A review by whatsnonfiction
Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte

4.0

His descriptions are pretty fantastic. I was surprised at how beautifully written some of it was. Obviously the best parts, and what I think are the most factual of the entire narrative, are when he's at intimate events with upper echelon Nazi leaders. So evil!! but very indicative of the thought processes and beliefs that were rampant at the time. He sometimes seems to sort of paint himself as a better person than he really was...I think...some of the things he says I'm not sure he could've actually gotten away with, whether they accepted that he was a Fascist or not. But all in all very engrossing and powerful if not a little unbelievable here and there. I think there's always a bit of truth in there somewhere. Particularly loved a passage laying out the reasoning behind "kaputt". Very interesting. He did some incredible things and made some deep observations, but it would have been much more satisfying if he had copped to some of his own culpability at the time rather than revising history when the war's outcome became clear.