- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (15 Feb 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316861332
- ISBN-13: 978-0316861335
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 447,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Castle in the Forest: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
** 'Mailer did Jesus in The Gospel According to the Son; now he plumbs the psyche of history's most demonic figure in this chilling fictional chronicle of Hitler's boyhood ... a somber, compelling portrait of a monstrous soul' PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY Starred rev
Herald, Books for 2007
'The premise would be intriguing whoever the author, but with
Mailer at the helm it promises to be enthralling'
Mailer at the helm it promises to be enthralling'
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I regard Norman Mailer very highly. His prose style is authorative and carefully chosen for affect. One feels the craft of countless hours of reflection and experience as descriptions and human enigmas are etched. However, I often feel at the end of his novels that something is missing or that I have missed the esential ingredient. It is frustrating.
This novel is ambitious in its approach to the near mythical origins of Hitler. Mailer successfully portrays the family as full of the normal frailities that may well have been prevalent in this part of Austria at this time - incest, violence, small ambitions, the heartbreak of infant mortality. Throughout, Alois Hitler, Adolf's father, is uppermost. Through his exploits and musings, we gain more of an insight into the times than we do a putative rationale for the adult Hitler.
The choice of narrator is also fascinating, providing an interesting aside on the battle between good and evil. I recommend this book as long as the reader is not expecting existential truths about Hitler. It is thought provoking and a fitting finale for Mailer's talents.
This novel is ambitious in its approach to the near mythical origins of Hitler. Mailer successfully portrays the family as full of the normal frailities that may well have been prevalent in this part of Austria at this time - incest, violence, small ambitions, the heartbreak of infant mortality. Throughout, Alois Hitler, Adolf's father, is uppermost. Through his exploits and musings, we gain more of an insight into the times than we do a putative rationale for the adult Hitler.
The choice of narrator is also fascinating, providing an interesting aside on the battle between good and evil. I recommend this book as long as the reader is not expecting existential truths about Hitler. It is thought provoking and a fitting finale for Mailer's talents.
15 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
There are those that suggest merely to look at a childhood photograph of Adolf Hitler is sacrilege. It is to search for innocence within the pale blue eyes, and from that comes a journey of reasoning and justification for later events.
Norman Mailer isn't a subscriber to such censorship, having entered Hitler's bloodline two generations before young Adi was born in 1889, and then sticking with the future Nazi leader's formative childhood years, in the narrative of his new book. What we find is a stinking cess pool of incest, petty thuggery, piety and rage - and that's well before the cataclysmic events described when Adolf is conceived by Alois Hitler and his wife, 'daughter' and niece, Klara.
The book begins with narrator DT introducing himself as an SS officer in 1930s Germany, but later identifying himself as a spirit agent of the Devil. Inspired by faded photographs and an extensive bibliography, Mailer lets his incredible, base imagination run wild from the 19th century Austrian `farmhouse trash' through to Adolf's adolescence.
However, Mailer, and DT, are far too cute to exaggerate any particular experiences that sealed Adolf's fate, and there is nothing to suggest he is the son of the Devil, as others have interpreted.
Adolf's early childhood is very normal, but he is skilfully manipulated by the devil in his mind to take the very worst from each incident - whether that be a beating, a slur from his parents, his pompous father's worries over being down in a deal or a school lesson on the Teutonic knights.
By the close, Adolf is in his teens and sexually aroused over his involvement in the death of both his younger brother and father. The devil is proud of his this fantastic tapestry of evil and filth he has created. It is a skill Mailer shares.
Norman Mailer isn't a subscriber to such censorship, having entered Hitler's bloodline two generations before young Adi was born in 1889, and then sticking with the future Nazi leader's formative childhood years, in the narrative of his new book. What we find is a stinking cess pool of incest, petty thuggery, piety and rage - and that's well before the cataclysmic events described when Adolf is conceived by Alois Hitler and his wife, 'daughter' and niece, Klara.
The book begins with narrator DT introducing himself as an SS officer in 1930s Germany, but later identifying himself as a spirit agent of the Devil. Inspired by faded photographs and an extensive bibliography, Mailer lets his incredible, base imagination run wild from the 19th century Austrian `farmhouse trash' through to Adolf's adolescence.
However, Mailer, and DT, are far too cute to exaggerate any particular experiences that sealed Adolf's fate, and there is nothing to suggest he is the son of the Devil, as others have interpreted.
Adolf's early childhood is very normal, but he is skilfully manipulated by the devil in his mind to take the very worst from each incident - whether that be a beating, a slur from his parents, his pompous father's worries over being down in a deal or a school lesson on the Teutonic knights.
By the close, Adolf is in his teens and sexually aroused over his involvement in the death of both his younger brother and father. The devil is proud of his this fantastic tapestry of evil and filth he has created. It is a skill Mailer shares.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I didn't quite know what to make of this book after a few chapters, but persisting with it, I found it compulsive reading. You do have to remind yourself that it is a novel, as, apart from the narrator's explanations of his own role, it reads like a biography of the Hitler family - mainly his father Aloyes- up until Adolf's early adolescence. Norman Mailer really explores in perhaps the only way you can - a novel - as the history will never explain it - some of the background to why Hitler thought and acted the way he did. It doesn't go for the usual psychoanalytical approach, and a great deal of what actually was significant is left for the reader to determine. But the skill of the writer is that he does draw you in (I was fascinated by Hitler's father's "lectures" on bees), and you find yourself trying to piece it together. As one of Hitler's secretaries said in her memoirs, you can't reconcile the charming man with the monster that was Hitler no matter how hard you try. This is not an easy novel to read, but it rewards effort, and I think in time to come, that this might be seen as a book to rival his previous best.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Bees
This is a very weird book, admittedly about a very weird man,Adolf Hitler.Amidst all its weirdness however one weird strand stands out amongst a host of weird themes-the story of... Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2009 by Chesty Morgan
The Castle in the Forest
The Castle in the Forest is a book about Adolf Hitler's family. It starts out almost as a documentary, when the narrator, who at first tells us he is an SS-officer, is sent to... Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2008 by Sonia
No "The Naked and the Dead"
A strange book about the Hitler/Heidler/Schicklgruber family and an imagined supernatural guidance on the early development of AH. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2008 by Karl Wooldridge
Just Could Not Put It Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2008 by J. Chippindale
Could Not Put it Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2007 by J. Chippindale
Just Could Not Put It Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 14 Dec 2007 by J. Chippindale
Fiction of an oblivion
Concise and giving in his narrative, Norman Mailer has touched upon the period of Hitler's life least spoken of in a sea of biographies and academic works written. Read more
Published on 23 May 2007 by Anna Abrahamyan
Could Not Put it Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 11 May 2007 by J. Chippindale
Could Not Put it Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 11 May 2007 by J. Chippindale
Could Not Put it Down
Norman Mailer was born in 1923 and published his first book, The Naked and the Dead, in 1948. The Armies of the Night won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize in 1969;... Read more
Published on 11 May 2007 by J. Chippindale
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
