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Dec 17, 2009

Jason rated it:

(The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

"Ignoring the small flash of doubt in yourself -- that is what evil is. Nobody thinks of himself as evil, but that deception is part of evil's nature. And you can't lie to yourself all the time. Once in awhile, there's that moment when you question if you are doing the right thing. And that's your only chance to choose what is good, to do the right thing. And the mom More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 27, 2008

karen rated it:

im frequently torn, when rating books, between rating based on merit, or rating based on my enjoyment. this is probably a three-star book, merit-wise. and yet i got totally sucked into it and really enjoyed it, despite its flaws. its a very well-paced thriller that requires a certain suspension of disbelief but is not terribly flawed. and my desire to finish reading it has made my thanskgiving feast delayed by three hours, so...

8 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2007

Jessica rated it:

This is a top-notch, meaty psychological thriller that takes you inside a small office dedicated to research into genocide. There, the five office workers simultaneously dig into the very nature of evil as they study the most inhumane acts ever perpetrated, while they quietly destroy each other's lives with office politics and interpersonal bullying. Buried not-so-deep beneath the surface of even the seemingly closest friendships and politest collegiality apparently lurks seething resentments th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Prediction: this book will be made into a movie. Would require some adjusting to American culture, and streamlining of the plot to put more emphasis on the action, but this psychological thriller has the makings of an excellent movie.
I was tempted by the cover promise that this was an "international best seller" and by the Scandinavian locale - having just come off reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, I was attracted by this book that takes place in Denmark (practicall More...

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Mar 10, 2010

Bernadette rated it:

Four women work at the Danish Centre for Genocide Information. Iben and Malene are old friends from University who are now project officers at the Centre, Camilla is secretary to the Centre’s Director and Anna-Lise, the newest member of staff, is the librarian. Iben and Malene receive death threats via email and attempt to work out whether the source of the threats was one of the war criminals they have written about as part of their work or someone within their own office. Chapters told from ea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 24, 2011

Sandi rated it:

I found this book to be quite riveting and thought provoking. Set in Denmark, it explores the relationship between four women who work at the Danish Center for Information on Genocide. When two of the women receive death threats the office is thrown into turmoil. The subject matter was quite dark but by shifting the narrative among the various character's points of view the suspense was sustained throughout the entire 500 pages.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 23, 2010

Meave rated it:

Sometimes, characters in fully formed television worlds watch their own television, which is a device to comment on the events in the television show, and on the television show itself; you know, meta-TV. This book uses articles about genocide as the TV show inside the TV show, to comment on and help explain the actions in the novel, which is set in the fictional Danish Center for Information on Genocide.

The narrative is almost exclusively third-person limited, but it alternates betw More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2007

Tami rated it:

It was really hard to get into this book because I found the writing to be very uninteresting (which could partly be the translation). But the more I read, the more intrigued I became by the psychology of it. It picked up speed very gradually until suddenly I realized I was completely absorbed by it. The questions it brings up are fascinating and make it worth sticking with the more mundane sections.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2009

Trish rated it:

Four Danish women work in a small office, a government center that researches genocide. The hope is that studying horrifying events will lead to insights that can prevent their recurrence. But in spite of what the women know about the human capacity for cruelty, they are unable to prevent office cliques and subtle exclusion from growing into paranoid rivalries and delirious attacks. Perspective shifts among the four women -- glamorous but dependent Malene, intellectual Iben, outsider Anna-Liese, More...

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Sep 21, 2010

Christina Stind rated it:

Christian Jungersen's book has been much talked about here in Denmark. It seems like everybody has read it and most people have loved it as well. I finally got around to reading it, and while I was well entertained while reading it, it wasn't as good as I expected it to be.
Undtagelsen (The Exception) is about four women working together at the Danish Centre for Genocide Information. The two youngest women, Iben and Malene, are old friends and they are in charge of the office, leaving the t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

julie rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 16, 2010

Lila rated it:

This book was part of my effort to branch out and read new things that I wouldn't normally pick up. I'm glad that I picked this one up.

It's written in present tense, which was a bit hard to get used to. My other random choices book about the mafia doctor was also partly in present tense. I wonder why I keep unknowingly choosing books like this. Is it the style these days? In this case, it could be because of the translation. Are Danish books often in present tense? I don't know.
More...

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Dec 23, 2009

Joyce rated it:

This book again is one of the best I've read this year. It has stayed with me. The context of my life is having a newborn baby and it being the holidays. In that light, the focus on genocide and the ability for people to become murderers under certain circumstances when they would otherwise not think they could hurt anyone.

The book was written well, changing viewpoints when you most needed it to and not remaining with one viewpoint - which would have been impossible in the context More...

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Aug 11, 2008

Vicky rated it:

An unusual story with the elemets of a triller, intresting for people working in libraries, research or academia. Where is evil in our lives, who is evil, on how we see ourselves, there is a lot of thought-provoking material.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2008

Pam rated it:

I am not sure what bothers me more about this book - the topic, person to person abuse/mass genocide or the somewhat stilted translation. I think my background causes me to find the topic so abhorrent that I can't think clearly when I read about it. I am actually astonished that the characters in the book can research and write about genocide, torture, rape, etc. so dispassionately. Maybe Europeans like this book because so many of them have had some experience of the war crimes. I do give C More...

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Apr 14, 2009

Michael rated it:

I started with all good intentions: the recommendations were all high standard, but....
A long wind-up into the body of the book, and I was left wondering if this book was a rather lacerating look under the stones and rocks of the psyche, where wriggling things live. A bit over-done by now?

Either that or a long cool look at our bickerings and whiney distrust of anyone and anything. This term 'whiney' has absolutely nothing to do with the gender of the characters, but with the w More...

