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A review by cheryl6of8
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
3.0
I have a hard time summing this one up. Heavy topic --the disappearances that occurred under the different military regimes that governed Argentina in the 50s and 60s. Add to that father-son conflict based on intellectual vs blue collar views of life, and a man who lives on the fringes of the fringe of society. Plus the silent undercurrent of the Holocaust. Not a happy book - although that is made obvious at the beginning when the protagonist is named Kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning).
The story was both compelling and off-putting, and the characters were ones you are both attracted to and repulsed by. And you are able to understand perfectly why the characters take up the stubborn positions they do even while wanting to smack them for holding on to them. Those conflicting thoughts are appropriate since the book is about the fog of paradox that the characters (including Argentina itself) live in.
The story was both compelling and off-putting, and the characters were ones you are both attracted to and repulsed by. And you are able to understand perfectly why the characters take up the stubborn positions they do even while wanting to smack them for holding on to them. Those conflicting thoughts are appropriate since the book is about the fog of paradox that the characters (including Argentina itself) live in.