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A review by deadwolfbones
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
4.0
Really more like a 4.5, though I have more reservations than that score would typically indicate.
Plenty has been said about the plot, so I won't bother recounting it. Yep, Hitler. Yep, kinda funny! Yep, very uncomfortable at times. But what I didn't expect was how uncomfortable it made me to see Hitler abused, the way he's abused in this book. Of course, that sort of vengeful, smirking abuse is in part justified by the frame story, which implies that this Hitler and his many indignities are dreamed up by a Jewish pulp fiction writer in Auschwitz. But on the other hand, it's hard not to imagine Tidhar's glee as he repeatedly writes scenes of torture, sexual abuse, and more. On yet another hand, that glee (if it actually exists) isn't exactly unearned, as the afterword makes clear.
This is a rare book for sure—one that effectively puts you inside the mind of a monster, lets you get a little comfortable there, then makes you intensely uncomfortable with what happens to the monster, while still clearly condemning him. It also, rather pointedly, reflects our present-day political failings and the ease with which we forget the horrors of the past.
As for the book AS a book, it's beautifully written, evoking the feel and pacing of noir classics while operating on a linguistic level above all but the best of them. It's the first of Tidhar's novels that I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.
Plenty has been said about the plot, so I won't bother recounting it. Yep, Hitler. Yep, kinda funny! Yep, very uncomfortable at times. But what I didn't expect was how uncomfortable it made me to see Hitler abused, the way he's abused in this book. Of course, that sort of vengeful, smirking abuse is in part justified by the frame story, which implies that this Hitler and his many indignities are dreamed up by a Jewish pulp fiction writer in Auschwitz. But on the other hand, it's hard not to imagine Tidhar's glee as he repeatedly writes scenes of torture, sexual abuse, and more. On yet another hand, that glee (if it actually exists) isn't exactly unearned, as the afterword makes clear.
This is a rare book for sure—one that effectively puts you inside the mind of a monster, lets you get a little comfortable there, then makes you intensely uncomfortable with what happens to the monster, while still clearly condemning him. It also, rather pointedly, reflects our present-day political failings and the ease with which we forget the horrors of the past.
As for the book AS a book, it's beautifully written, evoking the feel and pacing of noir classics while operating on a linguistic level above all but the best of them. It's the first of Tidhar's novels that I've read, but it certainly won't be the last.