Adolf nel Paese delle Meraviglie

by Carlton Mellick III

In un mondo dominato dalle idee del nazismo, due ufficiali delle SS sono sulle tracce dell’ultimo uomo imperfetto che minaccia la purezza dell’umanità.
Uno degli ufficiali si ritrova all’improvviso da solo in uno strano paesino nel mezzo del deserto, senza memoria, incapace di ricordare perfino il proprio nome. Sulla sua divisa c’è scritto Adolf Hitler, e tutti gli strani abitanti del luogo lo chiamano così. Adolf ricorda solo un dettaglio del proprio passato: la missione per trovare l’ultimo uomo imperfetto.
Il mondo in cui si muove però sembra impazzito: le persone che incontra sono ben oltre la semplice imperfezione, sono autentici mostri dai corpi deformi e dalle menti deviate. Nulla è giusto, nulla è come dovrebbe essere: neppure il giorno e la notte si alternano come dovrebbero e perfino il confine tra la vita e la morte non è più invalicabile.
Adolf non può fare altro che attraversare un mondo sottosopra, concentrato su una missione che è ormai l’unica ragione della sua esistenza.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Fantasy

122 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 18, 2007

About the author

Carlton Mellick III (July 2, 1977, Phoenix, Arizona) is an American author currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He calls his style of writing "avant-punk," and is currently one of the leading authors in the recent 'Bizarro' movement in underground literature[citation needed] with Steve Aylett, Chris Genoa and D. Harlan Wilson.

Mellick's work has been described as a combination of trashy schlock sci-fi/horror and postmodern literary art. His novels explore surreal versions of earth in contemporary society and imagined futures, commonly focusing on social absurdities and satire.

Carlton Mellick III started writing at the age of ten and completed twelve novels by the age of eighteen. Only one of these early novels, "Electric Jesus Corpse", ever made it to print.

He is best known for his first novel Satan Burger and its sequel Punk Land. Satan Burger was translated into Russian and published by Ultra Culture in 2005. It was part of a four book series called Brave New World, which also featured Virtual Light by William Gibson, City Come A Walkin by John Shirley, and Tea from an Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan.

In the late 90's, he formed a collective for offbeat authors which included D. Harlan Wilson, Kevin L. Donihe, Vincent Sakowski, among others, and the publishing company Eraserhead Press. This scene evolved into the Bizarro fiction movement in 2005.

In addition to writing, Mellick is an artist and musician.

Reviews

[Emory · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with anyone who has anything even remotely negative to say about this book. The reviews thus far have been positive, though I am concerned by some of the critical statements.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but you should keep in mind one of the few defining characteristics of Bizarro fiction. It should be fun. Here I believe Mellick has succeeded and will continue to succeed in his writing. His stories, no matter how simplistic or weird they may appear, are always fun.

Whether you spend an hour with his work as in the case of War Slut, or several days in the case of Satan Burger you will be entertained. Adolf in Wonderland is a nice medium between Mellick's two extremes.

And don't let the artwork scare you off! Buying a book with a swastika on the cover doesn't make you a hateful person. Mellick addresses the perception of anti-semitism in the author's note. As other reviewers here have mentioned, the main theme is unachievable perfection, the folly of Hitler's master plan.

In short, enjoy the story, it is money and time well spent.

[Andrew Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love CM3. I'm on a quest to read all of his books. I knew from the title / cover alone that I would not like this one in the least. And I didn't. I only read it because of my quest. And I still love CM3. If you dislike this book, don't give up on this author. He is incredible and most all of his 60+ books are worth reading / amazing.

[TAP · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absurdity to the point of boredom. There were some interesting descriptions and concepts but there was far too much pointlessness to it all.

[The Poor Person's Book Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nazi obsessed with perfection gets tossed into a wonderland of chaos. I loved it! Very unique, you can tell CM3 really put some real thought into the story and had a lot of fun doing it

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting story. Nazi Germany meets Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Two unnamed soldiers of Nazi Germany are off to search for the last imperfect men. After being knocked out he finds himself in a world of chaos and imperfect. After reading a name on his uniform he thinks that he is Adolf (and other people do to). The book is full of misadventures and strange beings/people. Bizarro fiction at it's best. The writer really is creative and have a lot of imagination and I bet a little twisted mind.

