The Reading Monk

I’m a sucker for all things Third Reich. I grew up watching movies and documentaries on World War II and was (still am) very impressed by German military prowess – the vehicles, army units, battle formations, badges and insignias and yes, those Hugo Boss-designed military uniforms.

Lest I be seen as a sympathiser, I must say for the record that I am very aware of the dark side of the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) or NSDAP and the destruction its ideology caused. The comprehension why intellectuals and intelligent thinking people could be reduced to a mass of cattle blindly following this ideology of hatred and evil propagated by one man has until today eluded me. Are his oratory skills alone enough to cast such a spell over the German people?

That’s oversimplifying things, I know. But think of the Third Reich and Hitler’s face comes to mind. So much has been written about this monster of a man and I have over the years read much material on him and wartime Germany. But The Hitler Book is different. This book is in a league of its very own.

The Hitler Book is actually a dossier prepared by the NKVD (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) based on its capture and interrogation of 2 of Hitler’s aides – his valet, Heinz Linge, and his personal adjutant, Otto Gunsche. Both were transported to the Soviet Union and detained for interrogation before being released in the mid-1950s with the intelligence being passed on to Stalin for his personal reading.

As the nature of the source implies, the Hitler Book offers a “behind the scenes” look at Hitler’s inner circle and private life. From the early days of his rise to the Chancellorship and his transformation into der Fuhrer; his confident one-upmanship in pursuing Lebensraum and the declaration of war to the change in fortunes and his subsequent decline into an eccentric recluse prone to losing his temper and increasingly out of touch with the realities of the battlefront – all these events are vividly recorded by his aides – till the end of the war, with the suicide of Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun and the attempts at escape by those still alive in the Fuhrerbunker from the surrounding Soviet forces in Berlin.

The transformation of Adolf Hitler and his descent into a raging then empty shell of a man parallels the progression of the recorded events. Almost symbolic of this fall is the change in settings from the Reichstag to huge palatial buildings to smaller and yet smaller bunkers that Hitler is forced to hide in as the book draws to its close, detailing the Fuhrer’s final days and the going-ons in the bunker.

I enjoyed this book tremendously, reading it nightly and hoping it would not end so quickly. Out of desperation when it finally did, I resorted to reading the Foreword, Translator’s Preface, Editors’ Introduction, Editors’ Afterword, Notes and Table of Comparative Third Reich military ranks and British/US equivalents.

This book is not really about the inner-workings of the Reich but more about the life of Adolf Hitler, as seen by his aides. So, it is a different offering from the other titles out there written on Hitler.If you are a WWII history buff like me and enjoy gossip-style literature, then I think you’ll enjoy this one.

There are some books that inspire you. Some that touch your heart and warm your soul.

Michael Ondaatje’s Divisadero tried to touch me in all the wrong places and it made me angry. It made me curse and it made me hate him and the words he chose to use. (Why so angry, you ask? I’ll tell you why.)

I’ll be frank. I read only up to page 100 of the book so I can’t say I’ve read the whole book. But I read enough of the book to come to the conclusion that I did not like it even one bit!

Reading it, I couldn’t get a feel for the time or place; the scenes seemed to jump to and fro, and everything felt disjointed. I did not enjoy the dialogue either and often times I felt lost as to who was speaking.

This book just felt pretentiously artsy and labouriously forced, as if a confusing and directionless storyline could be equated with prose or literary genius. “Try-hard artsy” is how I would describe this book. Painful on the mind and I truly hated it.

I have never read anything by Ondaatje. I’ve seen The English Patient and thought it was ok, so-so. I doubt I’ll be picking up another book by Ondaajte anytime soon.

Only thing I liked about this book was the cover, and that in itself is a lesson to me to never ever again judge a book by its cover.

I like this book. It reminds me of the Diary of Anne Frank, though told from a third person perpective by Death (aka the Grim Reaper) himself.

Some booksellers categorise this under Young Adults, and some under Adults. But regardless, it is something worth reading. A beautiful story of a young girl, the difficult circumstances of war and the strength of love and kindness to pull us all through times of adversity.

