Young Adolf (Bainbridge, Beryl) - Softcover

Bainbridge, Beryl

3.17

333 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786702583 ISBN 13: 9780786702589

Publisher: Carroll & Graf, 1995

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In this hilarious and ingenious novel set in 1912, Young Adolf Hitler, age twenty-three, comes to Liverpool, penniless, traveling with false papers, and perpetually stalked by imaginary enemies. His half-brother, Alois, who works as a hotel waiter and a salesman, has convinced him to assist in building a commercial empire based on the newly invented safety razor. Adolf moves in with Alois, his Irish wife, and their infant son and promptly inconveniences them: He is difficult, depressed, lies for days on the sofa, bungles the simplest jobs, and has not yet found himself.
In episodes of disarming comedy, at every turn young Adolf becomes involved in ludicrous and embarrassing situations, so much so that he would never, for the rest of his life, mention his laughably awkward visit to England. Taking on one of history's odder incidents with her considerable imagination and wicked sense of humor, Beryl Bainbridge makes Adolf Hitler as absurd a figure in words as Charlie Chaplin made him on film.

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About the Author:

Beryl Bainbridge wrote seventeen novels, two travel books and five plays for stage and television, she was shortlisted for the Booker Prize five times, and won literary awards including the Whitbread Prize and the Author of the Year Award at the British Book Awards. She died in July 2010.

Review:

'At once funny and appalling . splendid occasions of high farce . rich in prophetic ironies' OBSERVER *Bainbridge has created a lucicrously funny farce, behind which lurks the destructive power of repressed fantasies & deeply felt resentments' S. TIMES *Bainbridge at her whimsical best, putting fantastic events firmly in a beautifully observed background.' D. TEL. *'A delightfully original conception, executed with great skill and humour' John Fowles

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