Cesare

'One of the most intriguing fiction writers' says Oprah Winfrey about author Jerome Charyn who has also used his imaginative fiction to cover subjects as wide ranging as Roosevelt to Abraham Lincoln. But here his take on the underbelly of the Nazis in Berlin is combined with a fable of extraordinary creativity mixing dark grotesque figures that themselves lie in wait for the servants of Hitler and his SS above.
There is a lot to learn beyond the basic history of the war as it was affecting Germany for through the main character Erik Holdermann (Cesare) the somnambulist/magician we move from early childhood and orphanage to the cadet training for future Nazis and to the spy and espionage webs working to try at all attempts to undermine any opposition to the Nazi plan to control the country and then the world.
Sometimes the plot is chaotic and a little confusing but the characters are strong with Erik and Lisa the daughter of the Baron figures that weave their very violent and passionate romance against the high echelons of the Nazi party. I liked the use of particular buildings in Berlin - which when I researched the names were actual places that had moved from the wild decadence of Berlin cabaret to the network of closed (supposedly) shunned places to Hitler such as the Adlon Hotel and The White Mouse Cabaret. It seemed the Nazis were at their best when of course seeking out the very elements they themselves so despised.
Of course the position of the Jews plays a vital role in the plot with Cesare trying under threat of death himself to help secure escape for Jews from under the vice like grip of the Nazis circling their homes, businesses, synagogues and clubs. The author leads us into the cruelty of the mechanisms by which the Nazis planned their execution camps 'starting' by picking on children with disabilities (under the Aktion T4 scheme of which I'd never heard).
The fable theme is also expanded with the link to a famous 1919 German film 'Das Kabinett des Dr Caligari' (who also appears as a character. This was seen as one of the first horror films about the magician Caligari and his slave Cesare who sleeps in a coffin. We also come across horror images linked to fairy tales (never as innocent as we believe) with Hansel and Gretel as soldiers taking a guillotine around the countryside and the Berlin Werewolf.
if it's all too much thrown at one plot maybe just stop and think even with the the seemingly unbelievable images being presented to us in this thought provoking book they can never be as horrific as the real world under the Nazi regime.