Hitler may have been a tiny bit inbred, according to Mailer's research.

This astonishing revelation adds a new layer to the complex and controversial figure of Hitler.

Also, the Devil pulled the strings like...like Bela Lugosi in Glen or Glenda.

This vivid comparison creates a sense of mystery and malevolence.

But, couldn't get beyond page 100.

Perhaps the content became too intense or the writing style too challenging.

And, keep in mind, it's part one of a trilogy.

This means there is much more to come, building anticipation for the subsequent installments.

Forest of Trees is due in 2009, with Blondi and Eva to follow in 2010.

The titles themselves hint at the diverse and engaging stories that lie ahead, promising to further explore the fascinating and often disturbing world of this trilogy.

Passo dopo passo,

parola segue parola,

un diavolo assiste l'infanzia e sovraintende alla genealogia di Hitler e famiglia.

It's a rather unique and interesting concept.

The idea of a devil being involved in such a way adds an element of mystery and darkness.

Maybe this devil has his own motives or perhaps he is just an observer of the strange events that unfold in Hitler's early life.

Simpatico, intelligente, brillante a tratti e truce.

This description makes the devil seem almost charming in a way, yet also having these other qualities that make him complex and unpredictable.

It's no wonder it's described as a gran bel romanzo, a great and beautiful novel.

The combination of the devil's presence and the story of Hitler's family is sure to captivate readers and keep them engaged from beginning to end.

One can only imagine the twists and turns that this novel might take as it delves deeper into this fascinating subject matter.

It's a story that has the potential to be both thought-provoking and entertaining.

This book is good.

However, the problem is that it is very large and contains a lot of useless information for the reader.

The story of Hitler is somewhat romanticized. Basically, it tells us that Adolf was just a bad guy because of the way he was educated and the incest that occurred between Alois and Klara and their ancestors. Since incest can cause various mental and physical problems.

I liked the story. I almost knew nothing about his life before, and now I have come to know it. And when someone asks me something about his history, I will already know how to answer.

What impressed me the most was the death of Edmund. Since I was not expecting it at all and it was very sudden. And then I was even more shocked to learn that it was because of Adolf that Edmund died. Seeing the shock of the parents and the sadness it caused me actually made me feel a kind of sadness in my heart. And from that moment on, Adolf made me angry because of his fake crying for killing his brother. Although he felt sad, he faked crying to attract attention, which I think already showed that he was not a good person.

A significant part of Norman Mailer's "The Castle in the Forest" is centered around Adolf Hitler's teenage years as an apprentice beekeeper. Yes, bees. Truly. I'm not joking. It's impossible to fabricate something so crazy.

The novel, the late Mailer's final one, is narrated from the perspective of one of Satan's minions, assigned to Adolf and his family both before his birth and as he grows up. This aspect of the book is deeply concerning. It seems a regression in our understanding of Nazism - and indeed, any human wickedness - to ascribe Hitler's transformation into Hitler to the Devil's own interference. Could we stray any further from Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil"?

One could argue that the use of the Devil is merely a metaphor for man's choice to be evil. However, the Devil's world and his deeds are so vividly imagined, and so much space in the book is dedicated to how Satan's workers function and interact with God and his workers that this argument doesn't hold much weight.

Even beyond that, some individual passages in "Castle" are extremely difficult to endure, especially those related to sex. What do we gain from learning that Hitler's parents engaged in oral sex with each other just before his conception? Anything at all?

That being said, the book's better sections - even those focused on the art of beekeeping, which按理说should only appeal to beekeepers themselves - are redeemed by Mailer's excellent writing. It's in these sections that the reader ponders whether the book would have been better if the family hadn't been named Hitler and instead was a completely fictional Austrian family at the turn of the twentieth century.

I suspect Mailer couldn't have - or at least believed he couldn't have - had "Castle" published if it hadn't been about Hitler. There are parts of the book that are quite good, especially if you can ignore (and it's often easy to do) the fact that the subject is Hitler. During those passages, "Castle" is more of a three-star book than a two-star one.

The book is indeed memorable as it delves deep into the class difference between the manipulations of angels and demons. This aspect adds an interesting layer to the story.

However, I truly wish that the author had extended the storyline to incorporate Hitler's adulthood and explore how his psyche evolved. As the book guided me through his childhood and adolescence, I was eagerly anticipating this part.

Regrettably, that is precisely where the book ended. It left me with a sense of incompleteness.

Overall, the book was just alright. It had its moments of interest, but the abrupt ending and the lack of exploration into Hitler's adulthood prevented it from being truly outstanding.

I still found it somewhat engaging, but it could have been so much more if the author had chosen to continue the story and provide a more comprehensive look at Hitler's life and the factors that shaped his psyche.

