Sulphuric Acid (1999)

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/nothomba/acides.htm ( )

VOTO: 7,5

Mah, mi è piaciuto, la trama in fondo è bella ma credo che lo stile abbastanza piatto di Amy me l'abbia un po' sminuita >_> ( )

En este libro Nothomb hace una critica a los medios de comunicacion y a la actitud del publico que ve 'reality shows' en television. La autora imagina un programa de television en la que una serie de concursantes son forzados a entrar en un campo de exterminio y en el que el publico vota cual de ellos tiene que ser ejecutados. El libro contiene tambien, de manera oblicua, una critica a las circunstancias politicas y sociales que han favorecido el exterminio de minorias en tiempos recientes, y apunta a que todos aquellos que no han hecho nada en su contra son culpables de que estas hayan sucedido. Aunque los elementos de reflexion que la autora ha desarrollado son importantes, mezclar la critica a los realty shows y las politica de exterminio le anade un elemento de frivolidad a esta obra que es inapropiado, en particular dado el caracter moralizante que la autora le ha dado a esta novela.Sin duda, esta no se encuentra entre las mejores obras de Nothomb. ( )

This novella/parable/fable whatever it might be called lasted precisely as long as my cappuccino. I suspect it would take considerably longer to completely understand its meaning.

Set in a futuristic Europe where reality TV is properly scouring the depths with a sort of televised death camp with victims rounded up at random. It’s the sort of terrain visited by DBC Pierre’s ‘Vernon God Little’ but this is rather more serious in its tone. There is clearly some religious/war symbolism going on, though for me the most telling image was of the audience – 100% viewership at moments of high drama, with even people without TV sets going round to their neighbours to watch the programme, later having the hypocrisy to condemn it. My first thought was: what of the politicians who had permitted it to happen? Yet politicians are supposedly the embodied will of the people, and as such who should anger be directed at? And would the will of the people allow such a programme to be made? Short book but many, many questions. ( )

Amélie Nothomb has blown me away several times, and I always want (and half expect) her books to be bittersweet little gems with endings that give me goosebumps. But here I must admit I was pretty darn sceptical at first. She ventures into was must be considered very close to a dystopian cliché, especially in the genre's more recent years. In a near future France (of which we learn almost nothing) a reality TV show is rounding up random people, putting them in a concentration camp and televising their every move (Hoo-hum). The TV audience is voting who will be taken off the show and killed each day (Sigh). Not the freshest of ideas, is it? (And reading this almost directly after a real account from the holocaust didn't help either).

But then she almost pulls it off! The psychological power struggle between the prisoner Pannonique (beacon of hope amongst the prisoners, which she struggles to cope with) and the guard Zdena (who becomes obsessed with learning Pannonique's real name) also feels worn at first, but Nothomb manages to twist and turn this theme until it seems fresh, exciting and full of nerve.

She even finds a fresh take on the viewing public, by letting them not be bloodthirsty sadists, but rather appalled and full of empathy with the prisoners. It's precisely those feelings that make them tune in every night... The relationship between the viewers and their unknowing heroine Pannonique is the most interesting one in the book.

Unfortunately, the ending disappointed. It feels to me in turn strained, constructed and overly distorted, and drags the book down with it. It stays clear of being mediocre, but I expect (there it is!) more from Mme Nothomb. If you haven't read her, I heartily recommend checking out Fear and tremling or Anti-Christa instead. ( )