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Kate's Reviews > The Exception
The Exception
by
by
Note to author: Most women do not act like those really awful 13-year-olds you encountered in middle school. Get over it.
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I was assigned this book by my adviser for an independent study. All I had to do was read it - not write anything, and I was happy about that. However, now that I'm not required to do any more academic writing, and no one is really "listening," I feel compelled to put in my two cents. I know - ironic.
In short, I am NOT a fan of this book. The basic premise is interesting: looking at how the small, daily acts of evil people commit against each other relate to the huge atrocities of genocide. If the author had focused on that idea more directly, it might have been a fairly good book. Instead, he created four female characters who had nothing better to do than act extremely paranoid, catty, self-righteous, and/or victimized in order to illustrate his point. Based on his characterization, I have to assume he has some fairly misogynistic attitudes. Sure, he gives each woman reasons for doing what she's doing to the others, but that doesn't make any of them good people. The only significant (but still peripheral) male characters are fairly reasonable people, who do nothing other than stand in contrast to these four awful women. Well, there is one evil guy, but he's the Bad Guy, so what do you expect? All-in-all, not a good jumping-off point for me.
I think, somewhat like in The Crying of Lot 49, the author is trying to use the plot to provide the emotional experience of an intellectual argument. This argument is that quotidian evil acts sometimes incidentally converge to create the horrors of genocide. In parallel, the plot is the result of a few bad choices fitting together in just the wrong way, causing all hell to break loose. I get the argument about genocide, but it made the plot completely unlikely.
I guess, all told, it's an interesting intellectual exercise, but it all comes down to a fundamental difference in perspective between my adviser and me. He is interested in what motivates people to be evil, so as to prevent it. I am interested in what motivates people to be good, so as to promote it. Figure out what camp you're in, then take my review with a grain of salt.
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I was assigned this book by my adviser for an independent study. All I had to do was read it - not write anything, and I was happy about that. However, now that I'm not required to do any more academic writing, and no one is really "listening," I feel compelled to put in my two cents. I know - ironic.
In short, I am NOT a fan of this book. The basic premise is interesting: looking at how the small, daily acts of evil people commit against each other relate to the huge atrocities of genocide. If the author had focused on that idea more directly, it might have been a fairly good book. Instead, he created four female characters who had nothing better to do than act extremely paranoid, catty, self-righteous, and/or victimized in order to illustrate his point. Based on his characterization, I have to assume he has some fairly misogynistic attitudes. Sure, he gives each woman reasons for doing what she's doing to the others, but that doesn't make any of them good people. The only significant (but still peripheral) male characters are fairly reasonable people, who do nothing other than stand in contrast to these four awful women. Well, there is one evil guy, but he's the Bad Guy, so what do you expect? All-in-all, not a good jumping-off point for me.
I think, somewhat like in The Crying of Lot 49, the author is trying to use the plot to provide the emotional experience of an intellectual argument. This argument is that quotidian evil acts sometimes incidentally converge to create the horrors of genocide. In parallel, the plot is the result of a few bad choices fitting together in just the wrong way, causing all hell to break loose. I get the argument about genocide, but it made the plot completely unlikely.
I guess, all told, it's an interesting intellectual exercise, but it all comes down to a fundamental difference in perspective between my adviser and me. He is interested in what motivates people to be evil, so as to prevent it. I am interested in what motivates people to be good, so as to promote it. Figure out what camp you're in, then take my review with a grain of salt.
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The Exception.
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Reading Progress
December 7, 2007
– Shelved
December 7, 2007
– Shelved as:
readingforschool
Started Reading
December 10, 2007
–
Finished Reading
