The Education of Arnold Hitler

Starred review from February 1, 2005
Second novelist Estrin's (Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa) unfortunately named title character is a Texas boy blessed with all-American good looks and ironically endowed with a partially Jewish heritage, who finds his way to Harvard in the late 1960s. There his troubles begin, as he must deal with the negative reaction to his name on almost everyone's part. The only exceptions are far right-wing elements on campus, who wish to use him to further their own ends. After college, he gravitates to New York City, continuing his education at the hands of street person/intellectual Vergil Wang, who guides him through the underworld, and sexy neo-Nazi painter Evelyn Brown (i.e., Eva Braun). Estrin combines the black comedy of Don DeLillo with a bit of Tom Robbins's intellectual adventurousness to concoct a wildly provocative tale of a young man who must learn to define himself. Highly recommended.-Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2005
As if the name Arnold Hitler wasn't baggage enough, the protagonist of this sweet, playful story carries a bit of Forrest Gump in him, too. Though the timbre of Arnold's intellect is richer than Forrest's, they're equally earnest. And as Arnold strikes out from small-town Texas to Harvard and New York City in the 1960s and early '70s, he keeps encountering historic figures. On a school trip to Dallas, young Arnold stands between the second gunman and the motorcade as JFK meets his destiny. Later, this soul-searching Hitler asks Noam Chomsky why Harvard students have such problems with his name when it caused nary a Lone Star stir. And soon after a protofascist descendant of Cotton Mather begins bedeviling Arnold, this fine specimen of a scholar-athlete is taken under Leonard ("call me Lenny") Bernstein's brilliant wing. All the while, Arnold's grandfather Jacobo mentors him from Italy by placing long-distance calls to his knee. Emulating an energetic dorm bull session among overeducated undergrads, this clever narrative package also makes plenty of room for literate explorations of Jewishness, anti-Semitism, and serious games of "What's in a name?"(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)