The Constant Reader

The prolificBritish writer A.N. Wilson now tackles the challenge not only of Hitler, but of Richard Wagner. He does so in Winnie and Wolf, a fictionalized account of the relationship between Wagner's daughter-in-law Winifred and Hitler that occurred in the years between the two world wars. The result is an odd but informative book that attempts to shed light on Wagner's music at the same time that it explores the nature of Naziism and the German psyche. The story is told by a fictional character, a young male secretary at Wahnfried, the Wagner home in Bayreuth. The idea is that Winifred and Hitler (known as "Wolf" to the family) had a child who was ultimately adopted by the secretary and his wife. The novel is a letter to that child,now an old lady living under an assumed name in the US, explaining it all to her.
I read the book as part of learning more about Wagner, and in many ways I did as Wilson's effort to explain alway the composer's supposed fascist leanings is pretty convincing--although that's an argument that may never be resolved. The narrative is awkward at moments, so often the case with a fictionalized history--the gaps between reality and imagination show. But no matter, it's a good story. There is a wonderful and poignant scene towards the end when the narrator describes driving back into Bayreuth at the end of World War II, when the town has been badly bombed--he claims because of Wagner's sympathy for the Nazis, or rather, Hitler's love of his music. Their clothes having been destroyed, the townspeople have raided the costume racks at the theatre and are walking through the streets dressed as the Rhinemaidens, the Nibelungs, Parsifal, etc. It's a powerful image, suggestive of the interplay between Wagner's mythological world and ours.