise. Although, sometimes, it does seem like only a fortnight ago that my first professor gave us our first bit of advice in writing about film and narrative. He said, when writing, do not simply recount the narrative. As undergraduates, our intention was to analyze and provide evidence that we had engaged the film text in a critical way. This first bit of advice came to the forefront of my thinking when contemplating John McGahern's final novel. In that, if a reviewer were to paraphrase the narrative of this book, it would appear routine, bland, safe, and uninteresting. I mean the novel is the composite of the dealings of a few rural households, where they farm, raise sheds, feed cattle, and drink whiskey.

In the article Open to the World': A Reading of John McGahern's "That They May Face the Rising Sun" Denis Sampson argues that McGahern is ambivalently tossing aside the conventions of the novel by writing a plotless and chapterless novel without a rudimentary storytelling arc. The characters are not provided with a point of view and have no interior monologue or development. The novel is a poetic account of the lives of a number of people over the course of a year. The novel is not to be explained by intelligence or historical/ political musings. It is nature. The more we try and harness it and control it, the more it slips through our fingers.

So, as readers how do we examine and analyze a contemporary Waldenesque text that defies traditional conventions of the novel? I mean many modern novels seem to be reliant on cardinal events that shape a story. Ian McEwan (Booker Prize winner) and J.M. Coetzee (Booker prize and Nobel prize winner), two visible and highly regarded novelists, organize their books around a central moment that force their characters to reexamine their inner philosophies. McGahern's contemporaries seem to be leading the novel in a particular direction that he is ambivalent towards. McGahern is more concerned with the rudimentary foundations of the novel while simultaneously inviting a qualitative response from his readers.

To allow for a qualitative, anecdotal like, examination of the text, McGahern purposefully slows down his telling by employing a passive tone. Most sentences are relayed in the past tense which slows down the reading process. I became cognizant of this fact, and it may be frustrating to readers who have become conditioned to a particular way of storytelling that foregrounds activity. I felt that every deceptively simple word was pronounced and held considerable gravity. Readers, arguably, respond to the novel by reminiscing about their own rural experiences.

McGahern took twelve years to write this book, and I see now that he took considerable time to craft this novel. It reminds me of probably one of the most frustrating novels ever written by an Irish person, Finnegans Wake. It took Joyce seventeen years to write his novel, employing a complete deconstruction of the English language. I have not read (yet) the book but I do know that he intended to create an entirely singular book that would stand apart from contemporary storytelling. McGahern also succeeds by crafting an original novel which invites readers to rethink the conventions of how novels should be written.

I am dazzled by this novel's careful descriptions of a bucolic setting. It even reminds me of recurring dreams of my cottage. A place I value considerably above almost every place I have ever visited. But still this is a novel about the drudgery of rural life. Something I have never experience and I felt somewhat divorced from. Tonally and structurally this novel is a masterpiece.

Grade:

A- 

Under The Skin

Under The Skin

by: Michel Faber

2000

"Welcome to The Bottom of The Food Chain"

Tagline from Komodo (1999)

One of my favourite action films from the 1990's is John Woo's Hard Target. It features an ever kicking mullet-adorned protagonist with a morally conservative disposition. Jean Claude Van Damme is employed financially (initially, before it gets "personal") by a concerned daughter seeking to find her homeless veteran father in a sordid New Orleans. A group of successful entrepreneurs recruit desperate "volunteers" to engage in "the most dangerous game" scenario where veterans become prey to affluent thrill seeking hunters, who aided by the group, kill them for sport. This scenario culminates symbolically early in the film bluntly as an arrow pierces the throat and dog collar of the daughter's father. Subsequently, Damme executes the members of the group in a rogue militaristic fashion which garners, arguably, satisfaction for the viewer.

Now you might say, "what does a film about man killing komodo dragons, and vigilante justice have to do with Under The Skin?" Well, a few things actually. 

I mention the film because it reminded me of Under The Skin in a number of thematic and political ways. I believe that Hard Target and Under the Skin operate on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Under The Skin is more akin to revered socialist texts such as Animal Farm (referenced by critics on the front cover sleeve) then revenge oriented narratives such as Hard Target. But they share the same motif of hunting humans for the enjoyment of the upper class. Isserly, our protagonist, careens down Scottish highways choosing desperate outcasts to be turned into food. Yes, the premise does sound otherworldly, somewhat horrific, and silly. Although, to the credit of Faber, he controls the slow release of information to the reader in a way where the events appear natural, and even common. 

