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A review by skyring
Hitler's Niece by Ron Hansen
3.0
I was a bit unsure about this book to begin with. I missed the fact that it was a novel and a few pages in I began to marvel at the writer's incredible sources, who apparently recorded conversations verbatim, even when Hitler was a young man.
Fiction, but based on a true story, and very credible.
Firstly, we get to see Hitler the young man. I read the book written by his friend in Vienna many years ago, and I can recognise the would-be artist, starving every time he went to the opera and wondering around the Ring.
As he develops and finds his niche as the fiery leader of a radical group, we learn about his comrades, his relatives, his underlings, his rich friends and his adoring fans. And his odd habits. Any photographs that showed him in an unflattering light were destroyed, the negatives personally smashed with a hammer.
His obsessions grow, and begin to impact on those around him, who find their lives fettered or changed.
Not least his young niece, gradually drawn into the web. Her thoughts, her freedoms, her body, revealed to the reader, and her fixated uncle.
Yes, they become intimate, and yes, she dies in the end, so much we know from the historical record, but along the way there are surprising twists and keen insights into what it must have been like in the close circle of this strange man.
I don't like to say that anybody is good or bad, and with Hitler it is certainly a struggle to find goodness, but perhaps the best thing to say of him is that he was driven by love - a perverted love, but he meant the best even if it was never going to work out that way.
I found this book a little difficult in places, but on the whole I enjoyed it for its close look at a significant figure. The reader may not crawl away refreshed and uplifted, but certainly better informed. Even if it is just a novel.
Fiction, but based on a true story, and very credible.
Firstly, we get to see Hitler the young man. I read the book written by his friend in Vienna many years ago, and I can recognise the would-be artist, starving every time he went to the opera and wondering around the Ring.
As he develops and finds his niche as the fiery leader of a radical group, we learn about his comrades, his relatives, his underlings, his rich friends and his adoring fans. And his odd habits. Any photographs that showed him in an unflattering light were destroyed, the negatives personally smashed with a hammer.
His obsessions grow, and begin to impact on those around him, who find their lives fettered or changed.
Not least his young niece, gradually drawn into the web. Her thoughts, her freedoms, her body, revealed to the reader, and her fixated uncle.
Yes, they become intimate, and yes, she dies in the end, so much we know from the historical record, but along the way there are surprising twists and keen insights into what it must have been like in the close circle of this strange man.
I don't like to say that anybody is good or bad, and with Hitler it is certainly a struggle to find goodness, but perhaps the best thing to say of him is that he was driven by love - a perverted love, but he meant the best even if it was never going to work out that way.
I found this book a little difficult in places, but on the whole I enjoyed it for its close look at a significant figure. The reader may not crawl away refreshed and uplifted, but certainly better informed. Even if it is just a novel.