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Walk The Night
The Nazi past becomes ominously present as a man sets out to find a gay man swept away decades earlier in Germany's lethal purges. The story ranges from the vivid Berlin of 1935 to a postwar Germany where past evils retain a powerful hold on the present. The story is driven by secrets that, once discovered, reveal the story of gay men in Nazi history.
- GenresLGBT
222 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1994
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 6, 2023
An easy read on life for gay people in the Holocaust. I enjoyed the stories told and the imagery the author left us
October 10, 2018
I went into this one not really knowing what to expect. Robert Reinhart is an author I'd neither read before nor heard of, but I gave Walk the Night a shot anyway. I am SO glad I did! Reinhart's writing is atmospheric but not overdone, and I fell in love with both the past and modern characters. There aren't many (fiction) books about the gay experience in Nazi Germany and/or the Holocaust. Reinhart handles this topic with such explicitness and poignancy. I do wish, though, that we found out what happened to Rudy. His fate is left open-ended, but I guess we can infer he died in a camp. This is only a minor complaint, I just wish this one loose end had been resolved.
The ending wasn't bad, but definitely not what I expected. Paul finally met Helmut/Dieter, and ended up with Sybella. I guess I was anticipating a traditional happy ending. Instead, it ends on a very ominous note: Skinheads/gay bashers appear, and a warning that history may repeat itself if people don't speak out. This is fitting when you consider this book was released in 1994. It was the middle of the AIDS crisis, and homophobia was rampant. We've come a long way since then, and gay people are much-more accepted in society now. But we must always remember the gay victims of the Holocaust, persecuted and killed simply because of who they loved. Walk the Night is a fitting tribute to their memory.
The ending wasn't bad, but definitely not what I expected. Paul finally met Helmut/Dieter, and ended up with Sybella. I guess I was anticipating a traditional happy ending. Instead, it ends on a very ominous note: Skinheads/gay bashers appear, and a warning that history may repeat itself if people don't speak out. This is fitting when you consider this book was released in 1994. It was the middle of the AIDS crisis, and homophobia was rampant. We've come a long way since then, and gay people are much-more accepted in society now. But we must always remember the gay victims of the Holocaust, persecuted and killed simply because of who they loved. Walk the Night is a fitting tribute to their memory.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews