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Title: The Castle in the Forest

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: Norman Mailer

Narrator: Harris Yulin

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-22-07

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

The narrator, a mysterious SS man who is later revealed to be an exceptional presence, follows the young Adolf from birth through his adolescence. En route, revealing portraits are offered of Hitler's father and mother, sisters, and brothers.

A tapestry of unforgettable characters, The Castle in the Forest delivers its myriad twists and surprises with astonishing insight into the nature of the struggle between good and evil that exists in us all. At its core is a hypothesis that is employed with stunning originality. Norman Mailer may well be saying more than he ever has before.

Critic Reviews:

"Mailer arrives at a somber, compelling portrait of a monstrous soul." (Publishers Weekly)

"This remarkable novel about the young Adolf Hitler, his family and their shifting circumstances, is Mailer's most perfect apprehension of the absolutely alien. No wonder it is narrated by a devil. Mailer doesn't inhabit these historical figures so much as possess them." (The New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Diary of a Madman

In this ambitious novel on the formative years of Adolf Hitler, author Norman Mailer delivers a tour-de-force by delving into the dysfunctional family and very bizarre habits that molded this dictator and murderer of millions.

Told through the burning gaze and biting commentary of Dieter, a devil who was given the task by the Maestro (Satan), the years of 1837-1903 are covered, with an emphasis on Adolf's father, Alois, a customs official whose home every night is truly the bed he places his shoes under, and mother, Klara, who is Alois's niece and daughter.

Adolf is shown at his most diabolical as he manipulates his doting mother, molds youngsters who are willing to follow his every command and glows with glory while winning at all costs in games of war.

This is a middle-class Austrian home that would make Freud blush and decide to flee into another profession. That it is ultimately a diary of a madman up to the age of 14 makes it a brilliant, disturbing story.

Very interesting historical fiction

Every mad man was once a child and had a mother that loved him. This interesting fictional account of the child Hitler tries to portray what could have been the psychosexual seeds of history's embodiment of evil. Also had fun little descents into spiritual themes of Devils, Angels, and possession

A very good novel about Hitler - I could not believe how fiction can be so real

This book about the origin of Hitler as a devil's arrangement and design makes sense. The way Norman Mailer describes the devils organization with its members resembles a big corporation so well brought up by Akira Kurosawa in his movie The Bad Man Man Slleps Well.

The novel is superb.

I enjoyed it and plan to read more material by this ...

This is a very creative exploration into the young mind of a boy who would, one day, became a notorious dictator. This my first reading of work by Norman Mailer. I enjoyed it and plan to read more material by this author.

Some real surprises here that better explain the historical Hitler

Some real surprises here that better explain the historical Hitler. Mailer was a dark enough thinker to be able to probe the subject well.