Look Who's Back - bookrastinating.com

Paperback, 320 pages

English language

Published May 10, 2016 by MacLehose Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-68144-952-4

(1 review)

Berlin, Summer 2011. Adolf Hitler wakes up on a patch of open ground, alive and well. Things have changed - no Eva Braun, no Nazi party, no war. Hitler barely recognises his beloved Fatherland, filled with immigrants and run by a woman. People certainly recognise him, albeit as a flawless impersonator who refuses to break character. The unthinkable, the inevitable happens, and the ranting Hitler goes viral, becomes a YouTube star, gets his own T.V. show, and people begin to listen. But the Führer has another programme with even greater ambition - to set the country he finds a shambles back to rights. Look Who's Back stunned and then thrilled 1.5 million German readers with its fearless approach to the most taboo of subjects. Naive yet insightful, repellent yet strangely sympathetic, the revived Hitler unquestionably has a spring in his step.

4 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Look Who's Back by Jamie Bulloch

Initially amusing, but the joke peters out

3 stars

I remember seeing Look Who's Back's distinctive cover art everywhere on its publication a few years ago so deliberately avoided reading the book then as I didn't want to go into it on a wave of hype and then feel let down by the reality. As it turned out, while I was entertained by Look Who's Back, I was still a bit disappointed by this novel.

On a positive note, Timur Vermes starts out with a great premise and the early chapters, in which a newly resurrected Hitler is trying to recognise 1940s Berlin in its present day counterpart, are deftly portrayed. There's plenty of insightful social commentary too with amusing moments from time to time, however overall I thought that Look Who's Back never quite lived up to its potential. I didn't feel the writing lived up to all the quoted claims of total hilarity either. I sometimes wondered …

I remember seeing Look Who's Back's distinctive cover art everywhere on its publication a few years ago so deliberately avoided reading the book then as I didn't want to go into it on a wave of hype and then feel let down by the reality. As it turned out, while I was entertained by Look Who's Back, I was still a bit disappointed by this novel.

On a positive note, Timur Vermes starts out with a great premise and the early chapters, in which a newly resurrected Hitler is trying to recognise 1940s Berlin in its present day counterpart, are deftly portrayed. There's plenty of insightful social commentary too with amusing moments from time to time, however overall I thought that Look Who's Back never quite lived up to its potential. I didn't feel the writing lived up to all the quoted claims of total hilarity either. I sometimes wondered if I was even reading the same book as those reviewers.

The central joke of Hitler trying to navigate the modern world, with all his misunderstandings and misinterpretations, is initially funny, but for me it soon got tired and I didn't feel there was enough of an underlying narrative to then prevent the book's energy from flagging. It is a shame as I thought the basic idea was inspired. Look Who's Back agreeably passed a couple of days for me, but I expected a more profound reading experience and for Look Who's Back to actually reach a strong conclusion. Instead it dwindled and then petered out without me really understanding what I was supposed to take away from this novel.