Bizzaro fiction is not a very easy concept and not very easy type of book to read. I will keep reading a couple more to make my mind of it but so far it's not getting much points in my scale. But you can't judge a genre because of one or two books.

[Dana’s Swamp Monster · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third CM3! This was a fascinating read, and again, the imagination that goes into these novellas astounds me. The storyline was a tad bit lacking in my opinion, it’s just seemed a bit repetitive. I also would have liked a bit more of a tied up ending, but I think that might be a me problem 😂🙇‍♀️ I wouldn’t let that put you off though, if you like bizarro-fiction, it’s still a really fun read!
If you haven’t read a book by CM3 yet, I’d recommend starting with “Goblins on the other side”.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adolf In Wonderland is a brilliant book and here's why. There are parallels to not only Alice In Wonderland but The Metamorphosis which was written by a brilliant writer named Franz Kafka. Mellick has blended these two stories together while staying totally original. You can see the influence but he's made Wonderland a story that isn't exactly like either book.

I truly felt for Adolf as he struggled through this place filled with imperfection and he has this idea that he's the one who is perfect yet he has no memory of who is or who he's supposed to find. For me that was the true draw of the book. That quest to find order among the chaos even though you have no idea what you're looking for.

Adolf In Wonderland is a surreal book filled with a variety of characters that Adolf feels are abominations yet they see Hitler as the abomination. Mellick never tells us if this is in fact Hitler because the man named Hitler has actually lost his memory.

Mellick has once again crafted a story built upon the absurb yet it remains highly readable. Despite the bizarro storyline the real story of Hitler's quest shines through and you begin to feel just as frustrated as Hitler does.

If you've never read a Mellick novel before this is a good place to start. If you can ignore the surrealism and absurdity there is a great story here but bizarro isn't for everyone so don't whine and complain that you didn't get the story. I think everyone sees Adolf In Wonderland differently and that's what makes this book so good. There are no right answers and Mellick is one of those writers you either love or hate. I happen to be a huge Mellick fan and will read whatever he puts out.

[Kate · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was absolutely atrocious. Even for bizarro fiction the prose was terrible and I found that it had the mindset of an ill informed middle school student trying their hand at writing. The sentences were entirely too fragmented for my taste even if they were written that way on purpose. There is a lack of description and character development. The author will describe one thing vague detail and leave the rest plain. The over use of "ish" such as "youngish", "Hitlerish" left me greatly aggravated and wishing for any other adjective. The story line didn't follow itself either. For trying to parallel "Alice in Wonderland", it failed miserably. It is an insult to the very creation of that story. I by no means consider myself a professional writer but my mind had to fill entirely too much in for me to have a chance at enjoying the book. While I admire the author's attempt at paying homage to Lewis Carroll, I cannot say that this was a well written, enjoyable book.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

What can I say. Pretty nonsensical. Mellick is hit or miss for me. This was pretty much a miss. Then again, I didn't care for Alice in Wonderland either.

[Occuntist · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like Anal Cunt, if they knew how to write

[Casey Babb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been thinking about trying to be less perfect lately, so I picked this book up at the right time. Adolf in Wonderland is the story of a man pursuing an imperfection that he is unable to identify through an imperfect world full of imperfect characters. Imperfect by Adolf’s standards, I mean- many of the characters and settings are really interesting, both in design and by their actions/attributes. It combines the strict order and control of the Nazis with the absurd freedom of Wonderland, and though it’s similar to Alice in Wonderland in spirit, Mellick manages to make Adolf in Wonderland its own thing.

For the most part, I thought Adolf Hitler was easy to relate to, but he frequently shows you the error in his ways. In fact, I often found myself at odds with Adolf’s decisions, probably because I wasn’t being forced to make these decisions myself. The story is a bit of a life lesson, with the real absurdity coming from Adolf Hitler himself, as you see how the quest for perfection really plays out. Mellick ties the book up nicely by closing with a quote from Haridas Chaudhuri.

At the point, I’ve read a few CM3 books, and this one is probably my favorite. One constant I like about Mellick’s books is that they are quick reads. It’s almost like you’re on a car ride, with someone telling you this really interesting story, and before you know it, you’ve arrived at your destination.

[Mike Futcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adolf in Wonderland is a haphazard mix of Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka with a tangible Philip K. Dick influence and a little (just a little) dash of Monty Python. Actually, that makes it sound awesome, which is a state of being it approaches at times, but it is very uneven, a bit hit-and-miss.

