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| Christian Jungersen |
A cross between a taut political thriller and a less-than-believable action flick, The Exception moves between the historical landscape on which genocide occurs and the confines of office life. Detailed articles on genocide
are interspersed throughout the story and reference studies that were conducted over the past century in an attempt to understand the source and motivation behind true evil.
From Stanley
Milgram’s experimental work on the “parameters of obedience to authority,” to intricate reports on Nazism, Stalinism
and the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, the articles give shape to the unfolding drama.
The four central characters of Christian
Jungersen’s novel The Exception work at the Danish Center for Information on Genocide, (the DCIG), researching and disseminating information on genocidal atrocities around the world. While an outsider may expect that an office concerned with the “crime of crimes” would be sanitized from real world trivialities, the environment is much the same jumble of coffee mugs, gossip, and lingering insecurities
as any office anywhere.
The characters appear to be mundane
individuals. Iben and Malene are two young researchers and have been friends since college. Anne-Lise and Camilla are older managers who are married with children. Anne-Lise is the newest employee and has always struggled to fit in, and Iben and Malene spend so much time together that they no longer recognize how competitive they are with each other.
On what seems to be just another ordinary day, Iben and Malene receive anonymous death threats by email. Iben is accused of being “self-righteous
among humans,” while Malene is said to have “pledged to evil and the superiors appointed by evil.” Both messages close with the writer claiming
it will be a “joy” and a “pleasure” to bring about their deaths.
Given the range of their various investigations
and projects at the DCIG, it is initially believed that a dangerous underground criminal may be threatening
them. But when suspicions shift to the coworkers themselves, the office begins to simmer with tension and paranoia.
Starting with Iben and alternating
viewpoints among the characters, Jungersen allows us to see inside the minds of each woman as they attempt to trace the sender of the e-mail messages.
Accusations fly around the office as the women tear each other to pieces. Alliances are broken down by new suspicions
just as soon as a character feels comfortable in her innocence.
Iben is jealous of Malene’s beauty and success with men: might she want to destroy her confidence by exposing her prejudices? Anne-Lise is seeing a doctor for depression, could she be developing a personality disorder that would compel her to threaten her officemates?
Quietly falling apart, Anne-Lise sobs to her husband “I don’t want to be like this…I’m evil.”
Unfortunately, the story falls short when the thoughtful drama becomes an action thriller and characters roll off rooftops, are pushed through stained glass windows, and escape from high security lock-down facilities on foot. Readers will most likely yearn for the stifling office tension a few pages back.
The Exception is entertaining, but it’s far from incredible. Jungensen writes convincingly from a female perspective and effectively brings to light the fluctuating motivations that drive each character from innocence, through accusation and guilt. He skillfully
depicts the texture of office life, showing how quickly petty office politics
can become a witch-hunt. And how a workplace can become a microcosm of much larger worldly conflicts.
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