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yotesmcgoats's review against another edition
5.0
This book was beautiful. I have never been to Paris, but this book put me there. The story itself was well written and I enjoyed the unique perspective of each character. Even minor characters like the upstairs neighbor and the dog had personalities that drew me in and kept me turning the pages.
bibliogirl0511's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
cherrysoda9_9's review against another edition
2.0
*sighs*
I really wanted to like this book. Like, I realllly wanted to like it. I got through almost half before I gave up.
The premise of this sounds super intriguing but, unfortunately, basically nothing happens in the first half of the book that connects to the blurb.
The writing style is beautiful; I have absolutely no issues with how the author uses language. But the constant bouncing around from person to person and time to time every couple of pages was hard to follow. Maybe if each chapter had started with a timestamp - or at least a year - it would have been better. But I just found it hard to get into and the plot didn't seem to advance. Maybe the second half is amazing, but I shouldn't have to weed through 100+ pages of nothing in order to get there.
Beautiful cover. Gorgeous writing. Interesting premise. Lackluster execution.
My 5th DNF of the year...whoops.
I really wanted to like this book. Like, I realllly wanted to like it. I got through almost half before I gave up.
The premise of this sounds super intriguing but, unfortunately, basically nothing happens in the first half of the book that connects to the blurb.
The writing style is beautiful; I have absolutely no issues with how the author uses language. But the constant bouncing around from person to person and time to time every couple of pages was hard to follow. Maybe if each chapter had started with a timestamp - or at least a year - it would have been better. But I just found it hard to get into and the plot didn't seem to advance. Maybe the second half is amazing, but I shouldn't have to weed through 100+ pages of nothing in order to get there.
Beautiful cover. Gorgeous writing. Interesting premise. Lackluster execution.
My 5th DNF of the year...whoops.
scarpuccia's review against another edition
3.0
Recently when I was scrolling through the historical fiction on Netgalley it seemed like every other novel was set in France during WW2. Not only that but they all sounded like they were built to the same formula - heroic women, dual timelines, an undiscovered mystery or secret. This one attracted me because it sounded different, more literary, less formulaic (despite the presence of some of the above tropes).
At the heart of this novel is the night in 1942 when the French police rounded up many of Paris' Jews, including Clara and her two young daughters. Her brother, who is also dead when the novel begins and performs his narration as a ghost, believes one of the daughters might have survived but has never shared this belief with Sylvie, his long term lover. Here is the first of several acts of clumsiness in the plot and artistry of this novel. Why, seeing as his relationship with Sylvie is depicted in ideal terms, did he never tell her? Instead, rather melodramatically, Sylvie finds an envelope and discovers he has been paying money every month to some mysterious person whose name begins with M and it's her challenge to solve the mystery.
The first thing to say is that the author writes really well. I enjoyed her way with words, except when she veers towards the mawkish which she does have a tendency to do. The problems I had were with the structure/focus and characterisation. The novel had too many narrators for me and too many timelines and as a result kept losing its focus. The juggling of timelines and narrators is confusing. There was one incident of a girl committing suicide that I never understood. And quite often the narrative wandered off into irrelevant sideshows. One narrator is the ghost of Julien - a presence which rarely seemed of much purpose to me except as a gimmick. Often he seemed to assume the guise of tourist guide, recounting interesting facts about the history of Paris. The novel is suffused with a love of Paris, though perhaps a little too much through the wide-eyed wonder of the tourist rather than a native Parisian. Another narrator is an American man visiting Paris with his wife. He longs to enter the secret life of Paris and shed his mantle of tourist - something the book itself tries to do. Whenever writing about him the author seemed less inspired and I was never quite able to understand what he and his wife were doing in the novel. Whenever they appeared the narrative drifted far away from the Holocaust.
As often seems to be the case in Holocaust novels, the Jewish characters and their allies were all idealised. It's interesting there's often this fairy tale element to Holocaust novels. As if everyone murdered by the Nazis never succumbed to an unworthy emotion in their lives. For me, it usually serves to keep these characters remote. After all, it's part of being human to occasionally give vent to an ugliness in one's nature. We all do it. Here though they are all haloed characters. We have ideal husband, ideal wife, ideal mother, ideal father. Everyone a prototype of a faultless human being except the ex-wife of Julien who, bafflingly, is the novel's villain. Abandoned by her husband for the much younger Sylvie surely she has every right to treat her victorious rival with scorn. Yet the author has no sympathy for her predicament and portrays her consistently as snobbish and sordidly venal. In many ways she was potentially the novel's most interesting character but received short shrift from the author who was more interested in her fairy story relationships.
In short, it's a novel that has qualities and I really wanted to love it but I kept hitting buffers. That said less cynical readers might well love it to bits.
