About halfway through a novel depicting Adolf Hitler's childhood by Norman Mailer, the narrator cautions readers against drawing hasty conclusions about the future Fuhrer based on his youthful episodes. In a scene during which young Adolf's father fumigates his bee farm, the narrator, an SS guard identified as Dieter, says: "Here, I would warn the reader not to make too much of the gassing nor the body count. It is not to be understood as the unique cause of all that came later."
That is to say, there is no simple explanation for Hitler, no prescription for understanding both his evil and his madness. And yet, Mailer's narrative on the early days of "Adi," as Hitler is ...