A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar
307 pages, Hardcover Published March, 2016 by Melville House
Locus Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (2015), Geffen Award Nominee for Best Translated Science Fiction Book (2019), British Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Fantasy Novel (Robert Holdstock Award) (2015), The Kitschies Nominee for Inky Tentacle (Cover Art) (2014)
I have made no secret of the fact that I respect the work of Lavie Tidhar who I consider to be one of the best Science fiction writers of modern day science fiction. It is a little bit of bullshit because Lavie will be the first to tell you that he doesn’t write modern science fiction. I mean he is writing it now but more than any other writer of today his writing feels like I was sent through a wormhole from a different era.
He mentioned this book when I interviewed him recently about his latest science fiction novels and said that he knew these books were not for everyone. That is sorta a hilarious understatement. I really enjoy works of daring ballsy fucking gall. In science Fiction Spinrad’s The Iron Dream and Malzberg’s Beyond Apollo come to mind. I also think the movie In a Glass Cage is a great example, it is a 1986 Spanish horror film written and directed by Agustí Villaronga, that is about an ex-Nazi child molester who is now paralyzed and depending on an iron lung to live. A Man Lies Dreaming is bold as hell, as in I can’t believe this happened..
The idea that this major release is a noir detective story about Hitler as a private eye in 1940s London swapping in Chandler’s LA for immigrant Hitler in London…Damn. The thing is this might be one of the best novels to deconstruct Hitler. Using the unique tools of fantasy and science fiction to explore the deep trauma of Nazism is one thing but Tidhar is also using the tropes and style of the Detective novel.
Set in London in the 1940s after communism took over Germany and many of the Nazis took off to England. One reason this novel is uncomfortable for the English is it explores a not so post colonial England that embraces the escaped Nazis. Tidhar who lives in England is not so out of bounds when you think of the popularity of the national front in the 70s and 80s.
The novel starts when the typical Femme Fatal type hires Wolf, a German detective to investigate a murder. If you were reading the novel cold it wouldn’t immediately be clear that the PI was the leader of National socialism who lost the 1933 election and left Germany when the ruling communists came after him. Judith Rubinstein hints that Wolf was the thing of nightmares, that she had been so frightened of him. This is such a smart subtle way of introducing one of the most notorious figures of history as your protagonist. Not an easy thing.
There is a reading of this novel that is a straight detective novel featuring a mystery, and detective. The setting of this alternate world is not exactly science fiction or even fantasy because it could’ve happened and unlike Man in High Castle it doesn’t even have Nazis on Mars. Lavie Tishar hits the tropes.
“...it is a truth universally acknowledged, that once a detective acquires two concurrent cases, the two must be in some way related. I call it Wolf's Law.”
The narrative framing device of a pulp writer suffering in Auschwitz who dreams up this detective story that forces Wolf to confront his views, even having to become Jewish essentially to investigate the crime. Wolf is still Adolf Hitler at his heart.
“A gentleman killed with bullets, the state with gas. Only a madman used a knife.”
Tidhar has the unique tool to investigate Hitler, similar to Spinrad’s Iron Dream that explored Nazism by looking at how Hitler would have written a fantasy novel. That novel savaged Tolkein at the same time, this novel in my opinion takes shots at the colonial attitudes of the time, just as much as it look as how failed Nazis would rebuild their lives.
“ I sat straight in the chair. One did not see the swastika much, any more. In Germany It had been banned by the new communist regime. In England it was irrelevant.”
It is important to consider what this novel says about how irrelevant the Nazis appeared after losing the 1933 election. Hitler was the author of one book, in this universe no one was reading Mein Kampf, and no one saw them as a threat. Certainly the cammo jacket red hat putsch on January 6th I assumed that for agent orange here in the States. It may have been wishful thinking that Hitler would become a down on his luck private dic, and not retain followers but this is the genius of this novel.
They are Nazis after all. Without the final solution to force the world to confront anti-semitism the question becomes will we get there without it, or how long will the hatred of Jews fester unconfronted.
“Wolf said: “Palestine?” The word left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
“They want it for themselves. A land for Jews. They demand parliament cede it to them. Just imagine. Next thing you know the Indians will be demanding independence, or blacks in…” he waved his hand vaguely “Bongo Bong Land. Can you imagine, Wolf?”
I know it is hard to divorce the baggage of what is Israel happening in Palestine at the moment. Racism in all its forms are not gone, but certainly they were still accepted and common in this era. A subtle reminder that the Nazis never made us consider subhuman to have their own lands and the idea was still in the back of their minds.
The most subversive element of this novel with such a bold novel comes in the final act when the agents of the United States enter the picture. It is hilarious in a sense because the US barely exists in the fictional worlds of Lavie Tidhar almost never mentioned. His SF is stronger for it. But in this novel they play a major role.
“You could go back to Germany,” Virgil said, his voice as slow and treacly as honey. “You could lead again.”
“Lead?”
“Lead Germany. Resurrect National Socialism!”
“You’re mad.” Wolf said.
Oh boy some readers would hate this, but think about how the US has behaved in the 20th century. They would not be above supporting the failed Nazis with nothing more than the goal to disrupt the growth of Soviet influence. They simply benefit from the chaos between two political systems fighting. Like it or not the racist 1940s US government would have no problem tapping Hitler and saying have another go.
“A putsch,” Wolf said.
“An assisted regime change,” Virgil said.
“You can do that?”
You bet your sweet ass we can! At least,” Virgil amended, with a fetal grin, “we can try.”
“Get your filthy hands off me, American.”
It is also not hard to believe that Hitler would be skeptical. This scene however is one that takes an interesting concept and really pushes it to an extreme. Something that I think is fair and powerful.
A Man Lies Dreaming really is a fantastical detective novel, more fantasy than SF, More alternate history than SF. That said it should be on the SF shelves for its nature as a novel of an unexplored world or universe. You don’t have to go to Ceti Alpha Five, you can go to this other earth to find the rich elements of the genre.
I don’t say masterpiece lightly and this is a masterpiece in multiple genres. More than anything it is a masterpiece of how the hell did this get published. A masterpiece of wow, that author went there.
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