Fatherland: A Novel (Mortalis)
by Robert Harris
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert HarrisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-05
ISBN: 0812977211
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Reviews of Fatherland: A Novel (Mortalis)
Book Review: One of the best alternate history novels of all time.
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been some six years since I picked up a May 1993 edition of "Fatherland", a book I still have today. Six years is a long time, and so much happens in a period of time like that, it can be hard to remember everything. Yet I easily recall seeing that red paperback cover, the gold lettering of the front. The gold swastika that dominates the front cover, with a brass key set in its center. I turned it over and those white letters on the back jumped out at me- "Berlin, 1964. Hitler Reigns Supreme." Frightening, and yet so very fascinating. Few books have ever gotten my attention, so fully and so quickly.
Why, I wonder now, must public school students be subjected to pointless drivel like "The Pearl" and utter rubbish like "Brave New World" when great books such as "Fatherland" exist? There's a higher caliber of book out there, county and state school board folks. Those books aren't perfect either, but they sure beat the stuffing out of garbage like "The Pearl". God, how I hated that book.
Anyway.
"Fatherland" is set in an alternate 1960's, one in which Nazi Germany did not make certain crucial mistakes that cost it the war and its existence in our timeline. Germany seized the Caucusus rather than wasting away thousands of men on Stalingrad, cutting off Stalin's fuel supply. The Kriegsmarine issued a total recall on its U-Boat fleet, after discovering through unspecified means that its communications were being spied on by the Allies. Britain is starved into submission, and Churchill flees to Canada with a number of loyal followers. The Pacific goes just as it did in our timeline, and it doesn't much seem like the Nazis care at all. Given how little cooperation there ever was between the Axis powers, one being unperturbed by the total defeat of another is easily conceivable.
Still, it seems like Japan and Nazi Germany get along all right- the main character, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Xavier March, sees Japanese tourists visiting Berlin before Americans show up to do the same, and it does not sound like Japanese tourists in Hitler's Berlin are anything new.
Few characters in fiction have ever impressed me the same way March does. He is a brilliant investigator and a Kriegsmarine veteran, one who endured long tours at sea evading Royal Navy depth charges in one of Doenitz' U-Boats. He is- or was- a family man, with an ex-wife and twelve-or-so year old son. Pili, however, is far more loyal to the Nazi state than his father, who cares nothing for the Party and mocks it with a carelessness that puts him greatly at risk. So it's unsurprising that March, who has one way or another long since lost good relations with his former wife and son, has buried himself in a career that has dead-ended due to his all-too-well-known sarcasm towards the Party. March could have been so much more than he is when we meet him, and so much more than he is at the end. But he threw away chance after chance, and in the end paid a very heavy price for his attitude.
Berlin is the center of the titanic Nazi empire, containing all the huge buildings, all the monuments, that Hitler had wanted Albert Speer to create. Tour guides constantly compare this statue, or that Arch of Triumph, with that somebody else has got. March finds this amusing, remarking to himself how the Germans seem forever stuck with an inferiority complex, even in total victory looking over next door to make sure they're still the best. It is the center of everything for any German, directing law enforcement, military, and political operations all over the Reich. March is one of many Kriminalpolizei investigators in Berlin, carrying on the never-ending war on crime and enemies of the Nazi Party.
Trouble starts when he responds to a call about a body washed up at the edge of a lake, not far from a neighborhood in Berlin that is known for being inhabited by many prominent Nazis, including Joeseph Goebbels, still head of the Nazi propaganda machine. The body soon turns out to be more than just another dead fella pulled out of the lake, and the Gestapo steps in, telling March and everybody with him to butt out. Does March? Of course not. Then we wouldn't have a book. March asks questions, gets into a kind of trouble few would ever want to comprehend, and before long finds himself face-to-face in a torture chamber with the brutish Odilo "Globus" Globocnik. Not a whole lot happens there, beyond one of March's hands being turned into mush by a baseball bat. Did I mention it is Pili who calls the Gestapo and gets March caught? Like a good soon-to-be-HJ, Pili turns on his own father, whom he hates, and ensures his ultimate downfall. Such is the price for screwing up your marriage, career, and relations with the dominant political force in a Germany run by Hitler. March eventually escapes in a staged rescue, but soon enough figures this out and heads for one of the concentration camps he discovered during his snooping with American journalist Charlie Maguire. I honestly have no idea why or how she was able to get March to throw his career and indeed his life to the wind so freely, but hey. The two have a fun little affair, and Charlie escapes to Switzerland while a swarm of Nazi agents charge in on March as he finally finds proof that the death camps were there. The big deal about Charlie's escape is that she is carrying compiled evidence of the death camps that nobody has heard of in March's timeline, and will unveil this evidence to the world once she gets away.
The beginning and descriptions of the world March knows in this book are outstanding, and the plot for the most part solid and interesting. But I never did understand why March turned on his country so swiftly. Despite everything we all know the Nazis did, I couldn't quite condone March's actions, which were almost certainly treason. I agree with Doenitz, who believed that compromising one's loyalty to country in any way was wrong. But regardless, did his actions mean anything in the end? I'm not so sure. Yes, the saintly and rather annoying Charlie Maguire got away, and will no doubt go straight to Washington, who will no doubt take her straight to the President. Uh-huh. And who says the Nazi government couldn't weasel its way out of any scandal Maguire's evidence might provoke? A peace-making visit from Kennedy is imminent in this alternate 1964. It will take a hell of a lot to bring all that to a screeching halt. Globocnik points out one of the biggest things of it himself- the camps are gone. The death camps March gets evidence of have long since been shut down and erased, making denial of their existence even easier. But anyway.
Understand, though- I like March more than dislike him, and my comments and criticisms of March are made as if he were a real person. So effectively do characters in this book come alive, I found myself thinking of March much as I do actual people. And there is hardly any higher compliment that I can give to a novel than that.
In the end, the image I had in my mind when March prepares to face his certain doom at the hands of Nazi helicopters and infantry was not one of idealistic victory. I did not see the Nazi state, which is implied to be softening up and changing anyway, crumbling and falling instantly. No, what I pictured instead was the last words of Gestapo agent Herr Knopp in "Swing Kids", as Peter Muller is about to be shipped off to a camp. Knopp looks at the rebellious young German and says, shaking his head sadly, "Such a waste. All that passion- for nothing."
Summary of Fatherland: A Novel (Mortalis)
Fatherland is set in an alternative world where Hitler has won the Second World War. It is April 1964 and one week before Hitler's 75th birthday. Xavier March, a detective of the Kriminalpolizei, is called out to investigate the discovery of a dead body in a lake near Berlin's most prestigious suburb.As March discovers the identity of the body, he uncovers signs of a conspiracy that could go to the very top of the German Reich. And, with the Gestapo just one step behind, March, together with an American journalist, is caught up in a race to discover and reveal the truth -- a truth that has already killed, a truth that could topple governments, a truth that will change history.
From the Paperback edition.
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