The Chosen Ones

The story of Spiegelgrund remained little known until recently. In 2002, the last remains of children whose brains had been preserved in glass jars in the basement were buried in the Vienna cemetery. ... [Sem-Sandberg] writes that there is by now such an “extensive literature” on Spiegelgrund that it would take too long to refer to it. I would bet, however, that to most American readers show more the subject is new; a few guideposts would have been helpful. ...
A question kept nagging at me as I plowed through the catalog of horrors recounted here: What is the gain for my pain? The author clearly wants to provoke pity and outrage in his readers, and he succeeds — but to that end, why not write a punchy reportage instead of a very long novel? In fact, two late chapters read like reportage, detailing the postwar trials of doctors and a nurse. But the overall mode is novelistic: The narrative enters the minds of historical characters and introduces fictional characters and events, with no distinction between the two — that is a novel’s prerogative. My question about gain versus pain concerns the novel as such. show less