Even tho I only gave this a four star rating, I could not
put it down. I stayed up late at night
reading it, and it had my full attention.
My criticisms at the bottom of the page have to do with literary issues
and have no effect on the level of interest I had in the story. It was completely absorbing and entertaining
as much and sometimes more so than a 5 star book.
This novel is historical fiction. It is the tale of two sisters, Vianne and
Isobel and their experiences in WWII France.
The novel opens with an elderly widow opening a long closed trunk in the
attic of her coastal Oregon home of 50 years hence. She is preparing to move into an assisted living
facility as she faces a terminal disease.
She pulls out an old trunk to seek some of her mementos. When she pulls out an identity card with the
name Julliette Gervais on it, she is thrown back in time to remember her life
during the war. The reader is brought
along with her.
The Mauriac sisters lose their mother when Isobel is 4 and
Vianne is 14. Unfortunately, their
father who returned to Paris from his experiences in WWI a mere shell of his
former self, is unable to care for them.
He sends them off to his country house in the south of France in the
care of a cold and harsh woman who offered neither warmth nor solace. Their mother had been the soul of the
family. Their father had always been
mercurial. A poet and a book shop owner,
he never recovered emotionally from the horrors he saw in WWI. Aware that he has failed his young daughters,
because he cannot show them any love, nevertheless, rebuffs them. ”Papa dropped
off his daughters like soiled laundry and left them with a stranger.”
Both girls are bereft.
Vianne’s friendship with a boy named Antoine saved her. They became inseparable and by the time she
was 16, she was pregnant. The two married
and at 17 Vianne became the mistress of Le Jardin. Two months later she miscarried. After two more miscarriages, she gave birth
to her daughter, Sophie, the light of her life.
Meanwhile, Isobel rebelled against the woman hired to care for her and
eventually, her father put her in a series of boarding schools and
convents. She ran away from all of
them. Finally, when she was 19, the most
recent convent expelled her, sent her home, and recommended that she no longer
continue in school. Isobel works in her father’s book shop in an effort to
develop a closer relationship with him.
She tried to connect with her father who had never told her he loved
her. He had never hugged her nor put a
hand on her shoulder even to comfort her after her mother’s death. Then WWII breaks out and the Nazis are about
to occupy Paris. Isobel’s father tells
her to leave Paris and travel to her sister’s house in Carriveau. He even arranges for her to ride with some of
his friends in a car headed out of town.
The car loaded with its occupants, the couple, their two children, and
Isobel as well as their luggage join the throngs fleeing ahead of the
Nazis. Eventually, like all the other
cars, theirs runs out of gas leaving everyone stranded. Sophie, who packed her suitcase with clothing
and books failed to bring even one container of water with her. Dreadfully thirsty, tired, hungry, and hot
she joins the throngs of refugees on the road leading away from the Germans. She is extremely beautiful with very light
blond hair and exquisite features.
However, she is unable to obtain so much as a drink of water. Finally, in frustration she plops down on the
ground with her suitcase.
A disarmingly handsome young man spots her and offers his
assistance. Gaetan who at about
25 is older than she is and tho not very well dressed posesses
tremendous charisma. Even in her soiled and unkempt state he is taken with her
striking beauty and femininity. He
offers to escort her to her destination, her sister’s home, Le Jardin in
Carriveau since he is traveling in the same direction. There is no explanation about why he was not
with the French forces fighting Hitler.
However, he does not take advantage of the situation even when Isobel
becomes infatuated with him and he could have had her for the asking.
Meanwhile Vianne’s husband, Antoine has been drafted along
with Marcus, Vianne’s best friend’s husband.
The two of them say tearful goodbye’s to their husbands as their
children wave goodbye to their fathers. Rachel, a Romanian Jew is Vianne’s
longtime best friend. She has a little
girl, Sarah, who is Sophie’s age. She
also has a newborn son who is only a week old when her husband, Marcus must
leave. The two promise their husbands
they will look after each other. Their
once idyllic life is interrupted.
However, both Rachel and Vianne who teach at the public elementary
school return to their jobs and their lives continue on without their spouses’
income, love and support. Antoine has
hidden money in the house for Vianne’s use while he is gone and she and Rachel
both prepare to live a more Spartan
life.
Gaetan and Isobel spend two more nights together on the open
road. Isobel is smitten with the charming
young man. They arrive at Le Jardin very late at night and they decide to wait
until morning to knock on the door rather than awakening the sleeping Vianne
and her daughter Sophie. In the morning just outside Le Jardin Isobel awakes
with a note pinned to her blouse. Gaetan
is gone and he has not said goodbye to her.
She is heartbroken and hurt that once again someone she loved rejected
her. First her mother dies abandoning
her. Then her father unable to show love
to anyone rejects her offers of love.
