Reviews
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
sarful's review
4.0
That was a fascinating read. I will very rarely read about about the Holocaust or WWII, even though it truly is fascinating because I'm well surrounded by it all day at work. But, I do enjoy this author, this being the third of his books I've read, so this is one of those rare occasions. By looking at the rise of the Nazi party and Hitler himself through the lens of US ambassador Dodd and his family the whole of it all seems even more absurd than a regular history book. And he took the job to be a beacon of American idealism and to, ironically, write a tome on the Civil War, called The Old South. Fascinating.
andystone's review
1.0
Hundreds of pages of describing state dinners and an afterthought paid to the story that needed to be told.
danchrist's review
4.0
Chilling tale of an unprepossessing man who stood up to the Nazis in 1930s Germany. Great detail in a story well told.
jrudy's review
dark
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Really captures the horror of what it was like to live in Germany at the time, along with a good glimpse into why nobody did anything. The introduction is right, there are no heroes here.
carmenere's review against another edition
4.0
Larson brings history to life......again. Highly recommend
laylalk's review
3.0
Filled with compelling and provocative information if you have an interest in the politics around Hitler's rise to power... It reads, at times, like a more emotional and well-written textbook and it was an almost insurmountable task to try and remember the names and places that wove through the story. The payoff towards the end depends entirely on your expectations for the book. It can be hard to remember that the focus is not on Nazi Germany itself, but rather the American family that became embroiled in German politics during an Ambassadorial appointment.