Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay takes place in two different times. Sarah, a young Jewish girl, lives during WWII in occupied France. On morning in July 1942, she and her parents are taken away from their home during a roundup called Vel' di'Hiv'. Thousands of families are taken to a large arena and kept in horrendous conditions for several days, then sent via train to prison camps and later onto Auschwitz. Before the men take her away, Sarah hides her little brother in a cupboard, promising to come back for him. Her chapters are told from Sarah's point of view about how she overcomes her fears, strives to be strong and find a way home to her brother.

These chapters alternate with those of Julia Jarmond, a present-day American journalist who has lived in Paris for 25 years. She's married with a daughter, and is assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the roundup. In her research, she uncovers the story of Sarah, and makes it her mission to find out how it ended up.

I loved this book. I think by alternating the stories of Sarah and Julia in short chapters, de Rosnay keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. I gobbled the story up in less than a week. The story engages you from the beginning and keeps you turning the pages. I had no idea that France went through such a roundup, and that the French police were ordered to ship tens of thousands of Jewish people to the camps over a period of time (and nearly all didn't come back). It's a very dark period of the country's history, and Julia found that many French people would either pretend like they didn't know what was going on during that time or just wanted to bury the past.

A little more than halfway through the book, de Rosnay shifts the entire storytelling to Julia. While I understand this was probably to maintain the mystery of the rest of Sarah's story, I found I missed Sarah's chapters. I wasn't ready to let her go, which in a way is probably better than getting tired of her. I enjoyed all the characters, I loved the storytelling, I was heartbroken by the events of history. This was a very good piece of historical fiction.

I have realized that I'm drawn to fiction about WWII. I've now read WWII stories from several sides: Polish with The Zookeeper's Wife; Russian with City of Thieves; English with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; German with Those Who Save Us; and now France. While they're all fiction, they are seeped in historical accuracy. And while they're all sad, they're all very good as well.

Do you have any favorite books about WWII? Any other war?

City of Thieves

I finished City of Thieves over the weekend, and I loved it. Like I mentioned before, author David Benioff, wrote The 25th Hour and was the screenwriter for Wolverine. City of Thieves is actually a novel based on the events of a week in the life of his Russian grandfather when he was 17 years old.

In the midst of WWII as the Germans are closing in on Leningrad and several other Russian cities, Lev is taken prisoner by the Soviets for breaking curfew and stealing. To keep his life, he must find a dozen eggs for the colonel, with the help of fellow prisoner Koyla. The story follows the two boys (they’re so young, I can’t call them men) as they make their way across enemy lines to find eggs.

I loved the book for its different look at the war. I don’t believe I’ve ever read about it from the Russian side. The people were starving and wasting away. They couldn’t find bread, let alone anything else good to eat. So, obviously, eggs were nearly impossible to come by. The book is full of action, Koyla is a welcome comic relief, and the boys’ relationship grows more over five days than they probably ever expected. While it’s quite sexually explicit – they are boys, so what else would be on their minds, even in the middle of war? – you can glide over that if necessary.

I thought the book was extremely well written, engaging, quick, realistic and actually sweet in some parts. And to know that it might be based in a lot of truth makes it that much better. Here’s a quote that doesn’t give too much away, but offers a glimpse at the adventure these boys went on:

The days had become a confusion of catastrophes; what seemed impossible in the afternoon was blunt fact by the evening. German corpses fell from the sky; cannibals sold sausage links made from ground human in the Haymarket; apartment blocs collapsed to the ground; dogs became bombs; frozen soldiers became signposts; a partisan with half a face stood swaying in the snow, staring sad-eyed at his killers. I had no food in my belly, no fat on my bones, and no energy to reflect on this parade of atrocities. I just kept moving, hoping to find another half slice of bread for myself and a dozen eggs for the colonel’s daughter.