Many stories employ a tactic where an ignorant character is introduced to the mechanization of a system by a privileged character. One of the more recent examples of this phenomena would be Cloud Atlas as Somni-451 is shown how the killing floor operates in her dystopic environment. Isserly, follows the same path as Somni-451 as she becomes more aware of the process of castrating and pinioning humans, to be butchered into food for her race. This narrative device invites the reader to slowly integrate themselves into the world of the novel, and it works well.

I have always felt the way to evaluate a political group, is to look closely at how they support their most vulnerable citizens. This includes young children, individuals with special needs, and the poor. Faber, I would argue, shares this position with me. Since Isserly sees the most marginalized people, without families or social connections, as prime prey. The reader and Isserly meet a wide range of people that reflect political shortcomings. As in, people who have fallen through the cracks of society, people who have become marginalized because they cannot find a available resources to help them stay connected to society (ie their job/family/social circle).  We are introduced to characters who have been put out of work because foreign investors have bought out factories only to outsource their workers which leads them to looking for work hundreds of miles away from their families, people with schizophrenia, directionless youth, and voolent aggressive people. These people are on the fringes of society. They are taken and killed and no one mourns or calls the police to issue a missing persons report. These men are fodder. Van Damne violently "corrects" these polical shortcomings in Hard Target. He stands up for the underprivileged and kills those who represent ones in power with impunity. Isserly employs a more reflective response to gross inequality. She begins to feel disillusioned by the tasks she is given to perform. She feels empathy for humans.

Man has strutted around imperiously with the notion that they are at the top of the food chain. Our connection to other animals is one of superiority. Or, at its most base, "they are here to be eaten." By introducing readers to a society that exhibits the same arrogance over humanity, we are forced to reconsider our relationship with animals and how we treat them. All of a sudden we are not on top anymore, and it's a humbling development in the book.

Now,  the political and social rhetoric of this novel is commendable, and reminds me of a few ambitious first novels. It's similar to Knowls' The Collector, McEwan's The Cement Garden and Bank's The Wasp Factory. These are all great books. Under the Skin, although similar, does not reach the ambitious heights of the aforementioned titles. Under The Skin fizzles out strongly as one can plainly see that Faber did not know how to end the novel. It induces a shrug worthy ambivalence that almost deflates the strong first three quarters. If he had stayed closer to Animal Farm and provided a similar ending, this would be a more confident and assured first.

Grade:

B

A Disaffection

A Disaffection

By: James Kelman

1989

What is the role of Males in education?

“I mean it fucking stinks, it’s rotten from the outside in and the inside fucking out. Every last fucking thing about it, it stinks. And what goes on in the classroom, it’s a load of dross. This is how I’m fucking chucking it. And all these wee weans Christ they think ye know everything, every last thing in the fucking universe – especially about how to change for good. I’ll tell ye something else, bastards people think lies are true and even when they know they’re no true they’ll say fuck all because the shitey fucking arse who’s telling the lie holds the position of power.”

James Kelman – A Disaffection

            The discussion of gender and its impact on education should  include an historical account of how males are perceived through a cultural lens. It is important to trace the lineage of how men are understood in the classroom in regards to knowledge production and distribution. De-gendering male teachers and the pedagogy they symbolize is paramount for understanding why gender is an important issue in education. De-gendering male teachers takes the form of seeing males in positions that are uncommon in learning. More specifically, working with very young children.

The word "education" can be attributed to a masculine, positivistic pedagogy, while women, in opposition, can be perceived to perform a nurturing role in human development.  If men are symbols of patriarchy in education, they are marked as purveyors of knowledge and power. What ramifications do these notions harbour for students? Is it impacting their learning in a positive or negative way? Do traditional symbols of masculinity and femininity in education negatively impact learning in children? Should these traditions be upset to provide balanced learning for children at a critical time in their formation of their own understanding of gender?

Joe Kinchloe’s article What We Call Knowledge is Complicated and Harbours Profound Consequences situates knowledge and its production by discussing procedures and guidelines that have been employed to create particular kinds of knowledge. He references standardized test driven curriculums that create learners that are dependent on their teachers for information. The delivery of information is from the teacher to the student, and the student, in turn, synthesizes the information, then demonstrates their mastery or proficiency of the subject by accepting the information as truth, and recounting the information verbatim on a test. This positivistic pedagogy is further employed by taking the recounted information and filtering it through a measurable system and assigning a grade that is supposed to reflect the quality of work submitted. Therefore, if this pedagogy thrives in a patriarchal institution such as school, male teachers become symbols of this positivistic pedagogy. They become responsible for the dissemination of information that engenders a student that is reliant on their teacher for praise, feedback and grades. Kinchloe continues the article by providing applicable suggestions for creating a learning environment that produces critical knowledge, where learners are responsible for their own development and are mindful of social justice.

