Look Who's Back

One of the most interesting satires I've ever read. Vermes' use of first-person narration is unsettling in the right way—Hitler vacillates between humorous, fish-out-of-water misunderstandings, a few uncomfortable truths about global capitalism (with the cause, of course, grossly misattributed), and reprehensible fascist sentiment that shocks the reader into discomfort over how comfortable they've grown with him. Vermes wrote Look Who's Back in 2011 for a German audience; while similarities to a certain American President are coincidental, suffice it to say that the book has aged beautifully. Vermes demonstrates that you, yes, you, are receptive to evil if you are propagandized in the correct way. Much of the novel's humor comes from how much the world has changed since Hitler's time, but its tragedy comes from just how similar the world still is.