In the Garden of Beasts

[osprey_archer]

I loved Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City (the serial killer parts got kind of repetitive, but the Chicago World's Fair is endlessly fascinating), so I've been waiting basically forever for his new book - In the Garden of Beasts, about the American ambassador's family in Berlin in 1933 as Hitler solidified his hold on the country.

And I finally got a hold of it this weekend and I've gotten about seventy pages in and I'm not sure I can continue, because I've conceived such a violent dislike of the American ambassador and his kith and kin. The ambassador has resolved to be open-minded about the current regime, for the value of open-minded that involves rationalizing away evidence that the current regime might be evil.

(I get that he has fond memories of Germany from his youth and thus wants to give the country the benefit of the doubt, but really, there needs to be doubt before you can give someone the benefit of it. He was getting daily reports of government officials beating up unassuming bystanders with impunity. Any doubts he had were self-imposed.)

But he's less obnoxious than his daughter, who not only whole-heartedly ignores any and all evidence of that Germany might be going wrong - even unto ignoring brutality that takes place right in front of her face - but actively excuses it, because, as far as I can tell, she finds brutality attractive. She meets the leader of the secret police and is all "Oooooooh you're the leader of the secret police and everyone thinks you're terrifying! IT IS SO SEXY HOW YOU BEAT UP INNOCENT PEOPLE!"?

To be fair, she doesn't seem to have thought beyond the "everyone thinks you're terrifying! (and that's so sexy!)" to why everyone finds him terrifying. But at some point being thoughtless becomes a form of callousness - cruelty even.

***

And then I tried to watch St. Trinian's which I had also been looking forward to, and had to give that up because schoolgirls being horrid to each other just wasn't hitting my hilarity buttons. Ugh.

Comments

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

Oh I am so glad to hear that someone else read Erik Larson! He also wrote a book about the hurricane that hit Galveston, TX. That one is my favorite.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of that one! I should look into it.

[konstantya.livejournal.com]

Is it bad that this kind of makes me want to read this book? You know, for the bile fascination?

It just sounds so bad, and I'm kind of curious to know how bad.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It might actually be worth it. The writing is pretty decent, so it isn't painful in that sense, and the fact that the prose is good allows you to really APPRECIATE the manifold flaws of the main characters.

(I don't think characters is the right word for historical people in a nonfiction book. What should I call them?)

Maybe they'll get better later on? They're in Nazi Germany, eventually the reality of the situation has to set in!

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's totally on my to-read list! Let me know if you finish it / if it's worth reading.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I will, although at the moment it doesn't seem likely.

Did I tell you I read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy? I did. Between it and The Social Network, which I watched yesterday, I weep for the human condition. SO MUCH BETRAYAL. I CAN'T STAND IT.

(But there are some awesome Social Network fics out there. So it's kind of worth it.)

[exuberantself.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT BOOK SO MUCH.

Seriously, though...I was thwarted by the lack of national release of the movie and I just want to read it again. It was so good! The bit with Guillam driving Smiley--it just astounds me. And the women! Man, I love this book! Did I say that already? I feel like I'm gushing.