I picked this up in the Fictionwise ebook shop when I was reading [The Book Thief]. It was listed under "young adult" so I thought I was safe with this book, but young adult is definitely the wrong listing for this book. This is very much an adult work.

Josef Jaeger lives with his mother in Bavaria, but when she dies he is shipped off to his notorious uncle, Ernst Roehm. He finds himself close to the nazi hierarchy, and he is put forward for a role in a forthcoming movie, "Quex" by Joseph Goebels. One thing leads to another and he discovers that he is a homosexual like his uncle and in love with a Jewish boy!

On the plus side, this book has some very good research behind it. The movie in question actually exists (you can see clips on youtube), and the writer has tried hard to set the story faithfully within the historical circumstances of the time. When there is talk of politics, the issues discussed are the issues of that time in 1933. The writing is also good.

But I did not like this book for several reasons. For one thing, I think the writer fails to appreciate how people actually felt about politics at that time. He makes Hitler so Charismatic that Josef practically swoons in his presence. That charisma, I suppose, is meant to show us how Hitler attracted such a large following. This despite the fact that all the major characters seem to be very friendly with Jews, and there are no signs of grass roots intolerance. The anti semitism is portrayed as Hitler's fixation alone.

We don't see any of the tensions and deep feeling that Hitler actually played off. Instead all characters just seem to express a lack of interest in politics, and in that way their hands are washed and their characters left unsullied. These are not the gritty realistic people of "The Book Thief". These are cardboard cut out people with no complicity in the rising tide of nazi-ism.

My next problem is the sexual subject matter. Thinking this was a young adult book, I was rather shocked at the very explicit and repeated sexual references and scenes. But had the book been categorised correctly as adult fiction, maybe I could have been less surprised (although I almost certainly would not have bought it).

Nevertheless Josef Jaeger just did not act like a 13 year old boy. Rather he acted in the way that some 30 something men wish they had acted as a boy. I will not mention my explicit disagreement here because it all feels rather sordid and I would have to repeat graphic images to do so, but it was deeply un-natural. Moreso was the way that everyone - including devout Jewish parents of another boy - could be so accepting of the homosexuality. "We always knew David was different" is the explanation for why they are happy for two boys (one a Jew, the other the nephew of a Nazi) to have homosexual relations in pre-war Germany - where, of course, such relations were considered immoral and illegal. The only person to have any objection is the nasty SS man at the end - and he is a cardboard cut-out hate figure. Again, the whole thing was deeply unnatural, and not a little disturbing.

A last but smaller gripe was the language of the book. The writing was very American - but I decided to let that go as merely the idiolect of the author, except for where he tried to spice it up by occasionally inserting German words like "verboten" where he was saying something was "forbidden". If he wanted a German sounding atmosphere then he needed to work much harder on all the references to dating and short pants and moms and such like. If he wanted a natural read, then use English words except for street names or other such names.

I really cannot recommend this book at all. It is not the best treatment of the period in question. It is not a book that questions attitudes or engenders tolerance because of the way it simply avoids the big issues, and the lack of depth in the characterisations. It may be enjoyed by people who like to read about faux 13 year old sexual adventures, but for me it is not a book I am proud to have read. ( )

It's never easy to write a book set in the moment in time when Germany was changing, and some of its inhabitants didn't recognize it. Josef Jaeger is the perfect emblem of that arian youth Hitler is promoting: young, blond, blue eyes... but at 13 years old Josef has only his look since he is living with his single mother, an opera singer, in Bayreuth, and money are not so much. Even if Josef doesn't exactly realize it, he is ostracized by his schoolmates and his only real friend is his mother... since the beginning of the book, Josef is playing a role, the little adult in the body of a child, the male partner for his mother (mind you, no incest here, don't get me wrong). It's not maybe a perfect life, but Josef feels safe and protected with his mother.

Then the sudden death of his only parent, the apparition of an uncle he has never known and the moving to Munich, change it all. His uncle Ernst is a very important figure in the Nazi emerging party and Josef sees his life turns upside down. From the poor but safe apartment he shared with his mother, he is thrown in the rich lifestyle of his uncle, private schools, expensive clothes and the discovery of sex. Ernst is living with his partner Ruby, and Ruby is not much older than Josef, 18 years old to 13 years old. Uncle Ernst is not a bad man, probably he is only not used to deal with a child: a former officer, aloof and detached, his only weak is his love for Ruby, a man that clearly is taking advantage of his money; Ernst is not a man used to compromise, and this is clearly shown by his living openly with a man. And also Ruby, even if calculating and profiter, on his way has a good heart. Both men will give to Josef a comparison parameter, and from both of them he will learn something, and again, Josef will play a role, this time the role of the perfect Hitlerian youth.

But another change and another moving will wait for Josef. This time to Berlin, to really play as an actor in a propaganda movie. In Berlin Josef is alone, for the first time without an adult reference by his side, and maybe for the first time he will live without playing a role, while ab absurdo, he is playing a role in the movie. In Berlin he meets David, the son of a Jewish doctor; it's obviously a fated love, David's father is planning to leave Germany as soon as possible, but Josef and David will have time to tight a special bond. Also with David, Josef will play a role, the role of the dream date boyfriend, the movie star, giving perhaps to David something to smile in a moment he has not much reasons to do that.

There are two things that a boy the age of Josef should not be allowed to be involved with, politics and sex, but both of them play an important role in Josef's life. Politics he only sees from afar, even if politics is changing his life forever; politics is also using him for its own reasons and Josef will not understand it till it will be too late; for a political reason he will move to Berlin, and have the chance to meet David, the only good thing politics will do for him. And instead Josef has plenty of chance to discover the various side of sex: as a form of comfort, a way to finally have the feeling to belong to someone, as a way to share emotions with the boy he loves, as a barter to obtain what he wants. Josef is a really 'sex' driven person, even if young he has clearly in mind what he likes and what he wants, and what he can obtain; probably since he is always used to play a role, he plays a role also during sex, he is the man they want him to be, everyone of them. Even David, the only boy Josef really loves, doesn't really know the real Josef, but only the fake one Josef wants to show him.

But even if skilled in acting and obtaining what he wants, Josef in the end is only a boy like David, and the history is bigger than him; his only hope is that, seeing the life like a big movie, and him an actor, he will manage to hide behind his makeup and play role after role after role.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603706852/?tag=elimyrevandra-20