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A review by ozgipsy
Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes
4.0
This is one of my favourite books and movies. The premise of a "return to life" story about Adolf Hitler, with a movie adaptation filmed in German and in Germany, absolutely blows my mind.
The humour of the movie and the audiobook revolves around misunderstandings. The protagonist is a hapless type with no idea that he is promoting the real Hitler. Meanwhile, Hitler himself is speaking as the author imagines he would do to a very receptive audience. This is all going well until Hitler comes face to face with one of his Jewish victims who recognises him immediately. There are other moments where there reality of who this is breaks through the comical series of events surrounding him.
The tragic coincidence of the book was Angela Merckle's opening of the borders to the predominantly male, fighting age, refugees fleeing Syria. This resulted in the anti-immigration and nationalist party, Alternative for Deutschland, obtaining double-digit percentages of the vote in three state elections in 2016.
This gives the themes of the book added gravity and made me wonder what Europeans actually learned from the second world war. With the exception of dire economic conditions, all the issues that animated the Germans during the 1920s and 1930s have been allowed to exist again and the book draws these out very well.
Today the country is very divided over the existence of a large immigrant or non-indigenous population. There is a general feeling of political malaise among the people, combined with a feeling of political helplessness. They feel that their culture is derided and disrespected. Moreover, they have a government that is actually beholden to an external authority, the EU, that does not represent the citizens.
I am writing this in 2022 and time is moving very fast again. Russia is currently losing a land war with Ukraine. However, the war has highlighted the naivete of Germany and much of Europe allowing itself to become more dependent on Russian natural gas. The nation is also rearming rapidly under a new and more aggressively defensive chancellor.
This audiobook and the movie are very entertaining and very funny. While I truly enjoyed the premise, the author is far more prescient than I think he realised at the time. He has written a humourous tale that is both a good comedy, as well as a timely warning of the unsettled nature of the German people in reaction to the direction of their government.
The humour of the movie and the audiobook revolves around misunderstandings. The protagonist is a hapless type with no idea that he is promoting the real Hitler. Meanwhile, Hitler himself is speaking as the author imagines he would do to a very receptive audience. This is all going well until Hitler comes face to face with one of his Jewish victims who recognises him immediately. There are other moments where there reality of who this is breaks through the comical series of events surrounding him.
The tragic coincidence of the book was Angela Merckle's opening of the borders to the predominantly male, fighting age, refugees fleeing Syria. This resulted in the anti-immigration and nationalist party, Alternative for Deutschland, obtaining double-digit percentages of the vote in three state elections in 2016.
This gives the themes of the book added gravity and made me wonder what Europeans actually learned from the second world war. With the exception of dire economic conditions, all the issues that animated the Germans during the 1920s and 1930s have been allowed to exist again and the book draws these out very well.
Today the country is very divided over the existence of a large immigrant or non-indigenous population. There is a general feeling of political malaise among the people, combined with a feeling of political helplessness. They feel that their culture is derided and disrespected. Moreover, they have a government that is actually beholden to an external authority, the EU, that does not represent the citizens.
I am writing this in 2022 and time is moving very fast again. Russia is currently losing a land war with Ukraine. However, the war has highlighted the naivete of Germany and much of Europe allowing itself to become more dependent on Russian natural gas. The nation is also rearming rapidly under a new and more aggressively defensive chancellor.
This audiobook and the movie are very entertaining and very funny. While I truly enjoyed the premise, the author is far more prescient than I think he realised at the time. He has written a humourous tale that is both a good comedy, as well as a timely warning of the unsettled nature of the German people in reaction to the direction of their government.