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Feb 05, 2012

Cindi rated it:

I really struggled through this book. I wanted to like it, to get into the subject matter and what the author was trying to say.but there were a lot of problems with it. First, it was translated from Danish and that just didn't work. It was very choppy, without flow. I hope it was better in its original language. Second, there was a lot of repetition. A lot. Really. Third, and probably the worst defect is that the characters were, well, hideous. Women who are competent professionals, with More...

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Jul 05, 2011

J. rated it:

This book by Jungersen was one that it took me awhile to get into. It took an effort to keep pursuing it. Then, the use of the stories of the three women began to be more interesting to me and I went through the book. It is really a complex book, one that probes into the relationships of four women at work and away from work and how tensions and problems can change them and they can join with one another to be a force against one of the others.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, More...

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Jan 24, 2012

Masanobu rated it:

This book was fairly interesting. I mean, I was really hooked by the end and wanted to know what would happen, how everything would be sorted out. And I was entertained regardless of several things that bugged me. That is why I give the book two stars. I always feel like I rate noir different from other genres. I am kind of more benevolent. I give them stars for entertaining and not for their literary merit.

What I didn't like at all:

1. This is a choral novel with four narrat More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Ana rated it:

The Exception is a nervewrecking story about 4 women at the fictional Danish centre for Genocide. One day, two of the women recieve a mail threatening them on their life and from then on the characters struggle to keep their lives normal and find the person who sent the threatening mails. The story is narrated by three of the women, who experience the situation, their work and eachother in very different ways. At the same time, you get to know a bit about genocides and the psychology of evil. Fo More...

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Apr 21, 2011

Elizabeth rated it:

For me personally, this is a 5 star book, though it is not a book I would recommend to just anyone. Subject matter can at times be harsh.
I would lump this in a Secret History/The Likeness/Natsuo Kirino's Out category. The category of a "normal" or good person doing evil things and how that manifests within them. This was a very slow book to start and patience will win out. There are some very tense parts of the book and at times I felt there were some very Hitchcock like moment More...

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Jan 04, 2011

Anastasia rated it:

I really enjoyed this novel from Christian Jungersen. Although it's not nearly as good and is also (in some ways) nothing like Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, it also does remind me of that series. Here's why: The Danish culture as portrayed in this novel is similar to Swedish culture, the principal characters are all strong women, the principal characters work in the field of human rights, there's a high tech element, and it's a thriller. I found that the writing constan More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Rebecca rated it:

Christian Jungersen’s The Exception is a gripping psychological thriller that dissects the perversions of human nature with a scalpel. Stitched into the narrative are studies on the nature of evil and accounts of real historical genocide, documenting patterns of savagery and entitlement that Jungersen then deftly reproduces in his characters. A recipient of the Danish Radio and Golden Laurels Prizes, nominee of literary awards throughout Europe, and New York Times Editor’s Pick, The Exception is More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 02, 2008

Mardel rated it:

An excellent, fascinating, probably somewhat controversial, and certainly unnerving novel. Some of the clunkiness of the prose may be due to the translation. It is a gripping story of good and evil, of interpersonal politics, and how even being " a good person" and "doing the right thing" does not necessarily protect you from the evil within. Little evils often add up to something bigger, and the convoluted story line and petty office politics have enough realism to ring t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

Jim rated it:

Normally, if a book hasn't engaged me in the first 50 pages, I'll set it aside. Life's too short for bad books. I don't know why, exactly, I made an exception for The Exception. The first 400 of its 500 pages embeds you in the inner life of four pathetic, slightly deranged women who all work in the same office – all of whom are obsessed with the tedious minutiae of their work life. Toward the end the story shifts into an awful parody of a late-night TV police serial, complete with hideous cartoo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 26, 2008

Kate rated it:

Note to author: Most women do not act like those really awful 13-year-olds you encountered in middle school. Get over it.
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I was assigned this book by my adviser for an independent study. All I had to do was read it - not write anything, and I was happy about that. However, now that I'm not required to do any more academic writing, and no one is really "listening," I feel compelled to put in my two cents. I know - ironic.

In short, I am NOT a fan of this More...

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Apr 09, 2008

Ray rated it:

Copenhagen, here I come! Crispbread, soft cheese, fruit, and yogurt for lunch with your co-workers on a snowy Danish day fighting genocide across the world? What a lovely picture, eh? Well throw in some split personalities, damaged egos, professional climbing, a Serb or two, and you got trouble!

This book was billed as a psychological thriller, but I am not sure that is a great fit description-wise. It was more about situational ethics, groupthink, and the varying perspectives mul More...

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Feb 24, 2009

David rated it:

It’s got a lot going for it. You know early on that it is going to be making brutal office politics a microcosm reflecting elements of large-scale genocidal outrages. The office in question being a center for genocide studies allows for parallels to be drawn pretty explicitly.

This could get heavy-handed, but Christian Jungersen does a pretty good job keeping it interesting and poignant without drumming it in too harshly.

And the office politics bullying is done with a ke More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 06, 2007

Maria rated it:

It took me awhile to get properly into this book, as I started out not thinking the writing was very good... too much telling, too little showing, but I guess that was because it was necessary to get the back story into place, because Christian Jungersen quickly stopped explaining so much and got on with the plot. Once I did get into the book, I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of the bullying is amazing. The book is split up into parts, and each part is told from the view point of one of More...

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Aug 17, 2009

Sean rated it:

Up until the last 50 pages or so, I was thoroughly enjoying this. But the climax and resolution left me baffled and let down. At around page 200 (out of 500) I had thought that I had a fairly good idea of what was actually going on and where things were ultimately headed. So viewing the remainder of the novel through that lense, I had a very different take on it. And I was apparently way off as it turned out. WAY off. I now look back at certain moments in the novel and realize how slightly ludic More...

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