This is the first book I have read of Martin Amis and I found it to be wonderfully written. At times the style reminded me of Pynchon. It takes a while to get used to it, but it is well worth the effort. Set during the middle of the Second World War, the story is told primarily from the viewpoint of three Germans: Golo Thomsen, a relative of Martin Bormann; Paul Doll the commandant whose wife (Hannah Doll) is the object of Thomsen's affection, and Szmul, a Jew who helps Doll and the Germans at the concentration camp. Despite the odd pairing of a love story and the horror of war, this story works. Paul Doll becomes obsessed with his wife and seemingly less in control as the German war effort begins to collapse. Hannah Doll becomes more and more disdainful of her husband and openly rebellious thereby causing her husband to consider killing her. Comedy is woven throughout the story. The story ends after the close of the war with Thomsen's character seemingly maturing. What an oddly conceptualized book, as well as disjointed in it's writing. This book purports to be a "love story" in a Concentration camp. The writing takes so many German names, and descriptions, and makes it more confusing for a non-German reader. A "love story"? How could any love be found in a Concentration camp? Despicable characters are an example of "ordinary" German people who lived midst the horror of the camps, and despite this said they didn't know what was going on. Three main characters, only one that the reader has any empathy for, a Jewish man who is made to help shepherd the "prisoners" to the gas chambers. Was this book to "humanize" the German officers in the camps? Was I supposed to develop empathy for "their" plight? I'm really dumbfounded as to why this book would even be on a best seller list. Some reviews speak more about Amis' dark humour than anything.
What do You think about Het Interessegebied (2014)?
Some reviewers have said there is humor in this book but I don't find any at all.
—zimzam50
Challenging to read. Invested considerable research and reflection.
—Dhruv
As good as anything he's written, a great return to form.
—courtneyfosberg
