Fatherland

Welcome to the October review of The Exploring Reader! While you’re busy trying to find an original costume for Halloween, I was busy finding an original book. I know it’s still early for you, but I got what I was looking for! Ok maybe I cheated a little because, well, you already know I’m reviewing Fatherland but I still had do some work ok? And honestly, what a fit for this month! Robert Harris’ novel puts a terrifying spin on an atrocious historical event. So let’s leave the tomfoolery aside for a second and get serious.

This novel was published in 1992 and later inspired a movie in 1994 by the same name. In a Guardian article, Harris tells us his inspiration came from research for another novel and he started wondering about the major “what if” Germany had won the war. Ok before that, let me give you the background of the novel. It’s set in a fictional mid 1960s Germany where Adolf Hitler won the second World War. He has a vision for a futuristic country and in this version of history he has managed to make the whole nation forget about his genocide during the War. The main character is a police detective investing the murder of a high placed officier. With the help of an American journalist, he goes down a rabbit hole of cover-ups, secrets, lies, and horrendous truths. Robert Harris definitely acknowledges the scary vision behind his historical fiction and while crazy to think about, I mean, you can’t really dismiss it either. This had the possibility of happening and that was very real!

Like I said, it’s an original novel! What bravery to take this nagging feeling people had of “what if” and make them think about the ensuing consequences. I think this is why this book resonates with generations who haven’t personally lost anything during the war. You’re not reading about history anymore. You’re reading dystopia basically. And I think that’s why it’s so successful because people just kinda categorize it as historical fiction or at least associate it with historical events. Kinda like when Dr. Strange looks into all the million possibilities the Avengers Infinity War could play out, that’s what I imagine Robert Harris was thinking when he was coming up with the idea for the novel. Back to Fatherland, it’s very detailed, it’s very mysterious, it’s very realistic. Even thought it’s a detective fiction novel, the main actions stretch out beyond finding the murderer. The plot slowly starts to deviate from a murder investigation to a genocide investigation. Wait, but if we already know the genocide Xavier March (the main character) is going to try to uncover, why are we readying this? I mean, we know what happened. We’re not discovering it along with March. Yeah of course we’re not, but let me tell you. Do not get discouraged by 500 pages ok? We are explorers! And it’s more than just knowing what happened. It's think the real mystery resides in finding out how exactly Hitler was planning to hide this. Robert Harris used Hitler’s real diaries, notes, drawings, and ideas to build Fatherland. He incorporates real elements of history like famous brands being implicated with the Nazi regime and of course, real horrors done to people that did not fit with Hitler’s view of an Arien. This isn’t some make-believe. Hitler was actually envisioning this with vivid details! Think about that for a second.

What bravery to take this nagging feeling people had of “what if” and make them think about the ensuing consequences.

If you’re more of a character development kinda reader, this book’s got it too. Real historical figures meet fictional ones. Xavier is forced to quickly find out about what’s going on and external events like Charlie, the journalist, coming in with her American delegation, force him even more to come to terms with his ignorance and go at the truth faster and more recklessly. In a lot of moments, it really gets hard to draw a confident line to separate what’s real or not and I see that as a good thing. Yes it might require you to do some researching about certains events, like did Hugo Boss really help make the Nazi uniforms? Was the American journalist helping Xavier a real woman? That’s for you to explore on your own. I think it’s a clever way to get informed and spread awareness. You’ll end up on loops of conspiracy theories and find articles or videos that showcasing hard truths, but we have to know. No wonder so many artistic works are done about the Jewish genocide. And with the main plot of this book being to forget about it, the novel highlights just the opposite: how much we really cannot let this go and be forgotten.

I guess you could say that this episode was kinda spooky and low-key really fits in with the fall vibe we are getting on for October. This was so un-planned, wow! Anyways, glad it’s all just fiction. November’s up next guys! Honestly for me it’s a pretty depressing month. Everything just seems so grey and cold, and sometimes there’s snow but definitely not enough to truly feel like winter. So to revert back to BookTok, I’m going to go over People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry. See you next time, and keep exploring those pages!