The Kindly Ones

By: Jonathan Littell

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 39 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

"Oh my human brothers, let me tell you how it happened." So begins the chilling fictional memoir of Dr. Maximilien Aue, a former Nazi officer who has reinvented himself, many years after the war, as a middle-class family man and factory owner in France.

Max is an intellectual steeped in philosophy, literature, and classical music. He is also a cold-blooded assassin and the consummate bureaucrat. Through the eyes of this cultivated yet monstrous man, we experience in disturbingly precise detail the horrors of the Second World War and the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

During the period from June 1941 through April 1945, Max is posted to Poland, the Ukraine, and the Caucasus; he is present at the Battle of Stalingrad and at Auschwitz; and he lives through the chaos of the final days of the Nazi regime in Berlin.

Although Max is a totally imagined character, his world is peopled by real historical figures, such as Eichmann, Himmler, Göring, Speer, Heydrich, Höss, and Hitler himself.

A supreme historical epic and a haunting work of fiction, Jonathan Littell's masterpiece is intense, hallucinatory, and utterly original. Published to impressive critical acclaim in France in 2006, it went on to win the Prix Goncourt, that country's most prestigious literary award, and sparked a broad range of responses and questions from readers: How does fiction deal with the nature of human evil? How should a novel encompass the Holocaust? At what point do history and fiction come together and where do they separate?

©2009 Jonathan Littel (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers

Intense

This is a very intense book to get through. The violence is very blunt and macabre the sex is full on shock value and the morals leave you questioning the whole book. But it’s very well written and gives such a great description of WW2 from a side not often explored.

The one insanity of war keeps coming round to drive the protagonist even more deranged with each day.

This book took me a long time to read. Often I had to stop for my own mental health but in the end I am wowed by how much has been captured so accurately by the author and narrator.

Great recording of interesting but lengthy book

Any additional comments?

The SS officer, sent to different theaters of WWII, narrates his experiences, ranging from comical to harrowing, in a calm, somewhat detached manner. This contrasts with the tremendous emotional and physical injuries he sustains along the way.
He frequently ruminates on why and how ordinary German soldiers and leaders perpetuated war crimes and crimes against humanity individually and on a grand scale. These passages are thoughtful but still unsatisfying.
He indulges in grotesque and fetishistic sexual fantasies, as well as senseless violence, which increase in frequency and intensity toward the end. These reveal the depth of his inner turmoil and unhappiness, bordering on madness, but go farther than necessary to make the point; by the end, they become unpleasant and irritating distractions, and likewise unsatisfying in helping the reader understand Max better.
The war takes him to Kiev in 1941, the Caucuses and Stalingrad in 1942, Crimea and Italy in 1943, Auschwitz in 1944, and Berlin until the end of the war. The descriptions of real German officers and leaders, Russian locals, attitudes, events, and horrors of war are absolutely superb.
The recording is excellent, as the narrator does a great job getting through lengthy, rambling passages, that may be otherwise hard to get through. He brings to life dialogues between characters, that would take mental effort to read through and unravel.

Read or listen only if you have a strong stomach.

An excellent take on a fictional SS officer, who rubs shoulders with many historical figures, and some not so well known. Another excellent narration by Grover Gardner.

Shocking yet compelling

I found this book to be shocking but so well written that I thought the author had to have been there. The narrator was excellent. During the book I wavered between empathy for Max and revulsion. However, at the end of the book, when I though I had been shocked as much as possible, I was shocked again. I actually did something I seldom do. At the end of the book, I started at the beginning again.

