Menu of The Day (22 April 2021): Look Who's Back, by Timur Vermes

Look Who's Back


This book is all but easy. It seems so as it flows smoothly thanks to a great translation in English. Then? Then you have to think about the scary message it is inside. There is no chance that the real Hitler will wake up in Berlin in modern times. If he did one good thing in his life was to shoot himself.

Yet the critic is to the society that may well bend easily to play along to whoever or whatever can profit. A problem of all societies all along the history of mankind. The way the author tries to tell us is rather different, using a disturbing... the most disturbing figure of the recent mankind. Someone who was the product of deranged psyche as much as of the society. We are all, always at risk of these demagogues and criminals, but they can't do much without our help, our looking away.



It's well worth reading and the way it is written helps you to reflect on it. There is a movie too, I will review it tomorrow. It is slightly different but poignant as the book itself.
Few more things.
The reality it is described is really Berlin, a city the nazi did not like as it was the centre of progress in the Wiemar Republic. Berlin still is the most experimental, future looking city in Germany. It is diverse meanwhile they are all Berliners. There is a communal sense of sharing burdens and mutual help.
Enjoy the book and if you have time, when the pandemic will be over, enjoy Berlin too.

Last note on the author:
Writing something with Hitler is always extremely sensitive. For Germans even more. The way he makes fun of 'values bending', idealizing and about the modern day nazi, made his skills even more remarkable.




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