This is my first Erik Larson book so I won't compare it to The Devil in the White City, although I do want to go back and read that one now, but I can compare it to other non-fiction that I have read about this time period and I was impressed. This is about the American ambassador to Berlin and his family during the period prior to World War II. Larson starts with a short prologue reminding the readers that "one has to put aside what we all know-now-to be true" to try to understand the experiences of these people living it in 1933. The book not only shows what it must have been like to live in Berlin as these warning signs grew, but it also gives a great deal of history on the conflicts within the Third Reich.
Personally I found the history of Hitler, Goebbels, Goring, and others the most interesting part of reading this book. It shocked me to see just how many times things could have taken a very different path. It is also upsetting to see how the other countries closed their eyes to things because they didn't want to stir the pot. I feel like I understand quite a bit more about how that situation unfolded.
I was interested in the stories of William Dodd and his daughter, Martha, but I honestly wasn't impressed with either of them as individuals. In my opinion (and it probably isn't shared with many) Martha's actions went beyond an innocent young woman caught up in enthusiasm of a new Germany. She witnessed things early on that I believe should have made a bigger impact on her even if she had no way of knowing where things were headed. She didn't seem like a dim bulb, she seemed like a smart but selfish woman. My opinion of her never really changed. William Dodd seemed more like a person who just didn't know how to process everything that was going on around him. He did his best, and I felt for him, although there were things about his character that bothered me a lot.
I gave this book a 5/5 because it was an angle on the history of that time that I didn't know much about. I think that Larson did an excellent job of pulling it all together and telling it to the readers in a can't-put-it-down manner. I definitely want to read more of his books.
I wasn't sure if I really wanted to read a story about post-partum depression, mental illness, and the attempted murder of children (sounds like a fun Mother's Day read, eh?), but something in the book description grabbed me. It starts off at the trial of Simone, the younger of two grown sisters, but the main focus of the book is on Roxanne. Good thing since Roxanne was the only person that I could tolerate in this book. A great deal of the story goes back to the time before the crime, and some is spent in Roxanne and Simone's childhood.
I know that the characters in this story are meant to be unlikable. The problem was that there wasn't really anyone to care about. Roxanne and her niece, Merell, should have been those characters but they seemed pretty flat to me. I'm not sure if we were supposed to have sympathy for Roxanne's husband and his struggles dealing with the sisters' relationship...I didn't. I read this book straight through in two days. That's why I gave it 3 stars, it kept me interested enough to finish it. However, I can't imagine wanting to read this author again. That says more to me. I would give it a weak 3/5.
