I'm reading a 'best seller' at the moment, Jeff Deaver's Garden of Beasts. Usually I rip right through, eager to find out who did what and why and how. No need to savor language or mull over literary twists or much of anything else, as opposed to 'good' literature which often requires pausing and considering. This case is different and interesting because of the situations and issues he raises. It seems that Deaver does lots of research and writes detailed outlines (he says his outlines are ninety-five percent of bis books) which explains what I'm experiencing. I didn't realize it but today is the anniversary of Hitler's birthday in 1889 so this is a particularly good day to be mulling this over.

The book takes place in Berlin in 1936 during the Jesse Owens Olympics. Owens appears as do several other 'real' people. The plot is relatively irrelevant, however, since we all know what's coming. The next years hover over the story, which is interesting in itself, but what consumes the characters and, by extension, the reader (me), are the moral dilemmas and quandaries. A police officer doing his job (familiar...but wait) who thinks "the leader" is nuts and is trying to keep his son from joining the Hitler Youth because he sees that they will be the long-term terror and danger. A woman who runs a boarding house with a flag displayed because everyone must display a flag but hers is different from the others...because a Jewish man owns the house. A taxi driver unable to describe a man he drove somewhere because he didn't actually see him clearly and if the man is caught he will be severely punished...but if the driver provides no description he will be severely punished himself.

What would I be willing to do in situations I deemed wrong or incorrect? Would it have to be a major issue? What would I be willing to risk? How bad does the situation have to be vs what risk would I take? Would I work behind the scenes? Would it be more effective to sabotage evil from within or bluntly and openly? Could so much evil take power again? Since so many people including his own officers and advisers knew that he was off-balance, could Hitler have been stopped? Did it require that more people had been willing to risk disapproval, shunning and even death? At what point was it too late? We live in such a relatively comfortable world now that we run the risk of becoming complacent and forgetting that we need to be willing to risk being called eccentric or wrong or out of line. Would we do it? What would make us?

Labels: books, politics, reflections