At the heart of this novel is the night in 1942 when the French police rounded up many of Paris' Jews, including Clara and her two young daughters. Her brother, who is also dead when the novel begins and performs his narration as a ghost, believes one of the daughters might have survived but has never shared this belief with Sylvie, his long term lover. Here is the first of several acts of clumsiness in the plot and artistry of this novel. Why, seeing as his relationship with Sylvie is depicted in ideal terms, did he never tell her? Instead, rather melodramatically, Sylvie finds an envelope and discovers he has been paying money every month to some mysterious person whose name begins with M and it's her challenge to solve the mystery.
The first thing to say is that the author writes really well. I enjoyed her way with words, except when she veers towards the mawkish which she does have a tendency to do. The problems I had were with the structure/focus and characterisation. The novel had too many narrators for me and too many timelines and as a result kept losing its focus. The juggling of timelines and narrators is confusing. There was one incident of a girl committing suicide that I never understood. And quite often the narrative wandered off into irrelevant sideshows. One narrator is the ghost of Julien - a presence which rarely seemed of much purpose to me except as a gimmick. Often he seemed to assume the guise of tourist guide, recounting interesting facts about the history of Paris. The novel is suffused with a love of Paris, though perhaps a little too much through the wide-eyed wonder of the tourist rather than a native Parisian. Another narrator is an American man visiting Paris with his wife. He longs to enter the secret life of Paris and shed his mantle of tourist - something the book itself tries to do. Whenever writing about him the author seemed less inspired and I was never quite able to understand what he and his wife were doing in the novel. Whenever they appeared the narrative drifted far away from the Holocaust.
As often seems to be the case in Holocaust novels, the Jewish characters and their allies were all idealised. It's interesting there's often this fairy tale element to Holocaust novels. As if everyone murdered by the Nazis never succumbed to an unworthy emotion in their lives. For me, it usually serves to keep these characters remote. After all, it's part of being human to occasionally give vent to an ugliness in one's nature. We all do it. Here though they are all haloed characters. We have ideal husband, ideal wife, ideal mother, ideal father. Everyone a prototype of a faultless human being except the ex-wife of Julien who, bafflingly, is the novel's villain. Abandoned by her husband for the much younger Sylvie surely she has every right to treat her victorious rival with scorn. Yet the author has no sympathy for her predicament and portrays her consistently as snobbish and sordidly venal. In many ways she was potentially the novel's most interesting character but received short shrift from the author who was more interested in her fairy story relationships.
In short, it's a novel that has qualities and I really wanted to love it but I kept hitting buffers. That said less cynical readers might well love it to bits.
caroline_the_reader's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Lovely and heartbreaking with a hopeful ending. The story unfolds in a really beautiful way. I never understood how brutally the French government betrayed their people during the occupation. Be sure to have tissues at hand.
cjbookjunkie's review
3.0
The premise and format are both interesting and work well together. Can the ghost of a French-Jewish psychologist, Julien, roam, or maybe haunt, the streets of Paris to help his long-time love, Sylvie, pick up the trail of his life-long search for his niece who was taken during the Nazi occupation of France? The author did a great job melding two time periods and worlds into a seamless story of love and of Paris. The mystery of the niece and the story of Julien and Sylvie keep you captivated to its conclusion.
Thank you to NetGAlley and DoubleDay books for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you to NetGAlley and DoubleDay books for an Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
larcher's review
3.0
Thank you NetGalley and Nan A Talese Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book,. I don’t think I have read something like this story, This definitely lives by its title and it is extremely haunting. The story in in two point of views, Sylvie and her dead lover Julian. In this story Sylvie finds a hidden letter that leads her to find the past the she never knew about Julian. At times this was quite beautiful. Sometimes the short chapters can lose me, and I lose my place of where I am on.
sheilasamuelson's review
1.0
Where do I begin with this....It was not what I expected at all.
I thought it was a book about a war in Paris back in the 1957 era well it wasn't, it was set in 1989 about a woman trying to find her late lovers daughter.
It was an ok read but it kept jumping back and forth from 1989 to 1957 continuesly which drove me nuts as a reader.
I do not recommend this book. The mystery was there but it just didn't grab me like other Historical Fiction books did.
I thought it was a book about a war in Paris back in the 1957 era well it wasn't, it was set in 1989 about a woman trying to find her late lovers daughter.
It was an ok read but it kept jumping back and forth from 1989 to 1957 continuesly which drove me nuts as a reader.
I do not recommend this book. The mystery was there but it just didn't grab me like other Historical Fiction books did.
saraed's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
A great, quick read if you are interested in Paris history.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Antisemitism and Genocide