Sometimes old men tell weird stories about Hilter
I have a hard time trusting old people. Maybe it comes from a lot of experiences I had at the nursing home while I was teenager. Maybe it’s just plain prejudice. Whatever the reason, I tend not to take seriously anything a person over 75 says.
So when I heard Norman Mailer came out with a new novel, my first question (after “Is he really still alive?”) was whether the book could be any good. Mailer is about to turn 84: Has senility crept in, or is the mind of one of America’s greatest 20th-century novelists still intact?
When I found out the new novel, “The Castle in the Forest”, was an embellished biography of Adolph Hitler, my concern hit a new high: Mailer couldn’t have picked a more controversial topic for his storytelling abilities to handle.
In many ways, “The Castle in the Forest” can rival some of Mailer’s finest novels. The book’s narrator, an apprentice devil reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters”, leads the reader through a sprawling mythology surrounding the Hitler family. Inane facts and forgotten names are transformed by Mailer’s imagination into epic legend and beautifully complex characters.
The author rises to the challenge of telling Hitler’s story by creating a lush back story interrogating the basis of good and evil. In this regard, it is one of the greatest achievements in Mailer’s storied career.
Despite his myth-making ability, Mailer still makes some critical errors. His expansive story has a tendency to digress.
Random historical events, such as the crowning of Tsar Nicolas II, break up the continuity of the story and are more tedious than relevant.
Perhaps even more importantly, the reader gets far more information on Adolph’s family than on Adolph himself. For a book whose dust jacket promises will “explore the evil of Adolph Hitler,” the text provides very little storyline about him. What was Hitler like as a teenager, as a young man, or while leading the Germans into WWII? “The Castle in the Forest” remains silent on these topics, much to the reader’s chagrin.
“The Castle in the Forest” is clearly not the product of a senile mind; Mailer has proven that, if nothing else, he is still in full command of his authorial skills. However, the rambling digressions and glaring omissions of “The Castle in the Forest” make the text itself seem a bit senile, crippling the promise of Mailer’s novel and leaving the reader unsatisfied.
Ben Clarke is The Statesman book critic.Comments can be sent
to benclarke@cc.usu.edu.