In The Telegraph "Jasper Rees talks to Laurent Binet about his playful new novel about an assasination attempt, HHhH."
Rees notes about the book:
But what really caught my eye in this piece was the parenthetical note that:
(I do have to admit that this also makes me think even less of Binet's book: admittedly, it's understandable that he'd want to censor the fact that he's the kind of shit who would have an affair with a married woman (and faced the ignominy of being recalled by his embassy), but this silence on such a significant part of the story suggests the novel as a whole is shaped even more entirely to the (very subjective) image he wants to present -- of himself, of those involved in the attempt of Heydrich's life, of Heydrich himself, etc. -- than I had previously thought (and which had already bothered me a great deal).)
Rees notes about the book:
It all sounds highly French, and in other hands the novel's squeamish contortions might easily pall. But the book has been invaded by the playful, inquiring spirit of Kundera and incongruously contrives to be a delightful entertainment. Many French and Czech readers have certainly found so. The only readership which has not warmed to HHhH is in Germany. "Maybe you can believe that they are fed up that everyone talks about the Nazis," says Binet, "but I don't believe it."(I can imagine several other reasons why they didn't take to it, too .....)
But what really caught my eye in this piece was the parenthetical note that:
Although he includes his Slovak girlfriend, he doesn't relate why he left Slovakia early: "My girlfriend was a married woman with somebody quite powerful there so there was a little scandal and the embassy decided to recall me for security reasons."Now that's something I would have loved to hear more about in HHhH -- a (possibly) interesting story whose details he might actually be able to offer some real insight into (as opposed to the admittedly also interesting but beaten beyond death over-familiar Heydrich story, which he offers almost nothing interesting, new, or insightful about).
(I do have to admit that this also makes me think even less of Binet's book: admittedly, it's understandable that he'd want to censor the fact that he's the kind of shit who would have an affair with a married woman (and faced the ignominy of being recalled by his embassy), but this silence on such a significant part of the story suggests the novel as a whole is shaped even more entirely to the (very subjective) image he wants to present -- of himself, of those involved in the attempt of Heydrich's life, of Heydrich himself, etc. -- than I had previously thought (and which had already bothered me a great deal).)