He managed to read 60 pages.

However, it is unbearable. What a huge disappointment!

It seems that the content within those 60 pages failed to meet his expectations.

Perhaps the story was lacking in excitement, or the writing style was not to his taste.

Despite his initial efforts to get through the pages, the overall experience left him feeling let down.

He might have been looking forward to a captivating read that would transport him to another world, but instead, he was met with a sense of dissatisfaction.

Now, he is left wondering if it is even worth continuing with the rest of the book.

Maybe he will give it another chance, hoping that the remaining pages will offer something more engaging.

Or perhaps he will decide to abandon it altogether and look for something else to satisfy his literary cravings.

Only time will tell.

This is my first encounter with a book by Norman Mailer, and it surely won't be my last.

I must admit that I was more captivated by Mailer's writing style than by the story line itself. The narrative is presented from the viewpoint of one of Satan's devils, which made me quite intrigued by the details of what it's like to serve Satan and the characteristics of the crudgels (angels). Additionally, it delves into Hitler's past and what made him so evil.

A significant amount of time is dedicated to the toilet training of little Adolf, along with discussions on bee keeping and an entire chapter on the Coronation of Nicholas II. The author is kind enough to offer readers a choice: either continue reading about Nicholas II or simply turn to page 261 to focus on the making of Hitler.

I did have doubts about the factual accuracy of what I was reading. However, after conducting some research online, I came to the conclusion that Mailer had indeed done his homework. I do appreciate getting a history lesson from time to time, and this book provided just that.

I'm not entirely certain if some significance was forfeited during the translation (since I read it in Swedish), but I found it rather uninteresting. Typically, I regard Mailer as a brilliant and highly proficient writer. However, in this translation, that quality was absent.

The few small gems of good prose emerged, but they weren't really that distinguishable from the word usage or imagery of most other renowned writers.

I felt that this story could have been about any boy, and Hitler just appears to be a random figure for it. It seems as if the connection between the boy and Hitler wasn't developed deeply enough to make it a truly engaging and unique narrative. Maybe in the original Swedish version, there were more nuances and subtleties that didn't come through in the translation. Overall, I was a bit disappointed with this particular work.

I just read this book for our book club.

While others seemed to dislike it, I found it to be truly fantastic and highly unusual. The very fact of its unusualness, in my opinion, contributes to its overall fantastic-ness.

The narrator is a minor devil who works for Satan, or perhaps not. He himself isn't really sure. It could be that he is just another mid-level devil with no real power. This uncertainty begins to give us an idea of the elaborate world that Mailer constructs.

Surprisingly, the book is really more about Hitler's family than about Hitler himself. Some in the book club even started referring to it as the "incest book" because, quite frankly, there is an inordinate amount of incest in the first 100 pages. However, it's actually quite fun.

We don't really find out the exact reason why Hitler became who he was. But the concept that there are devils and angels engaged in this elaborate dance to nurture certain tendencies is truly fascinating.

All the characters, well, the male ones anyway, are intricately drawn, and the writing is filled with unexpected humor. If you don't get too caught up in the "this can't be real" mindset, it's a really enjoyable read that offers a unique perspective on history and human nature.

Adolf Hitler is presented as the central character in this work, and we follow his evolution over the years. This is a very unusual approach. I know that I read it quite quickly, yet I liked it a great deal.

Hitler, a figure of great historical significance and controversy, is explored in detail. His actions, decisions, and the impact he had on the world are examined.

The story unfolds, showing the different stages of his life and how he rose to power. We see the events that shaped his ideology and the path that led him to make the fateful choices that would change the course of history.

Through this exploration, we gain a deeper understanding of Hitler and the complex web of circumstances that surrounded him. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking read that offers a unique perspective on this infamous historical figure.

The article seems to be overly long, meandering aimlessly, and lacking in any real point. It's as if there are just moments of sublime writing that are lost in a sea of mediocrity.

What's more, the epilogue appears to be completely pointless. It doesn't add anything to the overall narrative or provide any sort of closure or conclusion.

