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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Took me a little bit longer to read but I loved it!
While the characters are interesting and the book is well written, it lacked much in a plot line and excitement.
3-1/2 stars. The beginning of The Girl From the Train was compelling, powerful, and very well written. I just knew I was in for a powerful, thought-provoking historical fiction novel in the time of the Holocaust. This book would have been a solid four stars, but for the ending. I don't want to discount the first half of the novel, but by the end of the novel, it was devolving into a corny romance that was very disappointing. This novel had so much potential.
This novel takes the reader on an amazing journey of human growth, survival, and love as our main characters survive World War II and the aftermath in drastically different ways. The primary main character is six-year-old Gretl Schmidt who begins the story by leaping from a train heading for Auschwitz. Gretl's story is a coming of age tale of a young girl who has to hide who she is and struggles to cope with all of her secrets as she grows. Her story begins in Poland, as an orphan German Jew hiding with a Catholic Polish family, and ends in South Africa where she is adopted by a Protestant family, but still hiding her roots. The second main character is Jakób Kowalski, a young Polish resistance fighter, who's family temporarily takes Gretl in after the train. His story seems to revolve around surviving in Communist Poland after WWII but takes a drastic turn when he becomes involved in a protest and the subsequent trials. Ten years after Gretl moves to South Africa she is reunited with Jakób.
The beginning of the novel is fairly fast paced, reflecting the drama of WWII, while the second half is much more subdued, as the characters lives have settled post-war. However, the second half of the story kept me engaged and brought me to tears on more than one occasion. As an avid reader of WWII novels, fiction, and non-fiction, this story was unique and enthralling.
The beginning of the novel is fairly fast paced, reflecting the drama of WWII, while the second half is much more subdued, as the characters lives have settled post-war. However, the second half of the story kept me engaged and brought me to tears on more than one occasion. As an avid reader of WWII novels, fiction, and non-fiction, this story was unique and enthralling.
I really enjoyed the story, it was a hard book to put down. I loved Gretl and Jakob. The ending was predictable.
The end was a bit cheesy for me, but still a good read!
I saw this book setting on a shelf and the cover and title caught my attention. I thought it would be a decent piece of historical fiction. Now I know it everything beyond decent! It was absolutely amazing! I surely didn't expect the ending but it was absolutely perfect! I loved the spans of time and the journey I went through with this novel!
So let me preface this review by saying that Christian Fiction is not in my wheelhouse. I grew up in the faith, but I have changed religions since then. Even when I was a practicing Christian , I didn't care for the inherent preaching I found in Christian Fiction.
So why, you might rightly wonder, did I read this book?
The easy answer is that it was recommended by a friend as part of a reading challenge I'm doing with another group of friends. A more difficult answer is that I chose to ask the friend for a recommendation because I had a feeling that she would recommend something like this. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to see if I could manage it.
As you can see, I did, and I rather liked the book despite the few plot-helping conviences.
**Mild SPOILERS ahead**
I was amazed at how well Gretl’s life was after the war. I spent the remainder of the book wincing at what might happen to her. I thought her parents would distrust her. Then her mother would have a “Mommy Dearest” moment. Her grandfather would be icky. Her brother would torment her. Her father would find her faith lacking and beat her. The children at school would throw stones at her and call her names. But none of those things happened. She had her awful nightmares, but that's it. Even when she agreed to be a case study, the only real thing that happened was the boy doing it fell slightly in love with her.
Maybe this says more about me than the book.
The other thing that bothered me was the father’s refusal to let Jakob marry Gretl. Not the refusal itself, because damn, I'd have refused a man who looked after my daughter as a child and then wanted to marry her when she passed the jail bait stage, but merely because he was Catholic. Maybe that's me being a modern woman, but the Catholic part seemed the least weird thing about that relationship.
Anyway, it was a diverting but quick read. The history was quite interesting. The glossary was worthless, and I had to look up stuff on the Google, but that was ok. So, yeah, another book off the challenge list.
So why, you might rightly wonder, did I read this book?
The easy answer is that it was recommended by a friend as part of a reading challenge I'm doing with another group of friends. A more difficult answer is that I chose to ask the friend for a recommendation because I had a feeling that she would recommend something like this. I wanted to test myself. I wanted to see if I could manage it.
As you can see, I did, and I rather liked the book despite the few plot-helping conviences.
**Mild SPOILERS ahead**
I was amazed at how well Gretl’s life was after the war. I spent the remainder of the book wincing at what might happen to her. I thought her parents would distrust her. Then her mother would have a “Mommy Dearest” moment. Her grandfather would be icky. Her brother would torment her. Her father would find her faith lacking and beat her. The children at school would throw stones at her and call her names. But none of those things happened. She had her awful nightmares, but that's it. Even when she agreed to be a case study, the only real thing that happened was the boy doing it fell slightly in love with her.
Maybe this says more about me than the book.
The other thing that bothered me was the father’s refusal to let Jakob marry Gretl. Not the refusal itself, because damn, I'd have refused a man who looked after my daughter as a child and then wanted to marry her when she passed the jail bait stage, but merely because he was Catholic. Maybe that's me being a modern woman, but the Catholic part seemed the least weird thing about that relationship.
Anyway, it was a diverting but quick read. The history was quite interesting. The glossary was worthless, and I had to look up stuff on the Google, but that was ok. So, yeah, another book off the challenge list.
Cried at the bar waiting for our takeout food. Unlikely love - sorta like a Midwesterner and a Southerner. A widow and a divorcée. After 90 days. Met on match.com
Just took awhile to get there but hey....
Just took awhile to get there but hey....
DNF 7%. Just didn't grab me at all and wasn't in the mood for WWII historical fiction that turns into romance.