Rating: 
Summary: "Daddy Dearest" from the Wagners
Review: A major disappointment. There are some very well-written books on the Wagner family and their well-known links to Hitler. We know they loved the guy. We know they crossed their fingers and did what they could to get through de-nazification after the war. So when you open Gottfried's little tell-all, you hope for some insights from the other side of the walls at Wahnfried. But what you find adds absolutely nothing to what is known about the Wagner crowd and their love affair with der fuehrer. That our reading public seems fascinated with celebrity biographies about childhood abuse is sad enough. When a non-celebrity non-entity from the Wagner family who happens nonetheless to be a direct descendent from the composer actually finds a publisher to print one of these trashy tomes (shame on you Picador Books), we have truly entered a new level in book-publishing. I deeply regret adding to global warming by buying this thing. This copy of Gottfried's whiny little book won't even be donated to the local library.
Rating:
Summary: Wagner's Favorite Whine
Review: Apart from some gossipy behind-the-scenes tidbits about the Wagners, this tedious book has little to offer. The author provides no insights at all into either Richard Wagner or even the author's family. There is little here that we did not already know from other sources: Wolfgang Wagner is a power-obsessed despot, for example. Winifred was an unrepentant Nazi and a virulent anti-semite. Who doesn't know that?
Most of this book appears to be the author's attempt to (a) settle old scores, particularly against family members, and (b) publicly atone for his sense of personal guilt at being a member of the Wagner family. Very little of what is in here merited publication. Gottfried comes across as whiny, self-indulgent, and not a little self-righteous. His recurrent theme is, "Everybody Hates Me, Nobody Loves Me, I Think I'll Go Out And Eat Worms." Don't waste your time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Daddy Dearest!
Review: Based on a CSPAN interview with Gottfried Wagner I expected a lot more from this book, especially since Dr. Wagner was motivated to embark on writing this book based on talk he gave at my alma mater, Richard Stockton College of NJ. Anyway, I really thought I would gain some insight to how a family, entwined in Hitler's inner cultural circle, deals with its past. Simply, they deny it. But do we need 300 pages of whining about how "daddy never loved me?" I think not. This is self-indulgence at its worst. Gottfried Wagner goes on and on about just how sensitive he is, and how most of the world just doesn't understand the horror of the holocaust. Not to mention his excusing all of the atheist Nietzche's part in German thought and process in the 1920's, 30's and 40's. So who doesn't know that Richard Wagner was an anti-semite? I love his music, I hate the man, but then again that can be said for a lot of famous artists. The horror of the Holocaust is still with us today. One need only look at the persecution of Bahai's in Iran, Christians in Sudan, and religious people of all sorts in the People's Republic of China. Only the groups have changed, the thugs are still with us. We've learned nothing, and TWILIGHT OF THE WAGNERS doesn't provide the reader with any new insights. There is nothing new here, don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Dr. Wagner's great work
Review: Dr Wagner's work examines the pulse of lovers of Richard Wagner that still runs deeply thru the veins of Germany. His autobiography, which further examines the shaping events in his life, is also quite remarkable. This is a great book for all who are interested in musicology, Germany, or a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Twilight Zone
Review: Gotfried Wagner gives us the inside story on the Wagner dynasty. He is certainly an nonconformist Wagner: a supporter of social - democracy and a promoter of German - Jewish understanding who wrote his doctorate on the Jewish composer Kurt Weil. Dr. Wagner tells us what it was like growing up in the strange world of Bayreuth and about the infighting between the heirs to the dynasty.He leaves no doubts as to the historical anti-semitism of the Wagner legacy as well as the war time collabaration with the Nazis (Hitler was endearingly called "Uncle Wolf"). That anti - semitism lives on today. He considers Daniel Birenboim as somewhat of a careerist and a dupe who purposely chooses to ignore the anti - semitism of Bayreuth. Dr. Wagner completely broke with the Wagner heritage and for this he has my admiration. An interesting story but the book cold have been better edited and reduced by say, fifty pages.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not one of them
Review: I saw Gottfried Wagner on a panel discussion broadcast on c-span's booktv, and was anxious to read this book. How fascinating it sounded: an exploration of how music [specifically Wagner's] affects our emotions and thus our thoughts, and how manipulaters can use music's abilities to do so for political ends; how Wagner's anti-semitism affected Hitler, and how Hitler used it to affect others; an inside view of the famous Bayreuth Festival; most importantly, how an individual, or a family, or a nation, can come to grips with the concept of guilt. And all of these elements are indeed addressed to some extent. Unfortunately, the book is less than compelling. I wonder if the writing style is as awkward in German as in English [that is, was the translator awkward? or is Gottfried an awkward writer?]. Ignoring the style, the "expose" is less a contemplation of evil and redemption than a finger-pointing exercise. Gottfried is bitter about his family -- partially because of their record of anti-semitic behavior, but also because of the seemingly lack of a loving environment when he was a child. He relates many anecdotes from his childhood [being sent off during the festival, harsh school experiences] that have obviously [and naturally] colored his thinking and view of the family. But I would hate to thing that his entire life's effort is merely an adolescent "pay-back" for an unhappy childhood. The book remains interesting when he talks about the Wagners, Bayreuth, Hitler; less so when it talks about Gottfried's career. Hopefully future researchers will use it as a source, and will provide us with reading matter which attempts to answer some of the questions Gottfried raises.