It's a real shame because there are glimmers of potential in the writing, but they are overshadowed by the excessive length and lack of focus.

Perhaps with some careful editing and a more concise structure, the article could be transformed into something truly great.

As it stands, however, it's a bit of a disappointment.

Goodreads review, ‘The Castle In The Forest’ by Norman Mailer.

This is my second time reading Norman Mailer's exploration of Adolf Hitler's parentage, presented with a childhood perspective. Just as in ‘The Executioner’s Song’ (1979), Mailer takes a historical figure and constructs and imagines the world in which the protagonist dwells. The story is narrated by a ‘devil’, not the ultimate THE DEVIL, but a minor functionary whose career is under the boss of evil, Beelzebub (who might or might not be a functionary of an even greater power). The devil follows Hitler's father as he leaves his mark on the path that leads to the ultimate human evil, Adolf Hitler.

The book is a strange mix of funny, strange, and historically exhaustive elements. You are aware of where this story is headed, yet the novel doesn't end at the high point of Adolf's evil career. It is engaging, but I can understand that for readers other than die-hard Mailer fans (like myself), this novel might seem slow and challenging to read. So, I encourage the reader to take a risk if you haven't yet delved into Norman Mailer's works. I recommend ‘The Executioner’s Song’ as a starting point, but ‘The Castle In The Forest’ is a difficult yet culturally rewarding read. However, if you're looking for pure entertainment, I would suggest looking elsewhere. It is a great book that significantly adds to the Mailer Canon and is in my top five of Mailer's books. ‘The Castle In The Forest’ was Mailer's last novel, published in the year of his death in 2007. I'm not sure where I purchased this, but it cost $27.50 back in 2007. Enjoy.

Some of the biographical narrative was truly brilliant. It painted a vivid picture of the subject's life, filled with interesting details and engaging stories.

However, there were parts about bee-keeping and the Tsar that seemed rather long, overdone, and unnecessary. The excessive focus on these aspects detracted from the overall flow and impact of the narrative.

Perhaps a more concise treatment of these topics would have been more appropriate, allowing the reader to stay more engaged with the central themes of the biography.

Nonetheless, the brilliant sections of the narrative still managed to capture the reader's attention and provide valuable insights into the subject's life and character.

Overall, while there were some areas that could have been improved, the biographical narrative had its strengths and was an interesting read.

Norman Mailer's new novel, "The Castle in the Forest," set to be released on his 84th birthday on January 23rd, is a unique imagining of the young Adolph Hitler. Narrated by a top lieutenant of The Devil, it delves into three generations of dysfunction in the Hitler family. Mailer uses the narrating demon to explore why and when the young Hitler took a dark turn.

The novel is an audaciously seductive saga that showcases Mailer's full verve. His lifelong themes of power and its consequences are evident throughout his works, from "An American Dream" to "Harlot's Ghost." In "The Castle in the Forest," the young Hitler is exposed to various stimulations, experiences, and the speeches of vain individuals, which shape his worldview.

Mailer's writing is sure and vivid, allowing him to assume different voices. He insinuates his ideas through the cadences of Marilyn Monroe, an ancient Egyptian King, and Jesus, finding a human center divided between good and evil. The human soul has the capacity for both saintliness and the unspeakable, and it is the center that the pragmatic mind assumes.

Our narrator, DT or Dieter, tells his tale in elaborate detail, including digressions, anecdotes, and characterizations. He gives the young Hitler's ears to the speeches of minor men and women, and we witness the petty vanities and failures of Hitler's parents. DT's interventions make the young man's mind a reactionary mess, leading to his eventual personification of unrelieved grief.

The goal of DT's work is not the greater good but the greater chaos, to embarrass the Lord God. The novel explores the idea that moral choice becomes impossible in a world where there are no genuine virtues to learn. The peculiar mix of historical detail and shrewdly outlined characters makes "The Castle in the Forest" a brilliant novel that offers a chilling exploration into the imagined limits of historical record.

Like his book about Lee Harvey Oswald, Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery, this one is also peculiar.

