Subversion, intrigue, conspiracy, paranoia, suicide epidemics, breeding monasteries, subhuman camps, serfdom, slavery --...

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THE TWILIGHT MEN

Subversion, intrigue, conspiracy, paranoia, suicide epidemics, breeding monasteries, subhuman camps, serfdom, slavery -- ""This life was one great shit and vomit."" Which is what might have happened if Hitler had triumphed and which is busily projected here in a first novel about the second fall of the Third Reich. Herr Hollriegl is a zealous but unimportant subordinate in the World Fascist regime. He's a ""gyromant"" (a dowser) who tests for bad earth radiation. But when he's not dowsing, he's dreaming about the ""amber witch"" Ulla, a favorite of the Nazi press, which bills her as ""The Custodian of the Race""; an ex-concentration camp commander, she's one sadistic earth mother. Hollriegl's obsession is diverted after the death (murder) of the Fuhrer as ""German Christendom"" goes to hell. Chaos sets in as the subhumans rise and the Japanese launch an atomic attack. In the super soap opera blitz, we find Hollriegl listening to a dying confession of the last Jew, (a malcontent who had given Hitler the winning atomic bomb); and the pages are filled with ""Were-wolves,"" people literally dehumanized to the animal level and even a singer named Sex Soguthatt whose main hit is a catchy little ditty called ""I'm a Ghoul from Thule."" The orgiastics are unintentionally hilarious and rarely has Fascism seemed more ridiculous. But don't tell Mr. Basil. He takes it all very seriously.

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Meredith

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1968

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