In his latest column for Forbes, James Brady learns about the new Norman Mailer. “I thought I’d better tell you what I know and everything my Provincetown sources report before it all becomes common knowledge,” Brady enthuses. “To start with, the new book is about Hitler.” You don’t say! (OK, it’s not like we really expect Brady to keep track of our little blog…) But wait, it looks like there’s a twist—in addition to the Hitler family soap opera material we knew about when we spilled the beans in August, Brady says there’s scenes featuring a “deputy devil” charged with the task of steering Adolf on the path to evil.
“Who but Norman could possibly have conceived of a novel based on the roots of Adolf Hitler as a literally hellish character backed by the devil?” Brady asks in awe. Well, just about any fantasy writer with the slightest modicum of talent, I reply, all of whose editors would then laugh and say, “That’s cute, but, really, what’s your next book going to be about?” Unless it was as good as, say, Charles Stross’ The Atrocity Archives (which, strictly speaking, isn’t about a devilish Hitler, but is the best story about Nazi occultism to come down the pike in years.)