Perhaps in a future edition or a related work, the author will address these aspects and give readers a more satisfying and in-depth experience.

One of the few books that I actually couldn't finish reading until the end.

I also read "The Executioner's Song" and had a love-hate relationship with that book, as I also wrote in the review. Mailer writes very beautifully, but he stumbles over the tiniest details that, frankly, don't matter and don't interest anyone. The same problem here too.

The concept of the book - the birth and childhood of Hitler (I understood that the story ends when he becomes a major, and Mailer would have liked to write another 2 books, but death didn't agree with him) under the domination of a demon - is very good. But the good part stops here. Mailer chooses to spend EXTREMELY a lot of time examining all kinds of minor aspects, with too little impact and relevance to the reader.

I started this book 2 years ago, I read about 150 pages, then I abandoned it. Since then I always use it as a remedy for insomnia, because as soon as I take it in my hand and read 2-3 pages, sleep takes me. 2 years later, I'm on page 185 and thus I have to give up because it's clear to me that it will be nothing but a waste of time.

I really enjoyed this book.

It is the only work of Mailer that I have read. Initially, I didn't think I would have any interest in it as I wasn't particularly interested in Mailer himself, Hitler, or World War II. However, as I delved into the story, I discovered that it was about a strange boy who was growing up in an unusual way.

While reading, I often found myself daydreaming about my own youth, even though it was completely different from Hitler's. The book managed to evoke a sense of nostalgia and self-reflection in me.

Overall, I would highly recommend giving this book a try. It may surprise you and offer a unique perspective on growth and self-discovery.

Even if you don't have a particular interest in the subject matter, the engaging narrative and the exploration of the human psyche make it a worthwhile read.

So, don't hesitate to pick up this book and embark on a journey through the mind of a strange boy.

Do not read this book.

It is pornographic, filled with over-psychoanalyzing that seems to go on and on. The length of it is excessive, and yet, it is mostly just plain boring.

To make matters worse, it doesn't even have an ending! Apparently, it was supposed to be the first in a trilogy that Mailer (thank God) never got around to writing.

The detailed account of the sexual intercourse from which Hitler was conceived is not only ludicrous but also gross. And this isn't even the worst part of the book.

Even those who might be interested in the history of Hitler's family or the occult roots of Nazism will quickly find this book to be a total bore.

I deeply regret reading it. It was a total waste of both my time and my money.

I would strongly recommend that you stay far away from this book and look for something more worthwhile to read.

I really thought that I would thoroughly enjoy this book. After all, I have a genuine and sincere interest in Hitler's childhood, and the topic of his supposed inbreeding was quite captivating. Alas, much to my disappointment, I had to force myself to get through it.

The concept of the book seemed promising at first and really managed to draw me in. However, having said that, I'm not entirely sure that I even understand the connection between the demon and Hitler. Is the author suggesting that the demon possessed Hitler? Or perhaps his father? Maybe another family member? Or did the demon simply have an impact on the actions of Hitler or his family? I'm truly confused.

Given all the room the author had to make the story engaging and interesting, especially considering that even the so-called facts are unproven, there should have been more substance to work with. All in all, from what I've heard, the author doesn't seem to be a particularly great or forward-thinking individual. I will definitely not be reading anything more from him. This book simply failed to deliver on its potential.

While the concept of this book was indeed interesting. The narrator being a demon who had an influence on the development of Adolph Hitler in his early years. However, I found myself constantly put off by the plethora of disgusting details that filled its pages. It was truly a struggle to persevere and stay with it until the very end. Moreover, a significant portion of the content did not directly pertain to Hitler, which made it seem rather unnecessary and tangential.

As a result, I would not recommend this book to anyone. It fails to deliver a coherent and engaging narrative that would justify the inclusion of such repulsive and extraneous details. There are far better books out there that can provide a more accurate and thought-provoking exploration of historical events and figures. This one simply does not measure up.

**"A Serviço de Sua Satânica Majestade" - An In-depth Look**

A serviço de sua satânica majestade


Fifteen years ago at the time of its release, much was said about \\n  O Castelo na Floresta\\n, the last novel by the American fiction giant Norman Mailer. It was claimed to be a biography of Adolf Hitler, yet not entirely. The young Adolf is absent or of little importance until after the middle of the book. The narrative focuses more on the formation and passions of his father, Alois, than on Adolf Hitler himself. So much so that the volume ends around 1903, when Alois dies of a collapse due to his alcoholism. By this time, Hitler was about to turn 13 and had already been failed twice in school, which he would soon abandon.


