In the Garden of Beasts
by Erik Larson

I absolutely loved “Devil in the White City,” by Erik Larson. It is one of my favorite books. Larson takes you to the bloody streets of Chicago just as the city begins to transform itself from the meat slaughtering capital of the United States to a worthy contender for the World’s Fair. The blood red streets make way for the pristine buildings of the “White City” for the 1893 World’s Fair. Just in case you start to teeter on the plans and architecture – bam you’re right in Dr. H.H. Holmes’ World’s Fair Hotel built to lure his victims into. In this twisted chamber of horrors there is no escape for many young women who ventured by. Rumor has it Leonardo DiCaprio has the rights to the book. He’d be a great serial killer – all charm and good looks – the real dangerous kind.

“In the Garden of Beasts,” Erik Larson brings us back to another infamous time in history to Hitler’s Germany before World War II. It is the story of William E. Dodd, American Ambassador to Germany in the years 1933 and 1934. Larson does an amazing job of creating 1933 Germany. You can feel the oppression in the air as the months click by coming closer to the war. There were so many times the war could have been prevented, but so many things were left unaddressed and the oppression grew heavier and heavier.

Dodd was a very interesting choice for ambassador to Germany. His dream was to write a book about the Civil War in his off-time as a professor at the University of Chicago. I believe he was the 15th person asked to take the job. He was an anti-type, not in the ambassadors boys’ club, never accepted, he went from disdain to dislike in his short career. But, to Dodd’s credit, he held true to his word and did things his way, not the way it had always been. Ambassador Dodd and his family moved to Germany. Dodd lived within his means, no showy extravagances. Most of the US Ambassadors were rich and very opulent with their spending.

Dodd was told by the Secretary of State that his main mission was to get money out of the Germans for repayment of loans to America. Dodd did what he could, but was ignored when he warned the US on the aggression of Hitler and the Nazi government throughout Germany.

Dodd’s daughter, Martha, was also an important part of the book. She was promiscuous by the standards of that time and very vocal. Her constant stream of dates is somewhat interesting, because we know some of these men through historical unflattering eyes.

Larson takes you to the cusp of war. You watch as so many things click into place and you just want to shout – STOP! That’s a book with value, and that’s what you hope for in any book you read. Book clubs can discuss the historical implications of 1933 and 1934, Dodd’s appointment – whether or not it was appropriate, the inefficiency of our government, and Martha’s behavior and her political beliefs.

Rating: 8.5