I finished reading the book last night. I must admit that I figured out the ending rather early in the book. It was not a surprise to me.
Julienne's husband Frank was a very thoughtful loving person who appears to have pieced together the truths of her past without having to be told. He furnished the house in Maine in a way that would encourage her to recall things that had been said in her younger years that she had not thought about or analyzed before. Frank seems to have had the mind of a psychologist.
The horrors of war that women especially have to deal with are always difficult to read. The glimmer of humanity that holds on and comes through in a small minority of people is all that saves the human race from totally aniliating itself. What is it in men that makes them behave so brutally against the very creatures that they would otherwise fight to the death to protect.
The children of war are caught up in something they don't understand and only their survival instinct keeps them going when nothing and no one is left that they trusted and relied on for safety.
I would find it very difficult to move to another country where I would have to learn the customs, food, and language. Just moving from one state to another was not all that easy. Julienne was fortunate that she already had a home provided for her so she did not have to deal with that part of her transition.
It appears to me that Suzannah spoke in parables telling Julienne things without openly telling her.
I have to say I didn't really care for this book. It was a lot of Julienne thinking about thinking, and I found it a bit boring. Like B, I figured out the "twist" early-on and spent the rest of the book waiting for it to happen.
There were a lot of grammatical errors in my copy (especially in the later chapters) so it felt like I was proofreading. Examples: "It is all the other things she thought me that I miss"
"The more I drove around in my new American car, a blue Thunderbird, an appropriate name for a car for me, it went as fast as the wind but there was the question of speed limitations I was to observe." What happened the more you drove around?
"That day one the only time I saw my aunt in distressed, and angry."
I will say I went a little bit crazy waiting for Julienne to open the box from Suzannah. In the beginning of the book Julienne says "How I wish she were here. So many fragmented memories could be clarified, If nothing else I learned from her to never wait. When I have questions of when there something I do not understand, I ask for explanations. People died and left me hanging, searching for elusive answers" and then it takes her seven years to open the box Suzannah left her? No, it just doesn't make sense!
I did find Suzannah's story very interesting, and I think the book would have been a lot better if the chapters alternated between Suzannah's war narrative and Julienne's modern day life, both culminating at the same plot twist. Overall the stories were good but the execution wasn't quite right. Maybe with a better editor and another revision?
B, your points about war and humanity are spot on. "What is it in men that makes them behave so brutally against the very creatures that they would otherwise fight to the death to protect." I wonder about this myself all the time, especially recently with the mass kidnappings of schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. I can't even wrap my mind around how one person, let alone an entire group of people, can find this acceptable. Every time we read a war book I ask myself - "what would I have done?" Would I have been brave enough to help and hide Jews? Escaped slaves? I like to think so, but then again, I think most people would have said the same until there was some sort of lethal danger involved. Else, how could such atrocities ever happen? If all decent people stood up and said "NO!" could history have been different?
Good things can happen when people band together and refuse to tolerate violence. Click here to read about Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
Well, I can’t say I was a fan of this book. There was too much THINKING and not enough action. I read the kindle version and there were TONS of typos so it got more enjoyable watching for typos than the plot of the book. Some examples (that were actually humorous): “Frank asked often as he game a hug.” “still browsing the isles” as she was shopping “my crown of ribbons exposing my shinny curls” “I had only one chair and one table, they were both white and pants guaranteed to flower were in blue and white planters from Italy”. PLANTS not PANTS. “answered the telephone when it ran”. RANG not RAN.
And the flip/flop of the spelling of Suzannah/Susannah bothered me.
I got so tired of the phrase “as I understand it”.
The book would be much better if this all had been condensed to 2 or 3 chapters and the remainder of the book with how Julienne dealt with finding out her mother (but alas, maybe this if for the sequel).
I did not like Julienne at all. She was too rich, too sheltered, too incapable, something. I really wanted to slap her and tell her to get it together and do something. And a tattoo on her butt of an arrow, really? And what about the French class? What was the point?
I'm not a fan of the book, but I am not quite so hard on it as A and J. I liked the way the story was put together, with Julienne reflecting back and trying to make sense of what she had been told. I also liked the juxtaposition of her making a new life in America after a tragedy and Suzannah (however it is spelled) making a new life for herself in France. I also figured out the plot twist in advance, but found the lead up to the final reveal as enjoyable.
My copy also had MANY typos. It was translated from French, right? Maybe that is the reason for some of them? That or a VERY bad editor.
I also agree that there was too much reflection. At first her references to feeling Paul and Suzannah with her still was touching, then it was annoying, then it was frustrating.
I found the parts about the Holocaust very hard to read, for many of the same reasons A and B mention.
Finally, I have a hard time remembering conversations that happened yesterday, and yet she remembers conversations from years before that well? I don't buy it.