The story begins in 1939. It is winter and all is white. Nine-year-old Liesel Meminger, our protagonist is on a train with her mother and little brother traveling towards Munich … and Death comes a-visiting.

He sees the family of three on the train. Six-year-old Werner is coughing and Death stops to visit – he collects a soul, leaving only two to continue the journey. Outside Munich, where the train stops (the driver does not know what to do with the body of the little boy on board), Liesel and her mother lay Werner to rest. As the gravediggers dig through the snow, one of them drops a book – The Gravedigger’s Handbook, which Liesel steals despite not being able to read. Thus bringing about her name and the title of the book, and a touching story of life in wartime Germany and in particular, on Himmel Street in the small town of Molching where Liesel is sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann for the duration of the war.

The Book Thief is rich with imagery which Zusak manages to convey brilliantly and at the right pace. As Death says at the beginning of the book:-

“It’s just a small story really, about, among other things:
* A girl
* Some words
* An accordionist
* Some fanatical Germans
* A Jewish fist fighter
* And quite a lot of thievery.”

Branded a “Kommunist” by the Nazis and unable to afford the care of her daughter, Liesel’s mother leaves her with the Hubermanns, who raise her as their own. Rosa Hubermann tells Liesel to call her Mama and Hans, Papa. She in turn (and in much loving endearment), calls Liesel a “Saumensch” or pig. Rosa is full of swearing and bluster, and Hans the opposite – caring, patient and loving. He teaches Liesel how to read and together they read in the wee hours of the morning when all is quiet and Rosa asleep. It is an inspiring tale, showing the determination of a girl under the worst of circumstances to learn the ability to read and to open up a world hitherto unknown to her – the world of books, and the beauty … and power of words.

It’s about kindness and understanding that overcomes State ideology and hatred. The Hubermanns repay a debt of gratitude by taking in a Jewish fistfighter by the name of Max Vanderburg, sheltering and hiding him in their basement, away from the prying eyes of fellow Germans on Himmel Street. Liesel is sworn to secrecy never to talk about this to anyone. A secret that had its roots in the first war in which Hans fought alongside Erik Vandenburg a comrade, friend, fellow German.. a Jewish man, before that notion made a German unworthy of citizenship, and to be regarded as sub-human.

Hans owes his life to Erik Vandenburg who had assigned Hans to a desk job while the rest, including Erik, went to the battlefield and were killed. He promises Erik’s widow that he will help them should they need him. The chance to keep this promise manifests itself with the appearance of Erik Vandenburg’s son, Max one night in the Hubermann’s living room.

With Hans, Max teaches Liesel how to read, and writes a book especially for her called “The Stand Over Man”. I thought these scenes were especially warm and touching. I imagined Liesel huddling downstairs in the basement, cold but smiling and reading with the man in hiding. It is a cruel world that drives people to live like this yet they struggle and survive, and hold on to the things that make us human.

As the book progresses, we see more of Liesel’s world. Just as Anne Frank had her “one true love” Peter Schiff, Liesel has Rudy Steiner, a friend and ‘partner in crime’ who goes along with her on her many stealing adventures, climbing over fences and into fruit orchards at first and then into the Mayor’s library to steal books.

In essence, The Book Thief is about our frailties; that stripped of our veneer, we are all the same; each one of us longing for the love and company of another to get us through one day at a time. From the scene where Hans Hubermann gives bread to a Jew who is being forced to march by German soldiers which results in him being whipped and sent off later to join the Reich’s war effort to the heartbreaking scene where Liesel is reunited with Max Vandenburg, who after leaving her house and missing for months, is found by Liesel in one of the marches through town of Jewish camp inmates – they hug eachother in the midst of the mass of marchers out of sight of the German soldiers: kindness and compassion are naturally within all of us. It has to be.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. It has been two weeks since I finished it (took me about 2 weeks, reading almost nightly for an hour or so before bed) and the story and characters remain fresh in my mind. I would recommend this as light reading though the subject matter has a lot to do with death and dying. Worth it. Out of 5, I give it a 3. Pace is just nice, not too slow. Story is moving and stays with you.