An extraordinary book. I think for once it would be better to read this on Kindle because there were German expressions, military rankings, and many real people in the cast list, and it would be easier to look up the references on a Kindle.
I usually get through books quickly, but this one took about 3 weeks to read -- 973 pages in the hardback. There are some brilliant set pieces (the Siege of Stalingrad) and some longueurs (exposition of aspects of ideology or philosophy by the first-person narrator). Overall, I learned things that I haven't learned from the history books -- The whole system was grumbled about, and was contradictory and illogical (Jews were used for forced labour in the factories as part of the manufacturing process, at the same time as they were being exterminated in the camps). The protagonist and those he met in the military found ways to live with what was going on. The whole interlocking system was questioned, but not in any depth, and certainly not framed in terms of good and evil by the protagonist, an Officer in the SA. .
I occasionally found the experience hard going -- the day after I finished it I breezed through Disgrace by J M Coetzee. Nonetheless I am lost in admiration for the author (still relative young when he wrote the book). I'm no historian but it feels a very convincing, well-researched account. If you have any interest (as we all should) in this era, then this book is well worth reading.
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