'Kaputt' by Curzio Malaparte

Kaputt, Curzio Malaparte (4)

My Italian friend, Luca, recommended this novel to me. He said it did for WWII what ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ did for WWI and I must agree.  This not an easy book to read, with its indirect language and difficult subject, but it is important and powerfully moving.  Malaparte was initially a supporter of Mussolini who became an observer and journalist on the Eastern front. One of the things that really sets this book apart is the unparalleled access he had to the upper crust of the Axis nations’ society from the German governor of Poland to the Prince and Princesses of Bavaria and Italy.  He meets these people and tells stories of what he has seen in the war. These stories are horrendous.  In the beginning of the book he tells them in an ironic and somewhat detached manner.  As the book (and also the war) continues, he becomes more embittered and his sarcasm with this blind society becomes more barbed.  While it is a novel, it is more like historical fiction where some of the stories are real and others are allegories or modified versions. Obviously the novel hit close enough to home with the powers that be that Malaparte was jailed for his politics and had to smuggle the manuscript out in 3 parts in order to get the book published. If you want to have a very different view of the war from an insider on the Eastern front, this is an excellent book to read. It highlights the horror and the ignorance of war.