Rating: 
Summary: Good but...
Review: This is a very interesting book. The reader gets a look at Hitler that is different from the usual. A more personal side to Hitler is exposed in this historical-fiction tale. However, early in the novel, it is hard to tell whether this is a fictious book or historical. For the first half the chapters are clearly divided between Hitler's actions and Geli's actions in their own lives. They do not really intermingle till the second half of the novel. The second half, in my opinion, is the most important part of this book. The first half is little more than a recap of Hitler's early military and political travails.
Rating: 
Summary: Hitler's Niece
Review: Hitler's Niece is based on a few crumbs of historical fact. Adolf Hitler did have a half-niece with whom he was in love, and she did die under mysterious circumstances in Hitler's Munich flat in 1931 shortly before the Nazis took power. From these few crumbs, novelist Ron Hansen has constructed an entire meal which is satisfying in every way. Geli Raubal is in her late teens, and pretty, when, post-Beer Hall-putsch, the Nazis become the right-wing bullies of the Weimar Republic. Bankrolled by wealthy Germans, Hitler rents and eventually buys a home in the German countryside, and he hires his half-sister, Angela, as housekeeper. Angela's daughter, Geli, comes along for the ride. When Geli begins college, Hitler bankrolls her education, along with an apartment in Munich. This is more than a half-uncle's innocent largesse, however. We quickly sense Hitler's perverse interest in her. What's fascinating here is the subtle dance of attraction and repulsion that Geli feels for her half-uncle. He is famous by this point, and popular with many of her fellow students. She enjoys this reflected limelight. But does she enjoy Hitler? Is she interested in Hitler himself or only in his interest in her? There's a complexity of emotion here that feels right. Hansen's also smart to make Geli so smart. In the company of Nazis, she's always sharp-tongued. Goring, for example, makes a pathetic pass at her and then collapses onto his ottoman in self-pity. A brilliant novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Haunting, beautifully written novel. A fascinating story that offers some rich characterizations with a wonderful sense of time and place. One of the most revealing portraits of Hitler in fiction and an engrossing story well-told.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Mariette in Ecstasy
Review: This book was ok, and it made human the historical figure of Angela (Geli) Raubal, Hitler's niece, who died under unexplained conditions. The best aspect of the book was Geli's sarcastic humor, which I really enjoyed. The book has two major flaws, however: the first is that it's too educational--Hansen builds in all this information about different figures in the Nazi party very poorly. We heard that through gossip, Geli learns something, and what she learns turns out to be a sort of encyclopedic presentation of the history of these people. Secondly, I think Hansen makes the explanation of Hitler's sexuality much too one-dimensional. As Hansen acknowledges in his afterword, there are many different ideas about this issue, and the selection of this one scenario is unartistically and porrly presented. Hansen mentions the book "Explaining Hitler," which, although a work of non-fiction, does a better job of presenting the ambiguities of this whole situation. Because the book is so concerned with getting every little detail correct, it lacks the dreamy, hazy quality of the presentation in Mariette in Ecstasy (which, because I liked it so much, was the reason that I read this).
Rating:
Summary: Brillant novel
Review: Ron Hansen keeps challenging himself and keeps succeeding in ahuge way. The historical novel sheds light on the madman, clearlyexplains and defines the Nazi rise to power, and tells the tragic story of the person who perhaps knew Hitler best, his neice. Moreover, he tells us what fate met nearly all the major Nazi players and his afterword is as enthralling as the novel, itself. Bravo, Mr. Hansen.
Rating:
Summary: weird...
Review: I read this book with amusement and disgust up until the horrifying and tragic ending. The author has presented the Hitler we feel we know and love: a perverted little scumbag, and finally a murderer. I understood why Geli stayed...she was like a beautiful butterfly pinned to a board by a greedy, drooling collector. Charlie Chaplin did a great job making Hitler look like the buffoon that he ultimately was; so has Hansen. It was haunting, but not a pretty picture. I honestly couldn't recommend it to anyone planning to eat dinner any time soon.
Rating:
Summary: The manipulative tyrant
Review: In this brilliant book we see a different Hitler to the one we have learnt about in high school. We see the child in him and we learn about his bizarre fantasies and expectations of the people around him. This book focuses on the manipulation of Angelika Raubal by a Hitler in love -- in strange love.
Rating: 
Summary: Fair
Review: I expected when reading this book to learn a great deal about Hitler and his dealings with not only his cronies but his family. This book reminds me of Truman Capote "In Cold Blood". Without a doubt, many of things Hansen writes about took place but I think he took some liberties in terms of dialogue and events. It was hard to determine what was real and what was made up. Through this book, you definitely feel how dominant Hitler was over the people he came in contact with, but you have no real understanding as to why Hitlers niece stuck around.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting blend of fact and fiction
Review: I am extremely disappointed in this book as I did not think it lived up to the hype surrounding it. Hitler's Neice failed to involve me although parts of it were engaging. Perhaps this has something to do with the lack of dramatic build up of tension. The novel is far too episodic, the structure resembling a series of realistc, factual journal and newspaper accounts of Angelika, Adolf, their family and his Nazi cronies. The problem is also Hansen's lack of a sophisticated writing style; the dialogue seeming forced and stilted. Hansen doesn't seem prepared to really plumb the depths of the characters' personalities. He skims the surface of Goebles and Himmler never offering an indepth analysis of the psyches of them. His portrayal of the most hated man of the century is indeed astute and intelligent and there is an insight provided into his anti semetic views. However this does not make up for the endless paragraphs of inept dialog and pointless individual description. So read Hitler's Neice if you want as an interesting historical treatis on Nazi Germany and the rise of National Socialism. However, it is inadequate as a serious work of literary fiction. Michael Leonard
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary challenge well met.
Review: Readers already aware that Ron Hansen is one of the most elegant writers alive will seize Hitler's Niece eagerly -- and find a surprise. This time, Hansen is not evoking beauty and mystery in his usual remarkable fashion, as in in Marriette in Ecstasy or Atticus, because that wouldn't be appropriate here: There's simply nothing beautiful about Adolf Hitler. But Hansen has challenged himself to try something new and important, for which he has employed sometimes jarring but always precise language and rhythm to match his alarming, brutal subject. Read this one through and you'll come away alert to new things about the machinations of evil. This is a brave and successful book, one that makes us shudder because, knowing what followed, we sense its awful truth.
|
