The Castle in the Forest by
Norman Mailer
My rating:
2 of 5 stars
This was the first book I've read by Norman Mailer, and, perhaps, the last. While the premise was promising (looking at a young Hitler - how he was conceived, born, and raised, up to the age of 21 years), the story itself was lacking. I loved the parts about beekeeping, but I thought the book's placement and use of sex was distracting and unnecessary. While I'm all for sex in literature and even literature about sex, the details in this particular book didn't add to the story or the work itself. I would not recommend this.
[Addendum May 7th, 2012]
In moving this review from Goodreads.com to this blog, I looked at several other review for this book and it seems like even Norman Mailer fans really hated this book and thought it was too crass and too dark. That said, I will come Norman Mailer another change, but do not plan on reading either the second or third installation in this series about Hitler.
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