Those Who Save Us

* Updated May 18, see below

I'm nearly done with Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. A novel, Those Who Save Us takes place in two different eras. It follows Anna, a 20-something German Aryan during WWII, and her young daughter Trudie as they try to survive the fallout of war. In other chapters the book follows 50-something Trudy (spelled with a 'y' in her chapters, which is interesting), a University of Minnesota professor who begins work on a "German Project": interviewing Germans who were alive during WWII to find out how they feel about what they lived through. Anna is also in the "Trudy chapters," but is then an old woman with very little to say.

You know right from the start what Trudy's problem is going to be. Her mother won't talk to her about the past, and Trudy has no idea who her father actually is. Was it the SS soldier who came around weekly for more than two years while Trudie and her mother lived alone in a small German town? Was it the American soldier who brought them to America? Or was it someone else? I laughed when Trudy's ex-husband points out that her "German Project" is her version of "therapy." Touché.

My feelings about the book change as I read it. Of course it's heartbreaking to hear the stories of the Jews and the Germans (who, while not put in concentration camps, were also starving and poor and in danger most of the time), but I think it's also an important part of history that can't really be talked about enough and should never be forgotten. However, it's disgusting and disturbing to read about Anna's relationship with the SS officer. It makes me shudder, so those chapters don't make for the most entertaining reading. But again, their relationship probably wasn't unique at that time, so maybe it's important to know about. Anna's feelings toward the officer are also very interesting; there's repulsion there, but also curiosity.

The adult Trudy frustrates me. You can tell she's a very conflicted person and often contradicts herself. Why does she want to be so alone all the time? Why is she so cold toward other people? But maybe that's what makes for a good character? The fact that she has many dimensions that bring out this reaction in me probably makes her pretty lifelike?

I'm about 100 pages from the end, and I think I can see where things are going - What relationships will form, what relationships will falther. But I think I'm still going to have some questions in the end - loose ends that won't be tied up. Sometimes I like books that leave certain things up to the reader, but when they evoke such an emotional/physical response (good or bad) like this book, it's nice when things wrap up nicely (again, whether good or bad - doesn't matter to me). (The other thing that's jarring about this book is the author never uses quotation marks. All the dialogue is in paragraph form and if you don't read carefully, you might not know what's "thought" and what's "said.")

If you're interested in WWII and enjoy historic-type novels, this is a good example of one. While it's not "happy," it's well-written, engaging and a page-turner. You just might not fall in love with the characters.

* Update, May 18. I finished the book over the weekend and while most loose ends were wrapped up, I thought they were done so rather easily and abruptly. Trudy learns the truth for which she's searching, but it seems unrealistic to the story and a bit predictable for the reader. Overall, the book was interesting and digestible, but the hang ups I talk about keep me from loving it.

Tallgrass

Last week I read Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas. Tallgrass is about a farming family living in Colorado during World War II. The oldest son is off fighting the war, the oldest daughter just moved to Denver, which leaves 13-year-old Rennie home with her mother and father, helping them farm their beets. In 1942, the government opens a Japanese internment camp near Rennie's small town. The town is now divided by those who symphathize with the Japanese and those who think they're the enemy. Hate fills the town, with Rennie's dad and a few others remaining the voices of fairness. When a girl is murdered, nearly everyone blames the town's newest residents and things start to escalate.

I enjoyed this book very much. It's a quick read, you get a bit of history and there's also a bit of mystery in it. I loved Rennie as a character. She was mature for her age, respected her parents (who respected her back) and seemed to be of great morals for a 13-year-old. The story is told from her point of view, which Dallas writes very well. (My only criticism is that she seems to repeat a few things throughout the book; and that's really something a good editor should catch.)

In college I read a memoir by a man who lived an a Japanese internment camp when he was younger. I don't remember the book all that well, but the basic themes stayed with me. It's really too bad that the U.S. government stooped so low during the war to imprison fellow Americans. People who were born here and had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. But our history is our history, and I think it's important to remember it all, the good and the bad.