This is a brilliant entry in the genre of "what if?" stories not because of its topic - the conclusion of a decades-long hunt for Adolf Hitler by a weary group of Israeli agents - but due to the stylish and daring writing of its author. A warning though: I read this book several years ago, and lent it to a friend who has since moved, so my memory of it cannot be trusted to be perfect as I have not been able to reference it.
Not knowing the history of the novel or of its author, aside from what was on the original dust jacket, I think it is nonetheless fair to say that it was written not with any genre market in mind, but for the readers of so-called "serious" fiction. Steiner seems interested not just in his subject matter or the development of plot and story, but in the very structure of his sentences: of how we read and understand the English language. I don't pretend to be a student of modern literary trends, but I found Steiner's occasional forays into highly styalized language to be challenging and interesting; if anything, they drew me deeper into the novel.
The novel is structured so that we alternate between following first, the now ragtag and isolated group of Israeli agents who are hot on the trail of a World War II-surviving Adolf Hitler; and second, the reaction to the news of Hitler's imminent and then actual capture by the Israelis in the capital cities of a number of interested nations. And we are not talking about public reaction, but the responses of foreign service and intelligence officials, of politicains and bureaucrats, of ruling circles capitalist and communist (the book was written in the 70's) to the news that Hitler is alive and that the Israelis - the Jews - have got him.
Steiner naturally posits that the Israelis, on behalf of the murdered six million, will want to take Hitler back to Israel to stand trial for the Holocaust. But they are not alone in having a claim on the butcher. The Germans are interested in bringing their former leader to justice, and the victorius Western Allies (the U.S., Britain and France) want to grab Hitler to place him in front of a world tribunal, a la the Nuremburg Trials. The Soviets meanwhile want to make sure that their cover story for their variation on a "Kennedy autopsy" isn't blown. The Israeli team find themselves in a race; can they get out of the Amazonian forest they found Hitler in before the West can send their own commandos to grab him out of their hands? And does their own government really care anymore?
Steiner addresses the philosphical question of who has the right to pass judgement on a criminal. Each stakeholder gets a chance to express their point of view, their motives for wanting, or not wanting, control over Hitler. The most moving and powerful chapter of the book is, not surprisingly, that which presents the Israeli, or more particularly the Jewish, case (Lacking a "Jewish state," would not the Jews still have a legitimate claim on Hitler?). Unsure if they can hear him, the control agent for the Israeli team of hunters sends his men a radio message to remind them why they must be the ones to try Hitler. His is a harrowing recounting of the crimes of the Holocaust, large and small, mass and individual. It is like a primal scream crossed with stream of conciousness. Steiner jerks tears here, but why shouldn't he?
Perhaps the one voice missing from the book (and it isn't Hitler's - the Fascist madman gets a chance to defend himself in the end) is one that speaks not for a specific group of victims, or for the geostrategic interests of various bureaucrats and elites, but for all of the victims of Capitalism, Fascism and Inter-Imperialist rivalry.
If I had written this novel, I might have drawn the connection between capitalism and fascism, both in Germany and as world systems where the latter is created to save the former from proletarian revolution. I would have therefore had to consider the responsibility of the American, British and French ruling classes, as well as the German, for Hitler and WW II. Moreover, I would have had to discuss the criminal misleadership of Stalin over the world Communist movement,and the failure of the German Social Democrats and Communists in preventing the Nazi seizure of power.
Steiner, I am sure, does not share my Trotskyist political analysis of the rise of Hitler, Mussolini and fascism in general. That's OK. But it would have been nice if there were one voice in his book that took a truly internationalist view of the capture and fate of Adolf Hitler, one voice that spoke as sincerely for all of the victims of fascism and Nazism as did the spokesman for the Jewish fallen.
That one caveat aside, I think this is a brillant and challenging novel, as beautifully written as it is topical. I am especially happy that it will soon be back in print. It is an important work of fiction, and of philosophy.