“In the epistemologically mechanistic, test driven, standardized and scripted classrooms of the present era students learn that school is not connected to the world round them. They learn that there is nothing complex or problematic about knowledge – it is produced by faceless experts and it is our job as students to learn it.”

(Kinchloe, 12)

            The above quote recounts the positivistic pedagogy by creating a student that accepts knowledge without being critical of it. It is important to understand that the expert or holder of knowledge and power is indeed not faceless or genderless. While Kinchloe could be referring to a distant empirical body that communicates information through teachers, he omits references to gender and its implication of knowledge production. We as learner should critically examine knowledge as gendered to understand it implications of learning. The face or gender of knowledge is not blank or empty. It is the face of patriarchy and the symbol of man.

            Here it is important to state that patriarchy does not limit social transformation. Feminism has thrived in a patriarchal environment and positive social change has occurred in history. By understanding the implications of a patriarchal system one can be critical of its underpinnings which can engender social transformation. Teachers who employ a critical pedagogy in their work help to create critical learners who question traditional notions of knowledge. Women, in positions of authority upset the historical norms of gender in education. Men consequently disturb their roles as teachers by taking on the responsibility of human development of preschool children. Critical pedagogy should not be limited to school age and adult learners, but should be implemented with human development of preschool children. With higher numbers of men working with young children, with an articulated philosophy of education that is founded on critical pedagogy, young children will enter school questioning knowledge rather than accepting it as truth.

            A difficulty arises from this troubling of gender norms. How can males be attracted to this profession? Presently males are not visible in preschool environments. Women are perceived as being accepted in preschool professions. Pre-conceived gender norms have made the profession one where women are intended to belong. Subsequently, if women are allocated to this profession, men will not feel as through, according to critics such as Judith Butler (who argues that people need to feel that they belong in their jog/gender/race etc to be accepted in culture), that this is an unlivable vocation, where they will be encumbered by isolation, and discriminated against based on their gender. Men are meant to feel like they belong when teaching older children and adults where they employ a positivistic pedagogy. How can men be invited to feel as though they belong when working with all age groups?

Kinchloe discusses the ideas of “a literacy of power”, where particular textbooks and mandated curriculum undermine people’s best interests. Material in textbooks reinforces an empirical truth, not to be questioned by students. These textbooks are meant to be read and the information regurgitated and supported as they are tested on the material. Evidence of “power” is present in how textbooks are used every year to convey the same information, often taught in the same fashion. Continuing to teach the same knowledge (from the same textbook) annually assists in valuing the material as something that is essential and universal for all learners. In regards to attracting men to preschool environments, textbooks or journal articles should reflect a diverse population of educators. Showing men engaged with young children in a positive and nurturing way in photographs or anecdotes assists in helping men feel like they belong in a female dominated vocation. This is one way of presenting the occupation as accepting and inviting for men. Since there are so few men working in this field it is imperative to see them as visible, accepted and helpful.

Kelman’s quote above serves as part of a tirade from a Scottish male teacher. His character also serves as a symbol of the male teacher, one who embodies patriarchy and a positivistic pedagogy. He becomes annoyed, and there is evidence of that in his words above, while attempting to disrupt his traditional gender performance. He is frustrated by the universal pedagogy that is implemented in his school. He sees students every day that believe he is the foundation of knowledge, and since he is a teacher he must have an encyclopedic knowledge of everything conceivable. He feels conflicted by implementing a critical pedagogy to his students. His teaching strategies vary from having the children repeat aloud nonsense political conjecture and asking them forwardly why their families are considered poor. The protagonist is understandably frustrated when he is attempting to invite the children in this class to be critical of their everyday lives, but they still ask him to relay truths in politics and cultural theory. 

         Subsequently, he is coming to terms with the irritation of embodying the symbol of patriarchy. His response to his exasperation is quitting the profession. He no longer feels, as Butler argues, that he belongs. This turmoil is created because he perceives himself to be a failure as a teacher. He cannot de-gender the minds of his students, and have them begin to think critically as learners. This could be reflected in that his teacher education did not support a critical pedagogy and he was intended to continue to employ a positivistic approach to teaching. Perhaps where he might feel as though he belongs would be in teaching younger children. This way he can introduce pedagogy to young learners as reflective and arguable. He will have to clean up his language first.

This is one of the greatest novels I have ever read. Absolutely amazing.

