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Exhaustive and exhausting

For some reason, I had never read about Bonhoeffer and this book had been on my list for a while. The historical detail is fascinating especially as I studied WW2 at school. To read about events from a Christian perspective was well worth the effort. The conspiracy to assassinate Hitler raised questions in my mind; I had no idea that so many attempts had been made. I'm sure the would-be assassins, many of whom thought they were carrying out God's judgement, must've begun asking themselves why these attempts kept failing and were ultimately unsuccessful. Yet, this doesn't seem to have been a consideration once they had determined their course of action.

This is an extremely thorough biography compiled from journal entries, letters, known facts, media, witnesses and many other sources. There are some excellent quotes. I'm not sure I agree with Bonhoeffer's theology in places, but I admire his courage and perseverance in the face of great persecution.

The book is full of facts and figures and should definitely be edited. It also tails off for the final third becoming less interesting and more rambling. I would have preferred a book about a third of the size written more for a lay reader. This will do well for historians or those with a special interest in Bonhoeffer and is useful for reference, but the story is lost in the mass of information.

I also struggled with the almost saintly presentation of Bonhoeffer by the author. I'm sure the subject would also have struggled to be depicted in this way. He appears to be a man almost without fault, taking on the entire German machine of the Third Reich single-handedly, and predicting the war and Hitler's lunacy years before any of it happened. In fact, the author constantly refers to his incredible foresight in addition to all his other alleged super-human abilities. I found this difficult as the bias was not subtle.

Definitely worth a read just for the historical perspective which is often skipped over in secular history lessons!