Rainbow Book List

Josef Jaeger

Posted by: John on: November 22, 2009

Fishback, Jere’ M. Josef Jaeger. 2009. 396p. Prizm/Torquere, $13.95. (978-1603706858). Gr. 10+.

A political and sexual coming-of-age story set in the early days of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany. Josef Jaeger is a thirteen-year-old youth who lives with his mother who is an opera singer in Bayreuth. When she dies, Josef is sent to Munich to live with an uncle he has never known. This uncle turns out to be Ernst Roehm, the leader of the SA, the Nazi brown shirts, and who is openly homosexual, living with his lover, Rudy. Josef begins to explore his own sexuality and after he joins the Hitler Youth, he later has a relationship with Max, one of the group leaders. Due to his uncle’s political connections, Josef is selected for a starring role in a Nazi propaganda movie and he has to move temporarily to Berlin. One day while bicycling to the movie studio, Josef is struck by a car. Taken to a nearby doctor, he is treated for a gash on his forehead, and there he meets the doctor’s son, David, to whom he is attracted. Finding the attraction mutual, he and David fall in love, but must keep their relationship secret, especially since David is Jewish. As the Nazis intensify the campaign against Jews, Josef must examine his own beliefs and decide how he will live. An interesting historical novel set in a turbulent and challenging time.  –Victor Schill

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

*

Archives