“A Man Lies Dreaming”
By Lavie Tidhar Melville House
320 pages
$16.99
At 40, Israeli-born Lavie Tidhar, who now lives in London, is no stranger to writing alternate history or exploring controversial figures through the prism of genre fiction. “The Bookman” takes place in a Victorian England ruled by lizard people. “The Violent Century” features two superheroes who fought for the British during World War II. And in “Osama,” the titular terrorist mastermind exists as the hero of a series of pulp novels.
In “A Man Lies Dreaming,” newly published in paperback, Tidhar again mines the pulp genre to render a historical villain who is strange yet familiar. This time, his inspiration is the variety known as shund — sensational, lowbrow, Yiddish-language novels.
Tidhar’s novel begins as a typical gumshoe story does: with a seedy detective and a dame in distress. It is 1939 in London, and Wolf, an anti-Semitic private investigator, is approached by a Jewish gangster’s daughter. Isabella Rubinstein’s younger sister, Judith, disappeared while fleeing Germany. Wolf, Isabella thinks, has certain connections that could help find her. Meanwhile, a figure known as “The Watcher” commits a series of murders and attempts to frame Wolf for them.
This is not the 1939 we know. Communists rule Germany. Most Nazis have fled the country and some familiar names now run a human trafficking and prostitution ring in England. England itself, however, seems headed toward fascism, with Nazi sympathizer Oswald Mosley a leading candidate for prime minister. Wolf himself seems increasingly familiar as the reader learns that he shaved his mustache upon arriving in London and plans to write a follow-up to his first book, “My Struggle.”
Yes, Adolf Hitler is the protagonist of a detective novel. Or is he? After a few chapters, the narrative pivots to a Nazi concentration camp, on a historical timeline that seems to be our own. In this world, an author — a writer of shund — named Shomer is imprisoned there.
By day, Shomer (whose name is Hebrew for guardian, or “watcher”) carries out his assigned labor, surrounded by atrocity, sharing darkly witty anecdotes and wisecracks with his fellow prisoners. By night, he dreams of the kind of lurid fiction he used to write, but with a twist.
Using Hitler as a down-at-the-heels protagonist who is not completely unsympathetic — or at least is less unsympathetic than other characters — is an inherently controversial choice. A few sex scenes involving the fuhrer also likely place “A Man Lies Dreaming” in the “not-for-everyone” camp.
Those readers not immediately put off, however, will find themselves rewarded by a clever, sometimes poignant and often wickedly funny novel. (A highlight involves Leni Riefenstahl’s new project for Hollywood.) Tidhar’s novel is ultimately a testament to the ambiguous but undeniable power of story and imagination.
“A Man Lies Dreaming” is available at The Ivy Bookshop at 6080 Falls Road. The Ivy also hosts several literary and cultural events per month. June’s events include Betty Hafner discussing her memoir of domestic violence, “Not Exactly Love,” on Tuesday, June 13, at 7 p.m. A full list of events is available at www.theivybookshop.com.
Rebecca Oppenheimer is The Ivy Bookshop’s content manager and lead book buyer.