The dichotomy between the efficiency and 'perfection' of the Nazi master race and the chaos and imperfection of Wonderland drives the story nicely, and the book has its moments of humour, most notably the times when the amnesiac protagonist is trying to decipher his Nazi uniform in order to figure out his name. In my opinion, the moral of the story revealed at the end was interesting, but only just interesting enough to warrant the effort put in.

The book only just scraped through for me - I guess I just thought the execution would be a bit more assured, the ending a bit more profound. It's worth a look if you are intrigued by it (or by the title, as I was) and it is short and easy to read, so if you don't like it you won't have wasted much time on it. But this rabbit-hole doesn't go very deep.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't stop reading from the very first page. If you like surreal books, this is for you.

[Mike Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read a couple short stories by the author so thought i’d give a novel (or novelette as seems to be the bizarro norm). I only got through half and that was painful. Is the use of very short sentences a stylistic choice? If it is all it does is serve to make. a choppy.unpleasant. reading. experience. The plot and the random bizzarre situations that unfolded were idiotic and uninteresting. The story screamed for humor, it might of saved the book (a bit)- alas there was none. As I said the couple of short stories I read were very good, so maybe i’ll give another of his novelettes a chance- but this one uggh!

[Robert Giesenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid Mellick offering. I’m sure the Nazi symbolism throws people off. If it does than that’s khoul. For me the bigger underlying theme here is the undying aspirations to achieve an un achievable goal. How long will one hold out before realizing that everything they thought they knew was a farce?

Plus, it’s Mellick, so you know absurdity is the name of the game. If you read his books simply to soak in the warped mind that is CM III and just enjoy the ride through said warped mind, all will be well.

[April Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was a nice little tribute to Lewis Carroll's wonderland tail. The world was quite a load of nonsense, as would be expected. There was quite a bit of repetitive dialogue with between characters which I grew weary of about midway through.

For whatever reason I didn't enjoy this as much as some of his other books. Very glad I read it for the experience, but probably won't do a reread. Lol, book looks amazing on my shelf though.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to keep checking my sobriety while reading this. I mean.. points for a book that makes you feel dazed and confused while reading. Still, I'm sad to say this is probably one of my least favorite Mellick books.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good in general. Good end. Definitely read it as a critique and slam against the futile attempt of Nazis and fascists to seek perfection - how the world is riddled with imperfections and how everyone has their own conception of what being "perfect" means.

[Petru Murzin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I didn’t like Alice in Wonderland, neither this setting, also I understand that it’s quite interesting to put some of the Hitlers fan in that position, a man who accepts only order, to live and die in a place totally different from what he knew before.

[Travis Yannell · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
I like CM3's other books, but this was just too abstract to be interesting. Seeing a surreal entity is weird. Seeing that entity sneeze in 4 dimentions while waving broken plastic spoons with their armpits is too absurd to be interesting anymore.

[Algirdas Kraunaitis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf. With a premise like this I expected an exciting journey through a chaotic world, full of interesting characters, events and concepts. Instead I kept falling asleep and being generally bored by it.

[Ollie-Lee Regan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the lowest rated book by Mellick so far. I usually love everything he does but this one was too nonsensical for me. I get it, he was going for a weird "Alice in Wonderland" vibe with a character who may or may not be Hitler. It just didn't land for me, but I got a few good chuckles.

[Dean Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The golden eel knows what's up.

[Thomas Stenitzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow. was für ein hirnf*ck.

[Samaire Wynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Mellick's best.

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let’s throw Hilter down the rabbit hole in an Alice in wonderland world.

[Eva Quattrocchi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book stressed me out.

[Ashley Dougherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting. Very out there but comes together in the end. “The greater the emphasis on perfection, the further it recedes” - Haridas Chaucer’s. Very well said.

[Thomas Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weird bizarre story of a man with no memory searching for the most imperfect man in a city full of imperfections. This story is was so bizarre I didn't even really understand.

[Bo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amnesiac officer on the hunt for the last imperfect man in a future ruled by the nazis that won World War Two, finds himself in a twisted wonderland where nothing is what it first appears to be. Every person he comes across is imperfect but not in the way he assumes his prey (that he can't remember) to be.