Grade:

A+

Memento Mori

Memento Mori

By: Muriel Spark

1959

While I was making a formative assessment of this novel, around the mid way point, I thought my experience would be enhanced if I did not consider the people in this novel to be elderly. Alternately, I would think of the people as ageless, neither young or old. Needless to say this momentarily stifled my reading experience because it is fundamental to assess this novel based on two particular themes: age and mortality. The reason I wanted the characters to be ageless was a resistance to biological strata. I wanted to be critical of the dichotomy Spark was seemingly creating with her novel, assigning particular traits and dispositions to the aged in opposition to that of a younger generation. 

My initial examination then could be seen as a incomprehension of what Spark is intending to study with her novel. She is carefully and methodically employing suspense novel conventions a la Agatha Christie, where an event such as a murder consumes a number of characters, while the narrative explores the hidden or repressed lives of these characters while leading to a complex and plausible solution. Spark deliberately undermines these conventions. The novel begins as one character after another receives phone calls proclaiming, "remember that you will die." In a Christie novel this event would act as a catalyst propelling the narrative forward toward resolution. Spark, showcasing her enigmatic talent, uses this event to prompt a complicated interplay of deception, adultery, and secretive dealings in her characters. But as these exhumed stories are brought to the forefront, they do little to resolve the narrative. The characters become more interested in each other than who is sending them cryptic creepy messages. While the massages continue in the novel, and the characters seemingly want to solve the mystery, but they become increasingly distracted by their own memories and the behaviours of their inner circle.

So who is leaving these messages? The ambiguity of the caller(s) is intended (or arguably not intended) to be answered by the reader. So what conclusions have I come to? Well, each character hears a different voice stating these words in differing tones and inflection. The group of acquaintances pronounce these inconsistencies to be either accounted for by individual subjectivity on the part of each listener or some kind of devious conspiracy orchestrated by family, authority, or their own social circle. This complicated and arguably turgid digression from the identity of the caller discounts what I believe to be a quite simple answer. The caller is "death." Death is simply reminding each of the characters to remember that they will die so they can reflect on their past indiscretions and hopefully atoned for their deeds. 

This is the third Spark I have read from the list and so far it is my second favourite. It's a helpful worm that burrows into your conscious and assists you in organizing your own thoughts surrounding mortality. 

 Grade:

B+

The Reader

The Reader

By: Bernhard Schlink

1995

A few weeks ago I celebrated my 31st birthday. At that time I was trying to think of authors, film directors and characters in novels who share the same birthday. I tend to do this with novels. I am always interested to see what characters share birthdays with me and my loved ones. The only character that I could think of who was also born on October the 21st was Hanna, from the The Reader. Coincidences such as these help me to feel connected with works of fiction (and I am sure I am not in the minority here) and entreat me to read further. I did not have much trouble moving forward as I read this one in one sitting. 

This is a simple novel that has garnered praise from critics and has been celebrated with an adaption to film that has also received similar adoration. The simplicity of the novel is in its form, the terse prose details the relationship of a young boy and a much older female bus conductor. Their erotic relationship becomes troubled by miscommunication and miscomprehension as they continue to see each other and even take vacations together. There are times when Hanna is cross with Michael for seemingly no reason and there are times when Michael is confounded by her lack of communication and strange distancing. The reader begins to think this is due to the age difference between the two lovers as they are many years apart, and that the boy is simply infatuated to the point of disillusionment. This segment of the novel was wonderful, highlighting a taboo pairing which is morally questionable.

I will have to agree with most readers on Goodreads in saying that the remainder of the novel does not complement the first half. The story then tries to awkwardly create similarities between the relationship Micheal and Hanna had years ago with a trial where Hanna is accused of war crimes during WWII. The transition between these two segments undermines the strength of writing in the first half and almost derails the novel completely. The one saving element is the realization that Hanna is in fact illiterate. A device Schlink utilizes to add character to Hanna, who would rather plead guilty to war crimes than announce her illiteracy. It invites the reader to rethink the circumstances which led to miscommunication in the first half of the novel, where Hanna's pride becomes the reason for her odd behaviour. After this realization, the novel then becomes mired by this fact. Michael, as an older man, sends her audio recordings of poetry and other German literature to keep her company in prison. She then learns to read independently. If Schlink had saved this revelation until the end of the novel and continued to pile on awkward scenarios, this book would have been better.

Apart from Hanna sharing the same birthday as me, I found little to truly grasp unto with this novel. Sure its ethical ambiguity was compelling, but that became unnecessarily overblown with the Nuremberg trial like ending. 

Grade:

C-