By
– January 9, 2012
Hugo Hamilton’s novel Disguise is a fascinating trip through the past and present, exploring memory and identity during a time when so many could not reconcile the two. Disguise tells the story of Gregor Liedmann, a professional musician and an absentee father who has struggled his entire life in pursuit of an inhabitable identity. The story begins in World War II Germany when a three-year-old Jewish orphan is given to a German woman to replace her recently deceased son Gregor. He is given the dead boy’s name, identity, language, and ethnicity, a secret that haunts Gregor well into adulthood. Readers find Gregor sixty years later still trying to assert his true identity.
Hamilton shines as a storyteller, creating a narrative so involved, so detailed that readers feel as though they know almost everything about the protagonist. Readers learn about the Berlin wall, the unraveling of his marriage, the taxidermy that he grew up with as a child. It brings Gregor to life. Disguise is peppered with musings about identity, always bringing readers back to Gregor’s internal dialog. At times the richness of the story is overshadowed by a somewhat superfluous writing style with descriptions, similes, and metaphors used beyond their utility when the story is strong enough to speak for itself. Disguise is a well-crafted novel, despite its writerly qualities; it holds its own as a moving reflection of history and memory.
Joanna Solotaroff was born and raised in Minneapolis and graduated from the University of Minnesota. She works as a community organizer in South Minneapolis.
