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Look Who's Back (2012)

by Timur Vermes(Favorite Author)

3.55 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0857052926 (ISBN13: 9780857052926)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

MacLehose Press

review 1: Un alemán bromeando sobre Hitler es una cosa rara de ver, el nazismo y sus horrores siguen demasiado presentes en el imaginario colectivo y eso ha llevado a que un libro como este generase mucha polémica.La premisa del libro es simple pero efectiva, Hitler mediante mecanismos que se dejan a la imaginación del lector (un truco acertadísimo) aparece vivo en el Berlín de 2011, pero a pesar del shock inicial decide aprovecharse de las circunstancias para buscar la manera de volver al poder, para esto decide usar los medios más efectivos la televisión e internet, gracias a la ayuda de una productora que lo contrata por su talento como "imitador de Hitler". Otro de los aciertos del libro y quizás el que lo eleva de categoría, es que está narrado desde el punto de vista... more del mismo Hitler, con su estilo de discurso típico, vitriólico, racista, misógino, enrevesado, patriótico y fanático, un estilo que espero que se conserve cuando se traduzca al español. Los trozos que hay de comedia pura y dura, basados en juegos de equívocos y en el contraste temporal son en su mayoría bastantes divertidos, algunos rozando lo hilarante (confieso haber estado un buen rato riéndome con una broma referente a un panfleto de Mediamarkt), pero no son esos momentos el centro del libro. Tampoco lo es en sí la sátira política y social, que también existe y que suele ser de gran calidad, aunque aquel que no conozca la cultura alemana actual pasará muchas cosas de largo.Los momentos definitorios del libro y los que lo elevan de una simple comedia con una premisa curiosa, son aquellos donde se confronta la realidad tal como es y tal como la ve el retornado Führer. Son momentos magníficos que combinan críticas inofensivas, con las que probablemente muchos estén de acuerdo con una visión totalmente fanática del mundo. En esas líneas el autor te hace pasar de manera muy inteligente por el mismo proceso en el que se encuentra la Alemania ficticia que nos presenta, te enfrentas a una parodia de Hitler como abuelete cascarrabias, hasta que sigue hablando y demuestra que es un monstruo, y aún así te ríes con lo que dice, de la misma manera que los ficticios espectadores de su programa encuentran hilarantes sus observaciones. Y mediante este sencillo truco te das cuenta de realmente lo fácil que sería para una figura así en volverse popular, y como algo inofensivo dejado de lado puede tornarse peligroso. Con las palabras sacadas de la abuela de uno de los personajes: "Wir lachten auch denn früher" (De aquella también nos reíamos).
review 2: I am not sure if I missed a lot of the references because I didn't read the book in its original German, or if those little bits and pieces that made a satire piece so enjoyable was lost in translation, or if it's a haphazard combination of both. I have nothing against the translation, I tell you; the translation is brilliant and drove the narrative seamlessly like a sleek VW through the autobahn, but a lot of things just...lost, on me. It's not the history, as I'm familiar with what happened, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the finer details of Hitler's life, but the aspects of German culture and the finer details of German domestic politics was, hands down, lost on me. Therefore, I think that this book was indeed brilliant and thought-provoking, but after reading it, I feel quite unfulfilled, because I didn't get to enjoy the full breadth of experience this novel has to offer. Still, it's worth noting that we get to see things from Hitler's perspective, and for all the atrocities he'd commited against the human race, Vermes' Hitler was so startlingly...human. He had a decrepit past. His dreams of becoming an artist was shattered when he didn't get accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (I don't remember the exact name of the school). He loves dogs. He is fond of children and considered them as our hope for the future. He doesn't get modern culture. He makes mistakes. He loves and misses and cherished his wife. He pondered about the human condition. This is the thing that hit me in the face time and time again when I pick this book to continue reading. I love the subtlety of this book, the wit, and most of all I love how Vermes build the relationship between Hitler and the people whom he encountered in the modern age. I love how he shrewdly cements the relationship between him - one of history's greatest monsters - and Fraulein Kromeier, and her future husband, Sawatzki. In fact, I feel like the relationship between the three was the driving force of the novel, and it all feels so...refreshingly human. I love the ending too, it was wrapped magnificently without giving away too much, but also without making the reader feel like there are still loose ends.I do wonder how it'd continue, though. Would Hitler have managed to retake his beloved Fatherland from the clutches of Angela Merkel and democracy, with his satire appearances-that-is-really-not-satire? One had to guess. In any case, some of the social critiques voiced by this book - through Hitler, ironically - hits the mark. For all its shining glory, and the way it was venerated by the West, democracy isn't perfect. It's not the cure-all for the problems plaguing the state. But is Hitler's way a better way? This is the moral dilemma the author has presented us - the big question of the 21st century, the era of democracy and freedom, or so it is thought to be. less

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