A story of a French family torn apart during WWII, told from the perspective of the different family members. It was hard to keep track of the different story lines, especially if you don't read the book all at once. I thought it ended elegantly and enjoyed reading it.
Published: 2018 Read: 2019 Genre: Fiction
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee
Sub-title: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home
A Korean adoptee seeking a feeling of belonging becomes the girlfriend of a rich older Frenchman and lives the high life in Europe for a decade before returning to America. As a young woman she becomes an excellent cook and today is a food editor for a magazine in Alaska.
This was a moving read. I enjoyed hearing the story of a much younger woman coming to terms with her feelings and relationships. It was disturbing to read how much control over her life she gave to the man she was with although he was just trying to make her happy. A good read.
Published: 2008 Read: July 2018 Genre: Memoir
A Korean adoptee seeking a feeling of belonging becomes the girlfriend of a rich older Frenchman and lives the high life in Europe for a decade before returning to America. As a young woman she becomes an excellent cook and today is a food editor for a magazine in Alaska.
This was a moving read. I enjoyed hearing the story of a much younger woman coming to terms with her feelings and relationships. It was disturbing to read how much control over her life she gave to the man she was with although he was just trying to make her happy. A good read.
Published: 2008 Read: July 2018 Genre: Memoir
Saturday, August 8, 2015
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
This bestseller was chosen for the September pick in one of my book clubs. It's the story of two young people - a blind girl from Paris, Marie-Laure, who is detained in Saint-Malo, Brittany, France near the end of WWII and Werner, a mechanically gifted German boy swept up in the war.
The introduction advises that the walled city of Saint-Malo was bombed almost to oblivion after the Normandy invasion to root out the last of the German army. Right away, I'm dreading an entire story that's going to end in a city, and presumably it occupants, being destroyed, But then, we're taken on a hop scotch of time between the two characters building to...the inevitable meeting and tragedy.
I thoroughly dislike the writing style that goes back and forth each chapter between two stories. It's contrived to keep you reading to get to whichever story you prefer. The author skips around in time too, making us keep track of multiple vignettes that eventually begin to come together the last 50 or so pages. It's like reading a mystery or a thriller.
The prose *is* lyrical ...but there's an adverb for every verb and an adjective for every noun, My greatest complaint is that by writing beautifully the author minimizes the horror of the war. It's as if he paints a wash over the reality and defaults to stereotypes of the besieged French and the cruel Germans so he can write a pretty story. It's just too touching to have a blind girl lose all she loves and too predictable to have a German boy become a mindless solider that does one heroic gesture.
The book jacket has praise from fellow authors, not critics, a warning in my experience. Too say the least, I didn't like this one.
To complicate things further, there's a sub-plot of a cursed jewel that Marie-Laure's father is given and a German officer is determined to find. The officer is a caricature of every Nazi soldier. That's the problem with all the characters, they are too simple, too flat, too predictable.
If you want to read something about living in Europe during a German occupation and the soldier's on both sides, I'd recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
Published: 2014 Read: August 2015 Genre: fiction
The introduction advises that the walled city of Saint-Malo was bombed almost to oblivion after the Normandy invasion to root out the last of the German army. Right away, I'm dreading an entire story that's going to end in a city, and presumably it occupants, being destroyed, But then, we're taken on a hop scotch of time between the two characters building to...the inevitable meeting and tragedy.
I thoroughly dislike the writing style that goes back and forth each chapter between two stories. It's contrived to keep you reading to get to whichever story you prefer. The author skips around in time too, making us keep track of multiple vignettes that eventually begin to come together the last 50 or so pages. It's like reading a mystery or a thriller.
The prose *is* lyrical ...but there's an adverb for every verb and an adjective for every noun, My greatest complaint is that by writing beautifully the author minimizes the horror of the war. It's as if he paints a wash over the reality and defaults to stereotypes of the besieged French and the cruel Germans so he can write a pretty story. It's just too touching to have a blind girl lose all she loves and too predictable to have a German boy become a mindless solider that does one heroic gesture.
The book jacket has praise from fellow authors, not critics, a warning in my experience. Too say the least, I didn't like this one.
To complicate things further, there's a sub-plot of a cursed jewel that Marie-Laure's father is given and a German officer is determined to find. The officer is a caricature of every Nazi soldier. That's the problem with all the characters, they are too simple, too flat, too predictable.
If you want to read something about living in Europe during a German occupation and the soldier's on both sides, I'd recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.
Published: 2014 Read: August 2015 Genre: fiction
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)