Her sister Vianne who is 10 years older and who is herself bereft cannot
offer her any succor. Now this potential
suitor with whom Isobel is enamored deserts her in another form of
rejection. With this feeling of multiple
rejections she knocks on Vianne’s door.
She is angry with all of those who have rejected her.
Vianne is not happy to see Isobel for she recalls her
rebellious and troublesome ways, but she takes her in and offers her clean
clothes, a bedroom and a place to wash up.
Vianne warns her not to bring her rebellious ways into her house and
infect her daughter Sophie who is about 8 years old. Vianne while not as beautiful as the stunning
Isobel is also beautiful with strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Meanwhile the Nazis occupy Carriveau and one
of the officers billets in Le Jardin.
They confiscate some of the furniture, paintings and tapestries to
furnish their own offices and rooms. Isobel is angry that Vianne complies
without complaint. Vianne is terrified
that Isobel will violate the Nazis’ strict rules for the French citizens living
under the occupation and put them all in danger. Much to Vianne’s chagrin
Sophie adores her tante Isobel and agrees with her rebellious attitude toward
the Germans. She admonishes her mother to be more like Isobel. Vianne does not like the Germans either, but
she is practical and she has an 8 or 9 year old daughter to protect. She begs
Isobel to watch her behavior and demands that she pull her weight by standing
in lines to buy their meager food rations while Vianne teaches school. Reluctantly, Isobel performs this task. However,
she despises the Germans and offers to help the resistance. She is asked to deliver resistance leaflets
they hide in the bread rations. The
Germans have confiscated all the radios and they spread propaganda inflating
their performance on the battlefields.
The leaflets tell the French people what is happening with the free
French forces led by DeGaulle and about the German atrocities throughout
France. Suddenly, Isobel rises early
ostensibly to stand in the bread lines.
Instead she delivers the leaflets throughout the countryside. She has been selected for this dangerous task
because of her disarming beauty and youth.
The resistance believes the Germans will be so taken aback by her looks
that they will not question her activities so early in the morning. However, she does get to the food lines early
right after delivering the leaflets and this benefits the family with better
selections of food. The Germans have
kept all the best cuts of meat, the best flour, butter, and cheese for
themselves. The Germans are fat and they
throw out more food than the French have to eat. Even those with gardens and chickens like Le
Jardin are required to turn over what they grow on pain of death. The French people do not receive enough
calories to sustain themselves, and the entire population becomes thinner and
thinner. Many of them hover on the edge
of starvation, but their suffering does not compare to the Jews in the
camps. They easily suffer illnesses and
the children are always hungry, but they stay alive.
Vianne believes that Isobel has taken a lover and that she
is sneaking out early in the morning to see him. Isobel allows her to continue thinking so.
Manfred, the Nazi officer living with them is under the same misconception. While Vianne does not like the officer and
she is forced to prepare his supper from time to time, he is more polite than
most. He assures her he is a gentleman
and that he is living with them b/c he is following orders. He makes it clear that even though he is
lonely for his wife and children, he will not force himself on her. From time to time he brings additional food
to the house. Nevertheless, Vianne is
careful about accepting help from him, because she does not want to be seen as
a collaborator. She definitely is not a
collaborator. While Isobel is delivering
the leaflets, she avoids any confrontations with Vianne over the Nazis and she
is polite to Manfred and predominately, avoids him.
The novel progresses as we watch ordinary people drawn into
unthinkable circumstances beyond their control.
In order to take back some of that control they make heart wrenching,
impulsive, dangerous, and sometimes catastrophic choices that cannot be undone. Spoiler Alert! Isobel becomes responsible for escorting over
100 downed allied pilots over the Pyrenees into Spain so they could return to
their units and continue fighting the Germans. Spoiler Alert! Vianne rescues many Jewish
children and is responsible for their survival.
This she does right under the nose of the two officers billeted in her
house. She does it easily under Manfred’s
less critical gaze, but she continues to do it when he is replaced by a brutal
SS officer.
My criticisms are the following: In spite of this being a WWII story, this is
still a ladies novel and could be considered a romance novel. I cannot imagine a man reading this book on
his own. Spoiler Alert! The descriptions of Isobel leading these expeditions
over the Pyrenees in ordinary walking shoes and without climbing gear or
climbing experience is not credible. She
should at least have had a history of climbing which could easily have entered
the novel since many Europeans with country houses have skied or had climbing
experience. She had neither. The allies who were financing these
expeditions could have easily supplied climbing gear to the resistance. They supplied radios, explosives, spam, and
other supplies and equipment. Warning Spoiler Alert: It is also not credible that Isobel, sick as
she was and coughing up blood would have been discharged from the Paris
hospital by the allies and put on a train to her sister’s house in the
countryside. Her sister or her sister’s
husband would have had to pick her up and accompany her.
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