Fatherland
Fatherland by Robert Harris
``What if Hitler had won the war?’’
I remember when this book was published back during the bleak early 1990s. I remember looking at it in WH Smiths, and reading the reviews. I remember reading the odd column by Harris. I remember getting the book out of the Library. The original cover with the Nazi Flag, and the EU’s banner next to each other on a flag pole.
I even saw the film. I rented it in University.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109779/
I have gone on to read more Alternate History. Since than I have come to find Nazi alternate history’s boring. At the time, I have to confess I was a bit disappointed by the book.
The book is not really for alternate History aficionado's, but for the general reader. Hitler manages to win the war, by better general ship, and some luck. What we deal with here is the aftermath. A generation after the war. The Beatles are playing in Hamburg. There is a Kennedy in the Whitehouse.
Its a generation afterwards for me. When I read this book, I was in university. Or perhaps before. I know I got it out of a library. Now, I am well, I flatter myself in the Prime of life. I picked up the book, at a railway station. Part of a buy one, get one free offer.
One of the things, that have happened to me, since I had read this book, was that I have been to Germany, not once but several times. In fact I have been to Berlin. I recognise the city here. Though it is dressed in strange and fearful clothing. I recognise the grey tenement blocks, like Glasgow. I remember the cold.
The bitter cold, the rivers
I have even toured the remains of the Reich ministries. The strength of this book, is its description of ordinary people. In this case Germans, in an extra ordinary world. So March, veteran with a failed marriage, becoming more lonely and isolated as he gets older. His son, sitting in earnest youthful judgement. March’s partner, trying to get by and a little better. Toasting every bier, with the little things that make him most proud to be Germans Good sausages, Good Bier and Good engines. It must drive March Mad. The Fraulien who sits knitting and see’s everything. The empty apartments. The coffee. The Hotels that did a good a breakfast. Romanians, working in all night pharmacies. ( Something that actually came to pass)
There is there difference. Adolf Hitler, at 75, preparing for Detente with Joe Kennedy. The Slav, worker at the Airport who had his tongue cut out. Herman Goering Airport, The endless war, with the Soviet Union. 20 Million settlers wishing they could go home The book was written just after the fall of the wall. One does get a sense, that it is a National socialist revolution in Germany. One interesting fact, is that the Nazi’s have private security firms protecting them. This struck me as odd in a fascist state. Why would you challenge the monopoly of force? I am not sure how the UK was defeated. Some of the reference works, that Harris used. I am familiar with, in one scene March reads Signal to his son
A glimpse of a world, like our own. But very different, but a world, where people show up for work, and go home. A world of bribes, and family squabbles. A world where people complaining about Doctorates being more important than experience as they shove electrodes into peoples genitals. A world where the leader of the Free World, is Joe Kennedy. Where Mad Men, represent the German ambassador. A world I caught a glimpse of as a teen, in a book, I learned to appreciate as a man
``What if Hitler had won the war?’’
I remember when this book was published back during the bleak early 1990s. I remember looking at it in WH Smiths, and reading the reviews. I remember reading the odd column by Harris. I remember getting the book out of the Library. The original cover with the Nazi Flag, and the EU’s banner next to each other on a flag pole.
I even saw the film. I rented it in University.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109779/
I have gone on to read more Alternate History. Since than I have come to find Nazi alternate history’s boring. At the time, I have to confess I was a bit disappointed by the book.
The book is not really for alternate History aficionado's, but for the general reader. Hitler manages to win the war, by better general ship, and some luck. What we deal with here is the aftermath. A generation after the war. The Beatles are playing in Hamburg. There is a Kennedy in the Whitehouse.
Its a generation afterwards for me. When I read this book, I was in university. Or perhaps before. I know I got it out of a library. Now, I am well, I flatter myself in the Prime of life. I picked up the book, at a railway station. Part of a buy one, get one free offer.
One of the things, that have happened to me, since I had read this book, was that I have been to Germany, not once but several times. In fact I have been to Berlin. I recognise the city here. Though it is dressed in strange and fearful clothing. I recognise the grey tenement blocks, like Glasgow. I remember the cold.
The bitter cold, the rivers
I have even toured the remains of the Reich ministries. The strength of this book, is its description of ordinary people. In this case Germans, in an extra ordinary world. So March, veteran with a failed marriage, becoming more lonely and isolated as he gets older. His son, sitting in earnest youthful judgement. March’s partner, trying to get by and a little better. Toasting every bier, with the little things that make him most proud to be Germans Good sausages, Good Bier and Good engines. It must drive March Mad. The Fraulien who sits knitting and see’s everything. The empty apartments. The coffee. The Hotels that did a good a breakfast. Romanians, working in all night pharmacies. ( Something that actually came to pass)
There is there difference. Adolf Hitler, at 75, preparing for Detente with Joe Kennedy. The Slav, worker at the Airport who had his tongue cut out. Herman Goering Airport, The endless war, with the Soviet Union. 20 Million settlers wishing they could go home The book was written just after the fall of the wall. One does get a sense, that it is a National socialist revolution in Germany. One interesting fact, is that the Nazi’s have private security firms protecting them. This struck me as odd in a fascist state. Why would you challenge the monopoly of force? I am not sure how the UK was defeated. Some of the reference works, that Harris used. I am familiar with, in one scene March reads Signal to his son
A glimpse of a world, like our own. But very different, but a world, where people show up for work, and go home. A world of bribes, and family squabbles. A world where people complaining about Doctorates being more important than experience as they shove electrodes into peoples genitals. A world where the leader of the Free World, is Joe Kennedy. Where Mad Men, represent the German ambassador. A world I caught a glimpse of as a teen, in a book, I learned to appreciate as a man
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