Normally when I read a book, I know whether I liked it or not. This was a book I was glad I had read, but also glad I would never 'have' to read it again!
I felt like a voyeur, I felt tainted, repulsed and yet compelled to finish it. By any definition it is pornographic: not for its sexual content, but for the emotion response.
I have (like a lot of people) a insatiable curiosity about how people (especially ordinary people) can participate in atrocities. Given my work, I have heard many first hand accounts of people who suddenly found themselves being mistreated - for reasons of ethnicity - by people who a day earlier were friendly neighbours or even friends. Stories abound about how nice, on a personal basis, some of histories greatest monsters were (idi Amin, an example I have talked to first hand witnesses about).
This book took me a step closer to understanding the mind set.
However, I attach a negative review from the NYT - just to balance the perspective.
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