Reviews with content warning for Racism - Daar is hij weer

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Daar is hij weer by Timur Vermes

9 reviews

oceange's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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adastrame's review against another edition

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dark informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Prinzipiell fand ich das Buch großartig geschrieben. Man liest es immer mit einem lachenden und einem weinenden Auge - grade weil die alles so absurd ist, aber doch irgendwie zu realitätsnah. Allerdings fand ich das Buch zu lang. Gegen Mitte zog es sich etwas, und ich fand man hätte die Message auch wunderbar in einer Novelle auf den Punkt bringen können. Irgendwann wollte ich dann nur noch dass es aufhört.

Den Film kannte ich vorher schon, der ist großartig grade auch weil er noch eins drauflegt auf was das Buch macht und diesen Dokumentarfilmcharakter hat.

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rafacolog's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

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pershie13's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was clever, witty, and hilarious! It had me laughing out loud from the beginning, which no book has ever made me do, and I loved how well it referenced back to historical locations and events from a modern perspective. When Hitler wakes up in 2011 Germany, he is utterly confused and acting as if it is still 1945. Watching him try to navigate the modern world was quite funny, and I was intrigued to see what he was going to do and how he would react to a modern Germany that was far different than the one he would have envisioned. Vermes wrote many fantastic one-liners throughout this book, and some of the situations that Hitler was put in had me cracking up. It did take me longer than I anticipated to read this book due to my busy schedule, so I did have some issues with picking it back up and remembering some of the characters and the plot line. As a result, I got to the end and felt a bit confused about how the story wrapped up. I also struggled with some of the long tangents in the middle of the book and probably would have done better with a bit faster pace. However, after reading some summaries, I was able to understand some of the later scenes in the book and tie together the irony of how the book ended. This book was both funny and brought out some enlightening themes about how people can be oblivious to what is right in front of them. (Edit, Dec. 15, 2023: After reading some more reviews of this book, I also am coming to appreciate the darker side of the book more. This is the part that I overlooked a lot while reading, as I found the plot confusing due to starting and stopping too many times. Looking at the portrayal of Hitler in this book both shows some funny moments in the fictional aspect of the world he is in while also showing him as the madman he was and causing the reader to think twice about how easily Nazism and other extremist movements can come about.) I would love to read this book again in the future to fully appreciate it, but I thought it was brilliant overall and an enjoyable read.

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gwrhyr's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

It is odd to read a book from Hitler's point of view, but the satire definitely provides a good reflection on how humour is used to normalise extremist, racist and sexist opinions in our society - even if they were not meant as jokes in the book - and how it is dangerous to view such takes as 'just for laughs'.

The ending really fortified this idea with the ominous slogan "it wasn't all bad."

The author managed to do a great job at imagining a historical figure's reactions to the equipment and habits of our modern-day society.

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bookwormcat's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

The idea of Hitler being alive in the modern world made me squirm. The book being told from his perspective made me deeply uncomfortable. However, this was satire, and at times even made me chuckle. As it went on, however, it made me think more and more about the cult of celebrity, the power of the internet, and how people can use "humour" as a vehicle for more extremist content. It made me consider how people hear what they want to, and excuse the rest as "joking". This book really made me think a lot about so-called "cancel culture", freedom of speech, and how easily things can get very, very bad, very quickly.

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booksnbakes's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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meghhan_rose's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book is really quite interesting. The topic is really frightening and honestly, I only picked it up last second to read the English translation for my German Language class. There are a LOT of mixed feelings about this book and understandably so. Satire about Hitler is not exactly the most appealing concept in the world, but I personally feel that it was done in a good way that is thought-provoking and makes you ask yourself a lot of seriously important questions. It was also kind of frightening because I am reading this post-Trump presidency, and seeing how someone with this "I am better than all" racist mindset looks at the world and uses media to their advantage, and trick people into supporting them is frightening. I see a lot of parallels in how Hitler coming back and using the media is a lot similar to Trump making himself an entertainment figure turned "politician". The similarities are scary. This book also acts as a warning to watch how you use and view comedy. Hitler's viewpoints were often presented as a satirical comedic act, but he was being serious the whole time. It just goes to show that while you can be satirical on serious and dark topics, it is important to watch how you do it and be aware of the kind of message you could be spreading. It makes you think about what is actually satire and how to watch for real satire vs people saying something they mean disguised by comedy. I also thought it was really interesting to highlight how easy it is to sympathize with bad people, as the book forced you to look at the modern world through reincarnated Hitler. As one of the blurbs on the book says "The appeal of the story is our own reaction to a monster's view of how we live today. And being chilled by our own empathy with his disgust toward the media, politicians, government, and of course, technology"- Esthercepda, Washington Post. There are so many different and frightening things to unpack with this story, and I recommend reading it yourself if the topic of harmful ideas being disguised as comedy is something that interests you. Overall, really thought-provoking and makes you think about the impact your words have on people around you.

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samchase112's review against another edition

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challenging funny informative reflective fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

But with superior morale, with an unwavering, fanatical spirit, everything is possible!

What would Hitler say? Vermes takes a rather literal approach to this question when he drops Adolf Hitler into the 21st century. What ensues is a novel filled with satire and uncomfortable laughing - should I really be enjoying Hitler's antics this much? It's interesting to see our world through the eyes of someone from a previous century, let alone a notorious monster. What was most frightening about it was the way the book ended, as Hitler begins to work his "magic" upon the public once more and rise in power and influence. It really has me thinking whether or not Hitler could actually accomplish everything again. While the novel got a little repetitive after a while - I can only hear the same reactions to Hitler's insistence that yes, this was his real name so many times - Vermes had obviously done a great deal of research and I enjoyed how authentic everything felt. Be warned - a lot of knowledge of contemporary German culture as well as Nazi knowledge is required here in order to find pretty much anything funny. In the end I honestly flew through the pages, and while it's not a novel I would've chosen for myself, it's certainly an experience I won't soon forget.

And really, the Jews are no laughing matter.

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