Rating:
Summary: In my opinion, an involving and satisfying book
Review: I was originally put off by this book because of the bad reviews it received here; but when I saw it in a bookstore, I picked it up and started reading. I didn't want to stop. To me, it was fascinating and I knew without a doubt that I would purchase it. I'm glad I read it, and feel good about recommending it to others.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: I wish I had read the other reviews of this ponderous whinethon before I spent the money or more importantly the time enduring it. I had heard the author interviewed on NPR several times, and he is reasonably interesting in an interview. He is, however, an apallingly bad writer. This should have been pretty compelling stuff, but Gottfried Wagner has managed to turn it into an almost unending diatribe with repetitive and uninteresting details about his family's conflicts. There is also an uncomfortably consistent thread of self promotion present throughout most of his longwinded tales of his exodus from Bayreuth. While I can appreciate his angst over discovering the dark secrets of his family background, he could have covered that territory in a lot less time and paper. If you want to read a fascinating book and one that will give you a far better idea of what growing up in Nazi Germany was really like, try "Stones From the River". It, unlike this lump, is brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: I wish I had read the other reviews of this ponderous whinethon before I spent the money or more importantly the time enduring it. I had heard the author interviewed on NPR several times, and he is reasonably interesting in an interview. He is, however, an apallingly bad writer. This should have been pretty compelling stuff, but Gottfried Wagner has managed to turn it into an almost unending diatribe with repetitive and uninteresting details about his family's conflicts. There is also an uncomfortably consistent thread of self promotion present throughout most of his longwinded tales of his exodus from Bayreuth. While I can appreciate his angst over discovering the dark secrets of his family background, he could have covered that territory in a lot less time and paper. If you want to read a fascinating book and one that will give you a far better idea of what growing up in Nazi Germany was really like, try "Stones From the River". It, unlike this lump, is brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Letting the Skeletons out of the Closet; Facing His Ghosts
Review: Rambling and often disjointed, Twilight of the Wagners (a clever pun on Götterdämmerung - Twilight of the Gods) is more, much more, than the self-proclaimed "unveiling of a family`s legacy" that it is. From Hitler to Hess to the Wagner tribe to von Karajan to Furtwängler, they`re all here - all the great actors on the stage of History who, out of patriotism or madness, played a more than casual role in what was to be one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Like ghosts from the past, they are called up and made to act out their roles with sometimes convincing color and life throughout the pages of this book. Although Gottfried Wagner is to be praised for unveiling his family`s legacy, the reader cannot help but wonder if this is really the mea culpa - the final exorcism of anti-semitic ghosts throughout no less than three generations - that it is meant to be. After reading it, you come away with the feeling that, beneath all the history, there is a razor-sharp undercurrent of bitterness and an overwhelming desire to prove that "I`m good; they`re bad." Too, this book does not really unveil a dark legacy - it rips the mouldering shrouds off quite a few corpses; corpses that it might have been better to leave quietly buried. Closet doors fly open, and skeletons - some over a century old, others quite new - come tumbling merrily out. In other words, it doesn`t unveil a legacy, it spills the beans. Written in an almost conversational tone, the impression that it gives is that this is a prolixic, disjointed confession - one tinged with personal impressions but lacking the satisfying basis of empirical fact-finding and research. Regrettably, the very thing that would make this an enjoyable book - its first-person narrative and conversational style - is also what makes it a rather tedious book to read. Equally regrettable is the fact that there is a distinctive self-promoting slant to the book. Regardless, it makes for an enjoyable first reading - although it probably won`t tempt you back for a second dose, and the historical anecdotes it contains are more than enough to whet the appetite of those researchers searching for the distinctively domestic touch that most treatises on the Third Reich lack.
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