Hitler's Niece: A Novel

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I have a Roget’s Thesaurus and foreign language dictionaries (French, German, and Spanish) on the bookcase to the right of my iMac, and a Bible, theological dictionary, and other reference books to the left. The deacon’s three main ministries are, based on the Rite of Ordination, to the Word, the Altar and to Charity. Rather I point out those aspects of Hitler’s personality–jealousy, treachery, possessiveness, sexual perversity–that would have been immediately obvious and oppressive to his niece. We find out that her father died at the young age of 31, leaving her mother, Angela, to take care of three kids (Geli, Leo and Elfriede) with almost no source of income. I had read a small flurry of GR reviews from my home page and the title left me curious but not convinced.

Hitlers Niece by Ron Hansen | Goodreads Hitlers Niece by Ron Hansen | Goodreads

It is fiction which included many interesting, bizarre facts about Hitler, the hyptonic affect he had on people, the psychotic group of misfits with whom he surrounded himself, and the fact that he could have actually been the one to murder his niece who was supposedly the only woman he really loved. After seeing that Geli, at seventeen, had bloomed into a lovely young woman, Hitler invited her to be his housekeeper and companion. Instead of evoking the banality of evil, Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg’s noxious bad breath almost suggests that the banal is evil.The plot of the novel hinges on their sexual tension and on Geli’s psychological trauma as she becomes, increasingly against her will, his sexual partner in a sordid, sadomasochistic relationship that sickens her and intoxicates him. And I've visited book groups where the members were puzzled by much of the content of a particular novel without being put off by their quandaries. Hansen is the author of nine novels, including his most recent A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion(2011), one collection of short stories, Nebraska(1989), and a collection of essays, A Stay Against Confusion: Essays on Faith and Fiction(2001).

The Human and the Monstrous - Boston Review

And while I wouldn't want screenwriting to be my sole profession—not enough control over the final product—I have mostly enjoyed the work I've done and really like the vast majority of hard-working people I have met in the business. Hitler is menancing, pathetic, awkwardly playful, a commanding personality able to bend the will of those around him, except Geli.One of the proposed plans for Germany’s national Holocaust Memorial includes a wall of a million books–one for every six dead Jews. They are at least reading copies, complete and in reasonable condition, but usually secondhand; frequently they are superior examples. Otherwise we make Hitler seem entirely exceptional, and the history of even our century shows that he is not. That's OK, given that this is fiction, but I don't think he did a good job of explaining Hitler's motivation to kill her.

Hitlers Niece, First Edition - AbeBooks Hitlers Niece, First Edition - AbeBooks

Relegating the most virulent, violent pathology to a pathetic deviancy is too trite, and infinitely too meager.I think Hansen's fictional treatment of the early Hitler biography serves as a better sequel to the Mailer book. Author’s Note, 307-308) The novel describes Geli’s life, from beginning to end; from birth to tragic death. Readers are told that one phrase is a cliché, that another is silly, and that they occur in the same scene. I mean, I know Hitler was supposed to be very controlling and those surrounding him were unable to escape his throes but, I would believe this girl or her mother or brother or someone would have "seen the light" and helped her "escape. In them an alcoholic, say, narrates how he was introduced to liquor, then found his drinking was accompanied by problems, until finally there were only problems.

A Novel Vocation: A Conversation with Ron Hansen A Novel Vocation: A Conversation with Ron Hansen

Yet Hansen’s is not a historical novel in the traditional sense, where events serve as a backdrop to imagination and someone like Tolstoy’s fictional Pierre Bezukhov catches a glimpse of the actual General Kutuzov as the actual Napoleon invades Moscow. In rating Hitler’s Niece I’m not going to wimp out with “It started out a two stars but ended up a four so I am giving it a three.

And through the eyes of a favorite niece who has been all but lost to history, we see the frightening rise in prestige and political power of a vain, vulgar, sinister man who thrived on hate and cruelty and would stop at nothing to keep the horror of his inner life hidden from the world.