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Il Caso Collini (2011)

by Ferdinand von Schirach(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

8830433292 (ISBN13: 9788830433298)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Longanesi

review 1: The Collini Case draws its power from being based on real facts during the war and post-war era in Germany. I would argue that most positive reviews have to do with its background and not with the book itself. Once you know how this is going to end, whether because you've heard the facts or because you guessed it (and really, it's bloody obvious from the very start what the motive was behind the revenge murder of a wealthy German industrialist), the only thing left for von Schirach to do is to tell the story in an engaging way. Unfortunately he does nothing of the sort. The writing of The Collini Case is simplistic and rushed. Some reviewers found it unobtrusive, but I call it plain and neutral, the way you'd expect an article about the case to be written. In fact the whol... moree book felt like reading the newspaper to me. We never get to know the characters, far less care about them. We are told what they are like, but we never see them act out their personalities. Their relations feel forced and vacuous. The narration is similarly flat and soulless, the way I imagine von Schirach was used to write for the court. Ironically, this style works best when he reveals plot twists, because the detached voice of the author contrasts with the shocking content, but for the rest of the book it gets very boring. Even at the end, when the crucial details about the case come into the light, von Schirach quickly pulls out of the debate. Evidence is presented. Let the court decide. The end.I finished the book in a couple of days, not because I liked it, but because it demanded so little of my attention that I could skim through whole paragraphs quickly, and because I wanted to finish it quickly and move on to a better one. Can't think of a worse review than this.
review 2: This little novella is a lot more than it seems. At first you get the impression that it is going to be a crime mystery/thriller kind of story, but as you read along you realize that it is entirely different. In a sense, it is philosophical and poses many questions through its plot: For how long can someone be held accountable for something they did ages ago? Can a crime such as murder ever be justified? How can a single act or clause in an entire legal system result in catastrophic consequences or disqualify someone’s claim for justice?The book was short and to the point. There were no excess descriptions. It seems like the author knew exactly what he wanted to say and he ruled out unnecessary details. There were also a lot of legal terms that I had to look up (i.e. “statute of limitations” – which is what the case itself revolves around).It was good to know at the end that this little book was used as reference to make changes in the German laws regarding crimes committed during the Nazi era.It is not exactly unforgettable but I’m all for books that make you learn new things. less

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