Mailer interrupted his narrative of Hitler's life so early because he planned a trilogy about the character. Although at the time, his family informed that he left written material for a second volume and its publication would depend on how far the author had advanced in the story, it seems certain today that it was not much and there will be no such second chapter. However, although fated to be part of an incomplete trilogy, \\n  O Castelo na Floresta\\n can still be read independently and, at the same time, gains new resonances when compared with Mailer's previous novel, also a fictionalization of the life of a "historical" character: Jesus Christ portrayed in \\n  O Evangelho Segundo o Filho\\n (1998).


The two books perhaps intentionally serve as mirrors. In the first, Jesus tells his story presenting himself as a worker reluctantly picked in a divine plan beyond his control. In O Castelo na Floresta, Hitler is described as the final product of a family full of brutal relations and incest cases - also closely monitored by agents of a plan external to humanity. The narrator first presents himself as Dieter, a trusted official of the SS chief, Heinrich Himmler, and later reveals connections with a more powerful type of organization.


Dieter is actually an intermediate-level demon enlisted in the army of the "Maligno" in its eternal struggle against the "Criador" for control of the Earth. And the young Hitler is revealed early on as a coveted prey by the hosts of Evil, which is why the narrator of the story is so familiar with his life. If in Evangelho... Mailer discussed the dichotomy between the human and divine natures of Christ, now it is the duality between the human and the infernal that is in question.


A boxer in his youth, Mailer still writes as one who calls his theme to battle. He takes advantage of the gaps in the documentation of Hitler's and his family's biography to present his version of the Austrian boy's domestic history. In his monumental two-volume biography \\n  Hitler\\n, historian Joachim Fest informs that Hitler's father, Alois' birth certificate listed him as an "illegitimate" child of unknown father. In the first volume, Fest lists three possible fathers. Mailer transforms two of them into half-brothers of Adolf's mother, in the first of a series of incestuous relationships that will mark the family and culminate in the boy's own mother, Klara, possibly his father's niece.


In Mailer's story, Klara is not only the daughter of a half-sister of Alois but also his own daughter, the result of a youthful liaison, which would make Hitler a product of blood scandals comparable to that of the Greek Labdacid family, that of Oedipus, Laius, and Antigone. Blood scandals that, in the classical tradition, result in tragedy. With the interference of the demon, the incests of the Hitler family gestate a tragedy not for a lineage but for humanity.


It is a platitude to say that a writer's narrative choices condition the result of the work. But it is still true, even regarding a vigorous stylist like Mailer. The choice of this narrator who presents himself textually as "an official of the ranks of the best intelligence service that ever existed" is a risky bet because it balances on the edge of an unstable duality. On the one hand, enlisting Hitler as a "client" of the hosts of the Maligno is the easy way to attribute a supernatural character to Nazi evil, as if endorsing the idea that such absolute infamy could only be committed beyond (and outside) the simple human condition. A thesis that seems out of place when we think of the artistic success achieved by works that are based precisely on the negation of this premise, such as the film \\n  A Queda\\n by Oliver Hirschbiegel, with Bruno Ganz, or the novel \\n  As Benevolentes\\n by Jonathan Littell, in which the reasons for horror are human, all too human.


On the other hand, Mailer goes against the grain. He does not humanize the wrongdoers but rather evil itself. Transforming the infernal hordes into an intelligence service, duplicating Himmler's SS, is one of Mailer's great discoveries in this novel. Through the iconoclastic voice of this maleficent spirit that is as bureaucratic in its functions as any human employee in the Nazi state machine, the novelist can give free rein to the irony and verve that he used in his classic \\n  Os Degraus do Pentágono\\n. The demons admire the creativity of God's work. God, in turn, is not omniscient and omnipotent but depends on an angel intelligence service similar to the demon agency that his enemy uses.


And at the end of the book, Hitler retains something of his great enigma, since the narrator chosen by Mailer is a second-level employee who sometimes receives direct orders from his infernal commander but does not deprive him of his intimacy, trust, or knowledge. Mailer may have entered the mind of Jesus, but he does not dare to possess the conscience of Satan. An indication that, even for some of the best minds on the planet, the essential aspects of evil remain a mystery.

There are not 2.5 stars and I didn't want to put 3.

This simple statement holds a certain truth. Maybe in a particular context, the option of 2.5 stars just doesn't exist. It could be that the rating system only allows for whole numbers or specific increments.

And the decision not to put 3 might be due to various reasons. Perhaps the person felt that the subject didn't quite merit a 3-star rating. Maybe there were some aspects that fell short or didn't meet their expectations.

It could also be that they were being more critical or had a higher standard in mind. Whatever the reason, this shows that our evaluations and ratings are often subjective and can be influenced by many factors.

In conclusion, the absence of 2.5 stars and the choice not to put 3 can tell us a lot about how we perceive and judge things.