Book Review: "Mephisto" by Klaus Mann

I've been back to the library and as I'm writing this review, I'm listening to the Conspiracy Theories podcast and drinking a cup of peppermint tea. I can't say I've been the mentally healthiest human being but it has been nice getting out for a bit, walking about here and there and eating some fruit. It's been a simple day and yet, I still seem to have a chesty cough for some unknown bloody reason. It is definitely still a heatwave here in England and that might be why I'm not feeling great - I really quite dislike summer. But at least I've got a good book like Mephisto by Klaus Mann to read.

I quite like the way the book opens because we get introduced not really just to the characters but the expenditure that has gone on decorating the opera house of which, the general public must foot most of the bill in their taxes despite not having the money or position to attend the evening. We then get introduced to Hendrik Höfgen - an actor who is so up his own ass that he is even really particular about the way his name is pronounced. I think we already know that this guy is going to sacrifice his moral integrity (if he had any to begin with) for his professional career advancing so, guess what happened?

Hitler has banned everything fun, even jazz music. But as our main character kicks out his previous political ideals for brand new ones, he definitely does give us some insight into the fact that his character is shiftier than we would like to think. He plays Mephistopheles in Faust and thus, gets the attention of the Nazi elites. One thing I think we need to think about here is that this character was previously a communist and so, the question is more about whether he really was or whether that was the most convenient thing for him to be at the time.

This spills over into his personal life as he has a passionate relationship with an actress of Black origins named Juliette, but ends up marrying a woman from a respected family in order to keep himself in favour. I'm not going to lie, I think we really don't know who this character is, but even more so I don't think he loved his wife as much as he loved Juliette. Karma comes to bite him for a bit in the 1930s when he has to flee Paris due to his past but, he is quickly urged back by his friends. One of these friends is a member of the Luftwaffe or something. I'm not going to lie, I thought he was going to get what was coming to him but no. It wouldn't be long before he became the head of a theatre, making him one of the biggest theatre stars of his time.

Of course, after years of questionable morals and exiling friends who once helped you (especially Jewish people) you would probably be subject to nervous breakdowns. But he still gets on with it and supports the new propaganda theatre of the Nazis whilst his performance of Hamlet is absolutely slated by the audience and critics alike. He is not the man he used to be, but he definitely is not the actor used to be at all. The terrifying nature of his Faustian pact mirrors his own life and the author is so clever the way he paints the political landscape as being the real demon in the room. The whole book is about the way in which the Nazis control the arts and when you start to realise why Höfgen did what he did, you cannot help but feel slightly sorry for him.

All in all, there is something about this artistic perspective that really brings out the way in which the Nazis operated. It was a definite 'us' or 'them' mentality in which they silenced everyone who even slightly criticised them. Höfgen is a physical depiction of that silencing in which he cannot lose his livelihood but he also has to shake his moral and political compass out of fear of being killed. Honestly, I loved how this book gives us a warped perspective of both the main character and the place/time they inhabit.