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chrysemys 's review for:
first reads.
I read Devil in the White City years ago and while I thought Larson did a very good job conveying the story, it was really appalling. Also, I am Jewish and always have kind of a hard time reading about antisemitism. For these reasons I approached this book with some trepidation.
The entire book gave me kind of the feeling you get watching a horror movie- the Don't go in there! sort of impotent dread, because you already know it's lights out for the pretty girl on the screen. In this case, it was Run! Fight! Engage in aggressive diplomacy! because, well, we all know what happened next. And that sense of foreboding was increasingly present in Hitler's early days as chancellor, which Larson does an excellent job in conveying through intense foreshadowing. Some might deem this a cheap literary device, but I thought it worked.
The storytelling is compelling. Larson appears to have recreated this time largely from letters and journals of the Dodds and their acquaintances, as well as those of major figures in the third Reich. In the process, he paints interesting portraits of some of these figures (e.g. Röhm, Göring, and, to some extent, Himmler) that a regular person (well, a regular modern American) has heard of but knows nothing more of than their names and job titles. Especially interesting to me was the portrayal of Rudolf Diels, the first head of the Gestapo.
Larson also provides a glimpse into the general state of American diplomacy of the day and, in particular, in relation to the iconoclastic ambassador Dodd. I had a hard time believing that diplomats of the day were *that* catty, to the exclusion of any serious and intelligent discussion of the issues. (Sadly, it is probably more true than I want to believe.) I also thought that, although a largely admirable figure, Dodd was portrayed perhaps too sympathetically.
I read Devil in the White City years ago and while I thought Larson did a very good job conveying the story, it was really appalling. Also, I am Jewish and always have kind of a hard time reading about antisemitism. For these reasons I approached this book with some trepidation.
The entire book gave me kind of the feeling you get watching a horror movie- the Don't go in there! sort of impotent dread, because you already know it's lights out for the pretty girl on the screen. In this case, it was Run! Fight! Engage in aggressive diplomacy! because, well, we all know what happened next. And that sense of foreboding was increasingly present in Hitler's early days as chancellor, which Larson does an excellent job in conveying through intense foreshadowing. Some might deem this a cheap literary device, but I thought it worked.
The storytelling is compelling. Larson appears to have recreated this time largely from letters and journals of the Dodds and their acquaintances, as well as those of major figures in the third Reich. In the process, he paints interesting portraits of some of these figures (e.g. Röhm, Göring, and, to some extent, Himmler) that a regular person (well, a regular modern American) has heard of but knows nothing more of than their names and job titles. Especially interesting to me was the portrayal of Rudolf Diels, the first head of the Gestapo.
Larson also provides a glimpse into the general state of American diplomacy of the day and, in particular, in relation to the iconoclastic ambassador Dodd. I had a hard time believing that diplomats of the day were *that* catty, to the exclusion of any serious and intelligent discussion of the issues. (Sadly, it is probably more true than I want to believe.) I also thought that, although a largely admirable figure, Dodd was portrayed perhaps too sympathetically.