Before starting this, let me say that this book is without exception one of those rare cases where you really, really need to know what you’re getting into before picking it up. And let’s be honest, no one is picking up The 120 Days of Sodom these days without having heard of what it entails first and letting their curiosity get the better of them. While it's a "classic" of sorts, I felt compelled to write this review because, despite everything about it, The 120 Days fascinated me, more than almost any book in recent memory.
This is a fascinating, dreadful, disgusting, brilliant and horrifically depraved book. It is everything everyone who has read it says it is, and it’s likely that someone reading this might think that such glowing praise about a book so condemned might think I’m being pretentious or perverted. There are some literary faults to the 120 Days I think, but I’ll be clear on this point: my praise for this book doesn’t mean I wasn’t disgusted or nauseated by what I read.
This is a fascinating, dreadful, disgusting, brilliant and horrifically depraved book. It is everything everyone who has read it says it is, and it’s likely that someone reading this might think that such glowing praise about a book so condemned might think I’m being pretentious or perverted. There are some literary faults to the 120 Days I think, but I’ll be clear on this point: my praise for this book doesn’t mean I wasn’t disgusted or nauseated by what I read.