Mesmerising

A tour de force. The amount of research, the historic accuracy (see Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder), the soulless protagonist and his perversions (they enliven the character but in no way “explain” his acceptance and active participation in the nazi horrors), EVERYTHING contributes to this masterpiece.
I bought it because I couldn’t find the original French version. I read it when it was published and I was in shock. The translation is good, without being exceptional, losing something of the horrendous lyricism of the Nazis, extraordinarily rendered in the original version. But it preserves the essential: how an “intellectual” became a monster.
This is a “livre-monde”, a book that recreates a world per se, and this world is hell.
The Shoah by bullets (Babi Yar and so many others sites of horror), the death camps, the deportations, the destruction of the European Jews, the gas vans, invented by the Stalinists and reimplemented by the Nazis…
A lesson in history.
The so-called digressions (linguistics, politics, music, literature etc.) enhance the monstrosity of the main character and his peers.
And yes, there are shocking descriptions of bodily functions, there is incest, rape, They show how amorality led to immorality, and finally to a serial killer’s perverse mind.
Do not read it if you expect euphemisms.
But do read it if you want some understanding of a mass crime that may be committed again. Because sadly, hatred is a part of human nature.

Excellent Work

This is an excellent story about the horrors of Germany and WWII. The work could have used some editing, but in summary it was worth the listen.

not for the faint hearted

the performance of this book was excellently delivered the narrator it feels certainly captured the tone of the story and protagonist. the book itself will challenge you on every level of your morality , I'm not sure what else to say about it. if you read it then you are sure to understand.

2 Star Book - 5 Star Narration

Almost a month listening/reading this book... What a long read. I desperately wanted it to be over, but it was dragging...

I cannot imagine how long the war must have been for those who suffered through it. It is hard to imagine the horrors, but Mr Littell shows it to us. Unfortunately, he does that using too many graphic details which, for the one not accustomed to those, seems to be excessive.

It is excessive.

I could only finish this book because it is hard for me to leave one alone without finishing it. I wanted to know where he wanted to take us with the story of Max Aue, a German/French WWII war criminal. Yes, criminal. In so many ways...

No, fortunately, we are not all like Aue. I hope that, if we were in a situation similar to those in the lower ranks of a country and lived in a situation like he lived, we would act differently. Well, in lower or higher ranks, for that matter.

Despite having many good philosophical questions and serious debates on the why's of the war and the choices that were taken, I DO NOT recommend the book. I don't believe we need to revive terrible situations in excessive detail to understand the deeper questions and problems of any war.

Having said that, unfortunately, I think that the book will stay with me for a while, more than I would hope for.

Once again, even knowing that when we DON'T recommend something, this ends up being a recommendation for some, I DO NOT recommend it.

P.s.: some parts of the ending are laughable (too much on the nose, someone?) and quite unbelievable, as if the author, seeing that the book was already too long, decided to rush things because he didn't want to make it even longer and cross the 1000 pages threshold.

P.s.2: the narrator is fabulous. The German accent seemed very German to my untrained ears. On the other hand, the French one, threw me off a little. Fortunately there is little french in the text. I would definitely listen to more perfromances from Grover Gardner.

The Disgust of the Mind's Eye

One of the most profound books of our time. Thematically is very disturbing both for it subject matter (the Holocust and the descent into Genocide) and its thematic matter (Orestes and the furries and a treatise of morality and teh law). This book will disgusts you . It will mock and punishes you for starring upon the horror of ourselves. It is challenging to overcome. But what do you expect from a book on this topic? A Pirates of the Caribbean version of the Holocust? We deserve this.

With that said there were sections where i almost gave up, there are 2 sections of the book where Little uses sexual hallucinations to invoke the furries. However these are a too long even for me, i am in no way a conservative but, jesus there is only so many ways to #@$#$ your sister. Make your thematic point and then move on. Of course the irony of being disquested at the main character more for his sexuality than his role in the holocust is irony in in itself

Far as history goes, As a educated amateur historian, i found this novel, extremely well researched and historically accurate except for a few editing errors. There is more accurate historical material here than most non-fiction books on the subject.

Gut Wrenching

This is not a book for everyone.
I starting reading as a book and finished it on Audible
- Drive a lot!
It is so well written. But it is definitely not for the faint of heart or anyone easily offended as in that regard it covers every base except bestiality!?
I often wondered how the narrator managed to get through it....he does a great job.