Well, I finally finished In The Garden of Beasts and it was a very interesting book. I highly recommend it. The Dodds managed to complete their tour of duty in Nazi Germany without being physically harmed, but in the end their eyes were opened to all that was going on and could not, by that time, be prevented.
The Dodds actually stayed only until 1937, but by 1934 William Dodd knew that he had been wrong about Hitler and his regime. He stayed, trying to show his distaste for the regime, but his actions changed no minds at home and he was ultimately replaced by an ambassador who somehow managed to be more accomodating to the Nazis.
Back in the U.S., Dodd spoke out about what was happening, urging people to get involved in stopping Germany's aggression. Starting out as a neutral party who wanted to stay out of Germany's politics, Dodd ended up a hero of sorts, though one who tried and failed to get the predominately isolationist U.S. to intervene before it was too late.
I had a chance to go to a talk by the author recently, in which he mentioned the goals he had in writing the book. It was gratifying to find that what he wanted me to get out of In the Garden of Beasts is exactly what I got. Erik Larson is a great writer; I highly recommend any book written by him.
Once I was done with In the Garden of Beasts, I returned to my Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novel, Pirate King. It's pretty detailed and doesn't have the breathless pace of some mysteries, but I'm enjoying it, nonetheless. I'm about half-way done, and Sherlock Holmes has finally arrived on the scene, so it should get even more interesting from here on out.
I'll let you know how things turn out in my next report.
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