It is a rather rambling, if not bumbling, fictional account of the childhood of Adolf Hitler and his bee-keeping dad. The story seems to meander without a clear direction, presenting a somewhat chaotic picture of their early lives.

One might wonder what the author was trying to achieve with this strange narrative. Was it an attempt to offer a new perspective on Hitler's upbringing? Or perhaps it was a creative exercise that simply got out of hand.

In Michelin Guides' oft used words it's not \\"vaut le détour \\", meaning it's not worth the detour. This book fails to engage the reader in a meaningful way and leaves one with a sense of dissatisfaction.

It's a pity that such a potentially interesting subject matter has been presented in such a lackluster manner.

A truly fascinating concept indeed - Hitler's childhood, presented from the perspective of the Devil. It is an extremely long account, filled with numerous strange digressions. For instance, what on earth is Tsar Nicholas' coronation doing in the middle of this story??? The whole thing feels rather overdone and excessive. One had hoped that it would turn out to be much better than it actually was.

It seems that the author had a great idea in mind, but perhaps got a bit carried away with the details and the tangents. The inclusion of the Tsar's coronation seems completely out of place and disrupts the flow of the narrative.

Overall, while the concept has potential, the execution leaves something to be desired. It could have been a more engaging and thought-provoking piece if the author had focused more on Hitler's childhood and less on these extraneous elements.

Maybe with a bit of refinement and a tighter focus, this could have been a truly excellent work. As it stands, however, it falls short of expectations.

“Incest provides the best possibility of creating a Superman, as the genes of both parents are in the greatest harmony,” says Heinrich Himmler, the most ardent Nazi of all. And Adolf Hitler is claimed to be the perfect product of incest, a first-degree incestuary as the novel alleges. Adolf's father was also the father of his mother.

This book was supposed to be the first of a trilogy, but Norman Mailer died shortly after its publication. So we are left with a story that closely adheres to the documented history of Adolf from childhood up to around the age of 15. The novel mainly covers the stories of the future Führer's father, Alois, and mother, Klara, and their lives. The twist Mailer introduces is the narrator, a devil named Dieter, sent by Satan (the Maestro in this book) to guide Adolf through his formative years as young Adi has the potential for great destruction in the world.

Dieter is the hardest to stomach. He is a pompous narrator who attempts to be funny but comes across as dull. He delves into numerous details of the Hitlers' ordinary family life that lack much dramatic content, goes on at length about bee-keeping which Alois takes up vigorously upon retirement from his Customs job, and then leaves the Hitlers from pages 214 - 261 to take a detour into Czarist Russia to stir things up during the coronation of Nicholas II. These historical events, including the Oscar Wilde sodomy case in Britain and the assassination of Elizabeth (Sisi) of Hungary, that surrounded Hitler are undoubtedly important as formative inputs in creating a megalomaniac, but I think they are a bit excessive.

Adolf comes across as a smelly kid, average in his studies, a bed-wetter, and sexually repressed. He suffers from the guilt of believing he killed his younger brother Edmond by kissing him and giving him measles. He was devoted to his mother, Klara, a religious woman burdened by the childhood deaths of four of her six children by Alois. She believes it was God's punishment for her carnal acts with Alois - no wonder young Adolph, who heard the sounds from his parents' bedroom, was so sexually conflicted.

Alois is the most interesting character. Of robust girth and vile temper, he slept with multiple women, sometimes three in a day. He had them all: kitchen maids, farm girls, barmaids, and even his three older step-sisters, one of whom was Klara's mother. His parentage was uncertain, he married three times and had a total of eight children, and loved to drink and hobnob with the gentry. And he beat his kids mercilessly, so much that Alois Jr. ran away and was never seen again.

I wonder why Mailer chose to write this book that has been chronicled elsewhere. The fictitious element of the devil's agent guiding young Adolf through his formative years, exposing him to incidents that would shape him into the man he became, is interesting, but is it enough? Strangely, I was left wanting more novelistic value. Perhaps Dieter had his plans for Mailer too, taking him out before the author could finish the trilogy, reveal the whole story, and expose the Satanic connection to the Führer and the Third Reich.