Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed- no Eva Braun, no Nazi Party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman.
People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own TV show and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition- to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights.
I find it difficult reviewing books that I simply didn't get on with very well, I had a hard time with this book trying to understand the humour tag this book is supposed to have. I'd like to think I'm someone with a good sense of humour but I just didn't find any of it funny, I don't know whether it was the way it was written or simply due to the fact I couldn't see Hitler as being a "funny guy", perhaps history books have tainted my opinions and I simply can't shift to thinking he was just a normal funny guy. It just doesn't seem to fit with me I'm afraid...
Leaving the funny side behind, I also didn't really understand how Hitler dealt with being back from the dead. The narrator of the book is Hitler so we're seeing everything from his perspective and he seemed to deal with the time concept very well, for me I would be panicking and scared of what had happened to me and would want answers. Instead he spends most of the book trying to convince people that he is the real deal and not an impersonator.
Everything seemed to fall in place perfectly for Hitler, not much struggle, confusion or yearning to find answers as to how he even survived until 2011. It's not realistic at all, but maybe I'm taking the apparent humour out of all of this but I don't quite understand how the author came to conjure up the plot.
I'm finding it hard to explain as it is, so all I can say is that I didn't get this book at all and I didn't feel like I was looking through what I would imagine the eyes or mentality of Hitler would be other than the appearance and some of his mannerisms (authoritative voice). I think if this book was more of a thriller, Hitler coming back from the dead and terrorising the people of Germany would have appealed to be a whole lot more- messed up yes but definitely what I would call Hitler like.
