There are limits to research, sure, but how often have writers imposed them on themselves? Is this laziness or the admission that not everything needs to be included? If we accept this, we must also accept that even the most exhaustively researched material is subject to the whims, tastes, and interpretation of the writer. Such statements, which may suggest a lack of commitment to some readers, can also be seen as a confession, one that must ring true to even seasoned historians. So it’s better for me not to know more of the details that way I won’t be tempted to share them so in the end, maybe I can do without this overpriced book.

I just don’t feel like doing a ballroom scene, and even less the romantic walk in the park. The book in question, written by Heydrich’s wife, would surely pay an important role in the retelling of Heydrich’s wedding, but Binet justifies not buying the book by writing: Early in the story, Binet discovers an expensive volume that would aid in his research, though he is conflicted about whether or not to spend the money. Much has already been made over the meta structure of the book and Binet’s interjections. HHhH is hardly a book about Heydrich or Nazism or Gabčík and Kubiš. That said, I do not wish to criticize the book for a lack of focus. All of these events circle around Heydrich, the subject of HHhH, though, again, Binet’s struggle in writing the book is as much a part of it as anything else.

As such, they are a bit ancillary, though their mission is treated with the same importance as the slaughters of Babi Yar. These figures, though they play an important part of the book, are introduced mostly as they are a fact of Heydrich’s life. I write that he has an obsession with Heydrich himself-his early life, his rise to power, and his death-as the book deals more with him than with Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, the assassins who (barely) complete their mission. In this sense, HHhH is not a traditional work of historical fiction, as it meanders, strays, and focuses more than slightly on Binet’s life in conjunction with his Heydrich obsession. HHhH, his first novel (if it can be called such) spends a considerable amount if its 327 pages dwelling on Binet’s inability to truthfully tell the story of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the “butcher of Prague,” Nazi extraordinaire. Laurent Binet not only realizes this-he embraces it. Even the most skilled biographer or historian must confront the reality that it is never possible to accurately recreate an event without exercising the rights of artistic license. Without a doubt, someone will disagree with that statement, though they would be hard pressed to compile sufficient evidence to support their position.

Hhhh novel