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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
I hesitate to recommend books that I read during a day spent in airports and in flying metal tubes because of the "captive audience syndrome" but this one really was a page-turner. It's always fun for a francophile to read about someone who lives in France but this went deeper with its historically heart-wrenching subject matter, and based on the character's experience, one that even many French people were unaware of until the mid-1990s. It's a heavy story, not entirely original either, but it is engrossing.
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I liked the style of the first half of the book in that the story alternated between Sarah and Julia's perspective, but lost interest when the story shifted to present day Julia. The history of the Vel' D' Hiv' was enlightening, but I found the characters to be too stereotypical to really be invested in them.
If the book ended shortly after the discovery of Sarah's brother and included more about her journey and what she went though, with maybe a small wrap up with Julia's character, then I would have definitely given it 4 or 5 stars. However, the drawn out ending was really tiresome. I couldn't wait for it to end. It just made no sense or flow with the first half and I didn't care at all about any of the characters. Also, Julia's daughter was way too snooty and entitled.
This was an emotional read, knowing that this dark time in French history, actually existed. This fictional yet personalized account of the events of the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, and it's aftermath, was masterfully told through both the lens of a young child survivor, and then years later from the perspective of a woman who stumbles upon the events, and seeks to uncover the story. The key and what it represents, is carried throughout the woven story. I love stories like this, that pull me towards further research of the historical events, once I have finished the book.
I could not put this gripping story down! I had to know what happened to Sarah in 1942 and how her story entertwined with Julia's. Read the book in a day.
"Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life."
"Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life."
Somehow I wound up with two copies of this book. That should have been a clue that I needed to read it, but it sat on my shelf for about a year and a half before I picked it up. (I blame the cover art.) This historical fiction novel had dual storylines, chronicling the lives of both an 10-year-old girl in the 1940s and a present-day, middle-aged American, both living in Paris. Ten-year-old Sarah's family is Jewish, and the French police have come to arrest her entire family and 13,000 other Jews in the area to take them to the Vélodrome d'Hiver, a stadium used as a holding place before the Jews were transferred to concentration camps in both France and Poland. Sarah does not understand the implications of the police's arrival at her door, and hides her 4-year-old brother by locking him in a cupboard, promising to return for him. In 2002, journalist Julia Jarmond is living in Paris, working on a piece commemorating the 60th anniversary of what has become known as the Vél' d' Hiv' roundup. She is shocked at how little she knew about the city she had been residing in for 25 years, and even more shocked that the French people want to completely forget any responsibility they had in the roundup. In her research, Julia discovers Sarah's family, and — haunted by their story — determines to find out what happened to the little girl that disappeared from the historical records.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated