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Couldn't finish
“I just couldn't continue with this book. I made it 150 pages in and couldn't make myself read any farther. I don't know if it had to do with the translation or it just wasn't my cup of tea.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-10-12. -
exceptional
“i usually can figure out who done it but not this time. more importantly this book will alter your perception of evil. its somewhere deep inside all of us. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-31. -
1 of 5 members found this review helpful.
Bizarre and ham-fisted plotting
“What a strange book. The writer throws a bunch of extremely neurotic women (and a few oddly absent men) in a room, adds a couple of threatening emails (that could very well be a prank sent by some silly kid, but everyone assumes it must be from a real killer, and we're to assume that too), and then we get to watch everyone tear each other apart in the most juvenile ways. I'll admit this is a page-turner, but that doesn't make it good, or satisfying. From chapter to chapter, the author teases us into believing it must be THIS character who is guilty, changing our mind all along the way until the very very very end. Just when he tells us who is guilty, he adds a chapter to indicate that we were wrong about he or she. Or maybe we were right! Or maybe wrong! 500 pages of this, folks (and some gruesome nastiness at the end, too, if you like that sort of thing). I always find it extraordinary how undemanding thriller-novel lovers are. The reviews of this are far, far too generous. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-04-11. -
0 of 3 members found this review helpful.
Oh, get over yourselves!
“I had just finished reading Jakov Lind's "Landscape in Concrete," a 1963 novella about a Nazi soldier and accidental criminal, when I came across a review for Christian Jungersen's "The Exception." A 2004 European bestseller, "The Exception" has been translated from Danish by Anna Paterson and, like Lind's book, deals with questions regarding human behavior during wartime. Unfortunately, not only were the characters insufferable, the novel as a whole is ultimately pointless - kind of like a misanthrope's big rant on Why People Suck - but I did enjoy (morbidly) the embedded articles on genocide and psychology. But everything else . . . meh.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-03-31.
"The Exception" centers on four women - Iben, Malene, Ann-Lise, and Camilla - who work for the Danish Center for Information on Genocide, a small non-profit in Copenhagen, headed by a man named Paul, that disseminates information on genocide for governments and researchers. Malene is suffering from early-onset rheumatoid arthritis and Iben is her longtime best friend (they are in their late twenties). Camilla is a middle-aged woman who works closely with Iben and Malene, while Ann-Lise (Camilla's age) is relegated to the back room, where she feels left out and ignored by her three coworkers. Things are going smoothly, despite some tension with Ann-Lise, until one day, out of the blue, Iben and Malene receive threatening emails from an anonymizer server that makes tracking the sender impossible. Now, as professionals who write about and raise awareness of war crimes for a living, you would think that these two would be no strangers to anonymous death threats. But no, Iben has a big freak-out and the whole thing catalyzes a period of bullying and intimidation among the four women of the DCIG.
Basically, it's supposed to be microcosm of the group dynamics that lead perfectly ordinary people to commit horrendous atrocities, such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the Stanford Prison Experiment catastrophe. So, in other words, the characters are not meant to be particularly likeable. But did they really have to be so incredibly *annoying*? The four DCIG employees start out as these liberal progressive tolerant self-righteous Social Democrat types who then descend into childish playground tormentors. They even resort to breaking into someone's house at night to access her computer. One gets mad at another just for looking at her and not sitting with her at lunch. Practical "jokes" are played. Ergo: "Mean Girls" = "Apocalypse Now."
You know, sometimes when you read a book, you find yourself just wanting to leap into the story and start slapping some sense into everyone. Anything to get these infuriating basket cases to starting acting like responsible adult human beings again! Of course, presiding distantly and benevolently over the four hysterical females is Paul, the level-headed man, which gives "The Exception" some sadly sexist overtones. I mean, other than that one war criminal and his goons, all the male characters in this book come across as pretty normal when compared to the DCIG drama queens. Probably the best part is when Iben starts researching split personality disorder and goes to Paul to inform him that Ann-Lise *doubtlessly* has this highly rare condition. Wow, srsly? Does Jungersen honestly expect us to believe that we are all potentially this neurotic, petty, immature, and self-destructive? But lo! there is hope. You can still be the Exception, that lone individual who rises up above the collective juggernaut and acts selflessly in defense of your fellow man, whatever the personal risk. Maybe, that is. Possibly. Uh, actually we're not quite sure. You know what? Humanity might just be doomed after all.
And yeah, that's pretty much the moral of the story. Again I ask, what's the point?
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One of the Best Ever
“When I first finished reading this book, I thought to myself that this was one of the best books I've ever read. Then I said, wait, I've thought this many times before about other books. Let's just give it some time. Well, it's been a couple of months since I finished reading it and I still have to agree with my original impression. Definately one of the best. It's a real eye-opener to the fact that evil lurks within us all and causes one to be more self-aware. And it's such a great read. Once you get going it is very hard to put it down. I bought many more copies of the book and sent to friends and family.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-11-11.
