In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jun 30, 2017 CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph rated it liked it

Shelves: library-audio, history-non-fiction, audio, around-the-world-challenge, social-justice-issues

Well, I finally finished this book. I guess I should know from now on that when an author introduces a story by saying that there are no heroes, I should believe him. Because there were none. This was one of the most depressing things I've read in awhile. Just the gradual but inexorable slide of Germany into the clutches of Hitler and his henchmen. With only a stodgy professor and his...uh, polyamorous?...daughter standing against them. I didn't love Ambassador Dodd--every time he stood up for w Well, I finally finished this book. I guess I should know from now on that when an author introduces a story by saying that there are no heroes, I should believe him. Because there were none. This was one of the most depressing things I've read in awhile. Just the gradual but inexorable slide of Germany into the clutches of Hitler and his henchmen. With only a stodgy professor and his...uh, polyamorous?...daughter standing against them. I didn't love Ambassador Dodd--every time he stood up for what was right, and I cheered for him, he turned around and did something weak or foolish. As much as he campained against the Nazi government, it took him long enough to realize what was going on, and even then he spent so much precious time fighting against the good times club amongst his embassy in Berlin. he picked the wrong fights, so wasn't able to be fully effective/ have the support of the administration in such a bad time. but then again, the administration didn't seem to really care. America wanted to be isolationist, so pragmatic American politicians basically were. many of those good timing state department dilletantes were so anti-Semitic anyway that they didn't really care to stop what was going on.
And Dodd's daughter Martha....what a strange, flightly, immature, free-loving young woman. I could not like her even a little bit. I felt some concern for Boris, but then as more information came out, I found myself wondering even about him. This book truly had no heroes and little joy. It all made much more sense when I finished reading and read the author's source and acknowledgement at the end of the book. He was depressed by all that he found too. Because it was depressing, seeing with the hindsight of history the huge avalanche of death and destruction slowly creeping towards the point of no return. If the author was depressed by his research, I assume it's OK if I am too.
All that to say that I don't hate this book. It conveyed what it needed to of the complexity of the situation. How no one in power truly did all they could to try to avert the atrocities that kept increasing. I guess part of the reason this book was so incredibly depressing to me was the time in American history when I read it, a time when the idea of slowly shrinking civil liberties, amid rising and increasingly hostile and violent racism and xenophobia, is all too familiar. Seeing how things can turn out if the necessary interventions aren't made is really terrifying. So did I need this book right now? Probably. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, if they can handle the gloom of the story. Because as we know, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Knowledge of history and of that fact are what enabled Dodd to foresee what could come and to speak out against it eventually. Hopefully it will enable all who read this story to do the same if needed.

Also, the narrator was the same who read a Carl Hiassen book I'd listened to, and the change in subject material with the same narrator was so extreme it took me a little time to adjust to him. He's a good reader, and I liked him better reading this book than the Hiassen. but wow, what a difference. ...more

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Feb 19, 2016 Heather - hturningpages rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, historical

A fascinating perspective on the events leading up to Hilter's takeover and WWII. This story is particularly insightful in revealing the political and often emotionally irrational machinations of the US and German government during this critical time. The story is mostly told through letters and personal diaries from a large cast of important characters all of which transport you to another time, centering on the house of Ambassador Dodd and his family. The family's slow and horrified realizatio A fascinating perspective on the events leading up to Hilter's takeover and WWII. This story is particularly insightful in revealing the political and often emotionally irrational machinations of the US and German government during this critical time. The story is mostly told through letters and personal diaries from a large cast of important characters all of which transport you to another time, centering on the house of Ambassador Dodd and his family. The family's slow and horrified realizations as they finally accept that the country is headed down a dark path is portrayed with chilling clarity that transcends time. I found myself getting increasing frustrated with the antagonistic back door politics along with Dodd and a few of the other characters that were voices for action despite the complicated political climate.

Most of all, I think this book is timeless in that it serves as a clear and strong reminder that everyone is guilty of seeing only what they wish to believe. It's easy to oversimplify and say who was right and who was wrong when you look back on history. Especially for WWII where the heroes and villains seem so stark and obvious that they have been written and rewritten about to no end. But no matter the issue or conflict, it is always more complicated living it than looking back on it- which Larson to his credit ardently defies here by bring those conflicts to life in full and lush detail. Still, in the present it is so much easier to blindly refuse to accept horrible truths or to believe that the worse outcome must be impossible because it is so horrible. We tell ourselves that our present world is better and more prepared, that we have learned. But I think this book points out that these same thoughts were thought then, just as they are now and we were just as capable of stopping or preventing injustice then as we are now.

If there is a call to action in this book then I think it is quite literal. That there will always be hope if we encourage not only learning from history but also instill a willingness to act, to shape and improve our world going forward. ...more

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