I wasn't expecting to get as caught up in this book as I did, but I managed to finish In the Garden of Beasts
within a single weekend.This is my second Erik Larson book, the first being Devil in the White City
, which chronicled the preparations for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the simultaneous rise of a master serial killer.Larson has a talent for bringing to life a specific time and place, usually through the story of a specific person. His books almost read like novels, but are rooted in history (with the endnotes to prove it).
In the Garden of Beasts
tells the remarkable story of William E. Dodd's first year as America's ambassador to Hitler's Germany from 1933-1934 (Dodd would finally leave the post in 1937). Larson indicates he choose to focus on this year because "it coincided with Hitler's ascent from chancellor to absolute tyrant." Dodd brought his wife, son, and flirtatious daughter Martha with him. |
| William E. Dodd |
Larson chooses to focus on Dodd and Martha to tell the story of what it was like for outsiders to see "firsthand the gathering dark of Hitler's rule." As the American ambassador Dodd entertained numerous high ranking Nazi officials in his home, and Martha became romantically involved with the first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels as well as a Russian spy.
Larson manages to bring Berlin to life, showing the reader how it would have looked to a young, naive, girl like Martha, who quickly became enamored with the handsome Nazi soldiers and the beautiful city she inhabited. Within a single year, Martha's wide-eyed idealism would be replaced with revulsion and fear.
Larson's account of Hitler's Night of the Long Knives was especially chilling and informative.
As Nazi violence continued to escalate Dodd would eventually refuse to entertain any Nazi's his home, but he would receive little to no support from Roosevelt's State Department.
