Finished reading this book. It will stay with me for a very long while. It was a difficult book to put down once I started reading it. One could say that fear causes people to do things they would not normally do, but fear does not have to result in cruelty.
First of all, I like that this book brought to attention an event that few know about (including me before reading the book). Like B, I think this book will stay with me for a long while.
With that said, I just couldn't enjoy it and it is not a book I will read again. There was just too much pain and cruelty, both for Sarah and Julia.
Also, the first half of the book drove me crazy with the short, alternating chapters. I can see that there might be a literary point in making the reader feel off-center and to make the stories so much more intertwined, but I don't think it was necessary and it ruined a lot of the continuity for me.
Only one page did I mark to quote and that is on p. 71: "In that sheltered, gentle life that seemed far away, the girl would have belieed her mother. SHe used to believe everything her mother said. But in this harsh new world, the girl felt she had grown up. She felt older than her mother. ... Her mother had become like a child." This struck me as being particularly poignant. I remember when I found out that my mother had lied to me as a kid. She had told me (for when playing tag), that if I couldn't see them then they couldn't see me. I believed this for a long time (and was "it" a lot) and then one day I realized that this wasn't true. How devastating. And this is such a small thing, not like Sarah's experience.
I'll also confess my complete ignorance of the roundup prior to reading this book, which is sad. It got me thinking about how much the word still struggles with ethnic cleansing (Cambodia, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Rwanda off the top of my head). It also reminded me of the Night of the Pencils in Argentina, which you can read about here.
Now that I'm thoroughly depressed, I'm going to put this book into the "ok but not WOW" pile. When compared to other, more powerful WWII novels, this one just lacked something. I connected more to Julia than to Sarah, but I wish it had been the other way around. I don't mind books that switch between times/locations/narrators, but the strict every-other-chapter format felt forced. It just didn't give me enough time with Sarah in the build up. I did get pretty involved with Julia's story though, so much so that I started to ask a friend what she thought about Bertrand asking Julia to have an abortion before I realized it was in a book I was reading and not on a tv show we were watching. I really wanted Julia to leave him. I hated the way she endured his bullying comments and affair with Amelie (perhaps the same way the French police endured the German occupation?) I think Rosnay could have gone a little farther with that parallel.
In the same breath I'll also say that I think she could have left off the last few chapters about Julia's move to NY and sub-par love life. Seemed like she was really trying to mimic Sarah's life and it didn't work for me.
I must say I didn't really care for this book. It was too "coincidental". I wish there was more about Sarah and less about Julia.
I too knew nothing about the roundup in France. I just cannot believe how many Jews were rounded up in so many different countries. How did this happen?
I really felt the pain when the children were separated from the mothers. My oh my, how painful that must've been.
There was a comment in the book about interviewing the policemen and guards and getting their view on things. I don't think I have read ANY book from that viewpoint, do you know of any? Did they really think they were doing the right thing?
I must say I didn't really care for this book. It was too "coincidental". I wish there was more about Sarah and less about Julia.
I too knew nothing about the roundup in France. I just cannot believe how many Jews were rounded up in so many different countries. How did this happen?
I really felt the pain when the children were separated from the mothers. My oh my, how painful that must've been.
There was a comment in the book about interviewing the policemen and guards and getting their view on things. I don't think I have read ANY book from that viewpoint, do you know of any? Did they really think they were doing the right thing?
I haven't read or heard of any books from the police or militaries view on the Holocaust, either. I don't think they could have thought they were doing the right thing, but they may not have known how wrong it was. They probably did not know what was happening to them. Plus, I'm sure there were a lot of threats and brainwashing of the police and military both.
7 comments:
Finished reading this book. It will stay with me for a very long while. It was a difficult book to put down once I started reading it. One could say that fear causes people to do things they would not normally do, but fear does not have to result in cruelty.
I am reading it, but slowly. It is so depressing that I have to force myself to read it- especially the chapters following the girl.
Okay, I made better time through the second half.
First of all, I like that this book brought to attention an event that few know about (including me before reading the book). Like B, I think this book will stay with me for a long while.
With that said, I just couldn't enjoy it and it is not a book I will read again. There was just too much pain and cruelty, both for Sarah and Julia.
Also, the first half of the book drove me crazy with the short, alternating chapters. I can see that there might be a literary point in making the reader feel off-center and to make the stories so much more intertwined, but I don't think it was necessary and it ruined a lot of the continuity for me.
Only one page did I mark to quote and that is on p. 71: "In that sheltered, gentle life that seemed far away, the girl would have belieed her mother. SHe used to believe everything her mother said. But in this harsh new world, the girl felt she had grown up. She felt older than her mother. ... Her mother had become like a child." This struck me as being particularly poignant. I remember when I found out that my mother had lied to me as a kid. She had told me (for when playing tag), that if I couldn't see them then they couldn't see me. I believed this for a long time (and was "it" a lot) and then one day I realized that this wasn't true. How devastating. And this is such a small thing, not like Sarah's experience.
I'll also confess my complete ignorance of the roundup prior to reading this book, which is sad. It got me thinking about how much the word still struggles with ethnic cleansing (Cambodia, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Rwanda off the top of my head). It also reminded me of the Night of the Pencils in Argentina, which you can read about here.
Now that I'm thoroughly depressed, I'm going to put this book into the "ok but not WOW" pile. When compared to other, more powerful WWII novels, this one just lacked something. I connected more to Julia than to Sarah, but I wish it had been the other way around. I don't mind books that switch between times/locations/narrators, but the strict every-other-chapter format felt forced. It just didn't give me enough time with Sarah in the build up. I did get pretty involved with Julia's story though, so much so that I started to ask a friend what she thought about Bertrand asking Julia to have an abortion before I realized it was in a book I was reading and not on a tv show we were watching. I really wanted Julia to leave him. I hated the way she endured his bullying comments and affair with Amelie (perhaps the same way the French police endured the German occupation?) I think Rosnay could have gone a little farther with that parallel.
In the same breath I'll also say that I think she could have left off the last few chapters about Julia's move to NY and sub-par love life. Seemed like she was really trying to mimic Sarah's life and it didn't work for me.
I finished a while ago but no blog time.
I must say I didn't really care for this book. It was too "coincidental". I wish there was more about Sarah and less about Julia.
I too knew nothing about the roundup in France. I just cannot believe how many Jews were rounded up in so many different countries. How did this happen?
I really felt the pain when the children were separated from the mothers. My oh my, how painful that must've been.
There was a comment in the book about interviewing the policemen and guards and getting their view on things. I don't think I have read ANY book from that viewpoint, do you know of any? Did they really think they were doing the right thing?
I finished a while ago but no blog time.
I must say I didn't really care for this book. It was too "coincidental". I wish there was more about Sarah and less about Julia.
I too knew nothing about the roundup in France. I just cannot believe how many Jews were rounded up in so many different countries. How did this happen?
I really felt the pain when the children were separated from the mothers. My oh my, how painful that must've been.
There was a comment in the book about interviewing the policemen and guards and getting their view on things. I don't think I have read ANY book from that viewpoint, do you know of any? Did they really think they were doing the right thing?
I haven't read or heard of any books from the police or militaries view on the Holocaust, either. I don't think they could have thought they were doing the right thing, but they may not have known how wrong it was. They probably did not know what was happening to them. Plus, I'm sure there were a lot of threats and brainwashing of the police and military both.
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