Commenting on the controversy the book generated , Steiner admitted to literary journalist and critic Ron Rosenbaum ( author of Explaining Hitler ) that he too was disturbed by it , adding that his fictional Hitler had gotten the better of him , " golem- or Frankenstein @-@ like " . He said that it felt like the book " wrote me " . Steiner also pointed out that the novella is not only about his thoughts on the Holocaust , but also about the horrific events that took place in countries like Cambodia , Vietnam , El Salvador and Burundi : " My feeling is that one has to grapple with the abyss if one can . "