Larson, Erik. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. 1st Ed. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011. Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts offers vivid historical insight into the era of Hitler’s Germany as he rose to power beginning in 1933. Throughout this work the reader can see how Jews go from mistreatment to losing all privileges fast, while Hitler prepares Germany for war; the country is very tense. The book contains 449 pages; about 360 pages make up the nonfiction narrative, following 45 pages of notes and 25 pages of bibliography/index, along with a few photographs of significant events from the chapters can be found in Larson’s work. This nonfiction narrative is meant to inform its audience …show more content…
Larson explained the depth of the Jewish mistreatment, along with horrible attacks that recurred from the Nazi regimen. Larson depicted the Dodds as finally realizing that the Nazi problem was real. Throughout the rest of the nonfiction narrative, Larson allows the reader the understand what two people who witnessed the reigning of Hitler, book burnings, the Reichstag trial, the Night of the Long Knives, an American’s loving relationship with a Soviet, and actual conversations held with Hitler by Dodd and Martha themselves as they came to realize just what a tragic occurrence Hitler’s reign was becoming before their eyes. Larson made sure that the reader understood that not until the end did the Dodds really dislike the Nazis and Hitler, Martha especially ignored the warning signs up until the …show more content…
He certainly has done his research when preparing the book, proven by the pages and pages of resources provided. Though I appreciated Larson allowing the reader to witness events accounted from the Dodds’ eyes, I could not help wondering how completely accurate every statement was that was said. Diaries of thoughts can only be thought of as that: thoughts and opinions. Because I am not a Library of Congress registered reader, or LC staff or Congressional staff I am unable to read the Martha or William E. Dodd papers myself. I do trust that they are correct, because I have a hard time believing that this book would be published otherwise. I could sense Larson’s opinion that Hitler could have been stopped, but the people during the time did not truly try to stop him until it was too late. Larson made sure that his two protagonists are examples of this; Dodd had conversations with Hitler and did not stand up to him, while Martha loved the energy he brought pulsing through Germany. Larson made sure that he followed the timeline of occurrences while also carefully explaining the new characters that popped up along the way. Larson’s writing style is what made this nonfiction narrative such an exciting read. With the use of foreshadowing, subtle hints, and bringing a novel-like feel to the work, the writer greatly achieved a page-turning dramatic take on