The Castle in the Forest by Norman Mailer
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeBefore Norman Mailer’s death earlier this year, he had a vision to write a trilogy exploring (fictionally) the life of one of history’s most fascinating and terrifying figures-Adolf Hitler. Unfortunately Mailer was only able to complete the first book in the trilogy.
“The Castle in the Forest” follows the Hitler family from before his parents meeting until Hitler’s graduation from school. According to this fictionalized account of Hitler’s childhood-narrated by one of Satan’s workers-Hitler was a product of incest.
This book has quite a sexual tone, much of this leaning towards the Hitler’s family’s (fictionalized) penchant for incestuous and homosexual relationships. Not that this is a bad thing, per say-it’s just a warning to those who might take offense. However, there is nothing too overly graphic about this book-at least that I can recall.
Although the narrator is supposedly an underling to Satan himself, the book can be interpreted as psychological look at Hitler’s childhood, and some of his behaviors and his family members behaviors give an insight to his later behavior while dictator of Germany.
It would have been interesting to see the following two books in the series, however, just this brief glimpse into Adolf HItler’s psyche is enough.
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Wow, that sounds like a very interesting book!