In previous post I had mention about book market "Interliber" and how surprisingly busy & crowded it was there.
In a such crowded area it is necessary to be somewhat selective and browse stalls with interesting choices - I avoided everything where too many giggling teenagers were grouping or titles about fictional "romantic historical" novels, cookbooks, astrology or whatever else is "popular" and tried to have a good look at things that interest me. Somehow I noticed biography of Eva Braun and this particular book is in fact the first one I started reading on my vacation now.
Fascinating subject but oh, what a biased author. Even with a tons of research into contemporary biographies, memoirs, Braun's own diary, letters and home movies, Lambert constantly feels its important to somehow connect her own family history into all this - her own mother was German born in the same year as Eva Braun so every time when story should follow or explain Braun, we got sidetracked by similar experiences about author's mother (who never even met Braun in the first place). Lambert simply assumes that same age and background should probably connect these two, it gets predictable, annoying and tiresome. Lots of amateur psychoanalysing and she even connects German character with Brother Grimm's brutal fairy tales (she's obviously not familiar with the fact that these stories are read everywhere in continental Europe without having Nazi effect on people).
As for the main subject, even with Lambert's best efforts (she turns over backwards to portrait Braun as heroic) she emerges as self-obsessed, navel-gazing opportunist Bimbo who accepted luxury as payment for her silence, obedience and life in shadows. The question is not "did she known what was going on around her?" but "did she care?" - her own parents were silenced with gifts and Braun herself was mostly concerned only with changing clothes, experimenting with hairstyles and new nail polish. The only time ever she had approached Hitler was when she heard about possible ban on female cosmetics! We are talking about adult woman here. As the story progresses, contrary to author's intention, Braun comes up not as "ordinary young woman" but as someone who consciously switched off when necessary and was willingly brain-washed into the final end. I really wonder what would be her reaction had she lived long enough to face Nürnberg trials.
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