4 comments:
I finished reading the book last night. I must admit that I figured out the ending rather early in the book. It was not a surprise to me.
Julienne's husband Frank was a very thoughtful loving person who appears to have pieced together the truths of her past without having to be told. He furnished the house in Maine in a way that would encourage her to recall things that had been said in her younger years that she had not thought about or analyzed before. Frank seems to have had the mind of a psychologist.
The horrors of war that women especially have to deal with are always difficult to read. The glimmer of humanity that holds on and comes through in a small minority of people is all that saves the human race from totally aniliating itself. What is it in men that makes them behave so brutally against the very creatures that they would otherwise fight to the death to protect.
The children of war are caught up in something they don't understand and only their survival instinct keeps them going when nothing and no one is left that they trusted and relied on for safety.
I would find it very difficult to move to another country where I would have to learn the customs, food, and language. Just moving from one state to another was not all that easy. Julienne was fortunate that she already had a home provided for her so she did not have to deal with that part of her transition.
It appears to me that Suzannah spoke in parables telling Julienne things without openly telling her.
I have to say I didn't really care for this book. It was a lot of Julienne thinking about thinking, and I found it a bit boring. Like B, I figured out the "twist" early-on and spent the rest of the book waiting for it to happen.
There were a lot of grammatical errors in my copy (especially in the later chapters) so it felt like I was proofreading. Examples:
"It is all the other things she thought me that I miss"
"The more I drove around in my new American car, a blue Thunderbird, an appropriate name for a car for me, it went as fast as the wind but there was the question of speed limitations I was to observe." What happened the more you drove around?
"That day one the only time I saw my aunt in distressed, and angry."
I will say I went a little bit crazy waiting for Julienne to open the box from Suzannah. In the beginning of the book Julienne says "How I wish she were here. So many fragmented memories could be clarified, If nothing else I learned from her to never wait. When I have questions of when there something I do not understand, I ask for explanations. People died and left me hanging, searching for elusive answers" and then it takes her seven years to open the box Suzannah left her? No, it just doesn't make sense!
I did find Suzannah's story very interesting, and I think the book would have been a lot better if the chapters alternated between Suzannah's war narrative and Julienne's modern day life, both culminating at the same plot twist. Overall the stories were good but the execution wasn't quite right. Maybe with a better editor and another revision?
B, your points about war and humanity are spot on. "What is it in men that makes them behave so brutally against the very creatures that they would otherwise fight to the death to protect." I wonder about this myself all the time, especially recently with the mass kidnappings of schoolgirls by Boko Haram in Nigeria. I can't even wrap my mind around how one person, let alone an entire group of people, can find this acceptable. Every time we read a war book I ask myself - "what would I have done?" Would I have been brave enough to help and hide Jews? Escaped slaves? I like to think so, but then again, I think most people would have said the same until there was some sort of lethal danger involved. Else, how could such atrocities ever happen? If all decent people stood up and said "NO!" could history have been different?
Good things can happen when people band together and refuse to tolerate violence. Click here to read about Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
Well, I can’t say I was a fan of this book. There was too much THINKING and not enough action. I read the kindle version and there were TONS of typos so it got more enjoyable watching for typos than the plot of the book. Some examples (that were actually humorous):
“Frank asked often as he game a hug.”
“still browsing the isles” as she was shopping
“my crown of ribbons exposing my shinny curls”
“I had only one chair and one table, they were both white and pants guaranteed to flower were in blue and white planters from Italy”. PLANTS not PANTS.
“answered the telephone when it ran”. RANG not RAN.
And the flip/flop of the spelling of Suzannah/Susannah bothered me.
I got so tired of the phrase “as I understand it”.
The book would be much better if this all had been condensed to 2 or 3 chapters and the remainder of the book with how Julienne dealt with finding out her mother (but alas, maybe this if for the sequel).
I did not like Julienne at all. She was too rich, too sheltered, too incapable, something. I really wanted to slap her and tell her to get it together and do something. And a tattoo on her butt of an arrow, really? And what about the French class? What was the point?
I'm not a fan of the book, but I am not quite so hard on it as A and J. I liked the way the story was put together, with Julienne reflecting back and trying to make sense of what she had been told. I also liked the juxtaposition of her making a new life in America after a tragedy and Suzannah (however it is spelled) making a new life for herself in France. I also figured out the plot twist in advance, but found the lead up to the final reveal as enjoyable.
My copy also had MANY typos. It was translated from French, right? Maybe that is the reason for some of them? That or a VERY bad editor.
I also agree that there was too much reflection. At first her references to feeling Paul and Suzannah with her still was touching, then it was annoying, then it was frustrating.
I found the parts about the Holocaust very hard to read, for many of the same reasons A and B mention.
Finally, I have a hard time remembering conversations that happened yesterday, and yet she remembers conversations from years before that well? I don't buy it.
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