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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
I made it to pg. 95 and then I gave up. Given all the great reviews, maybe I need to try reading this at another time. Nevertheless, I did not like it. I was bored with the story-telling. Marianne's character annoys me. If you're looking for a good WWII novel about strong women, read Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale. It's much better than this one.
Another amazing WWII book. This one focusing on the aftermath of the war and follows three widows as they deal with the past and try to find a new future.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really really wanted to love this. I really did. I couldn’t even finish it and to be honest that’s only happened a handful of times. The timeline layout was just way to confusing for me, which sucked because I felt invested in the characters. But by the halfway mark I had to stop. Now why do I give this three stars instead of one if I didn’t even finish it? Well, because the characters were so interesting and I bet this is a great book but I could not follow the timeline to save my life and that’s saying a lot because that kind of thing never trips me up.
Curious to see what others thought.
Curious to see what others thought.
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"In the dappled light beneath the tall pine, she tries to think of the varied beauties of life...the fact that human beings are compelled to construct cathedrals and sing lullabies and create art; that they devote themselves to obscure causes and esoteric fields of knowledge...She conjures these things in her mind and hopes they have meaning."
I cannot say enough positive things about this book, and this above quote really speaks to me as a musician and a lover/believer in knowledge and education.
In hindsight, it is unbelievable how so many Germans believed in Hitler and the Nazi ideology...this book makes it a little easier to understand for someone who didn't live back then, and who have the advantage of hindsight, understand how one "might" have gotten caught up in the Nazi/Hitler ideology and propaganda. (Note - I say this as a person who has NO idea as to how this could have happened...but the author does a great job of helping us understand how the effective propaganda made so many people believe...little by little.)
The book starts at a lavish party that Marianne, the niece-in-law of the "Countess von Lingenfuls" is hosting at a not-so-lavish castle, just outside of a small German town. (The name of the town is escaping me.) It is the night of broken glass, where Jewish businesses and property were destroyed throughout Germany. On this night, Marianne's husband and their friends decide they are NOT going to go along with the Nazi ideology...they are going to be resisters. Marianne makes an oath to the the "husbands" that she will look after their wives in the event of disaster...as one can imagine, disaster ensues. These men end up being the resisters who tried to assassinate Hitler in the failed Valkyrie plot.
Also at the party that night is Benita, the beautiful fiancé of Connie, Marianne's childhood friend. Marianne soon learns that Benita is not a political person, and has no inclinations to be a resister against the Nazis. Sadly, Benita needs the assistance of Marianne in the weeks/months/years following the failed Valkyrie plot and at the end of the war. Shortly after the surrender and during the Allied emancipation, Marianne, Benita, and their children (4 total) are widowed, and living in the castle von Lingenful (formerly the "countesses" castle).
A few weeks/months later, an American soldier in charge of the "denazification" (I'm not sure if this term is used at this time...but there were Americans in charge) contacts Marianne, and says there is another women, a wife of one of the resisters, and she comes to live at the castle with her two sons, too. Marianne doesn't have very many memories of this woman, Ania, as she never met her before, and only recalls meeting her husband once on the "night of broken glass."
Marianne, Ania, and Benita are three vastly different women. Marianne has the most straight forward past, as well as the most definitive sense of right and wrong. During most of the novel, she is very black and white in her views...meanwhile, Benita is a charming, beautiful, and radiant woman. However, she does what she needs to survive, and doesn't think in such black and white terms...plus she is not very political, and just wants to be happy.
Ania is the most mysterious of the three, and her past is the most compelling. It is from her perspective where we learn (at least where I learned) how a German, living in that time period, may have been able to, in good conscience, believe in the good teachings of Hitler. I don't want to give anything away, but suffice it to say that Ania is the "least" innocent of the three women...and she has the most secrets.
I cannot say enough positive things about this book, and this above quote really speaks to me as a musician and a lover/believer in knowledge and education.
In hindsight, it is unbelievable how so many Germans believed in Hitler and the Nazi ideology...this book makes it a little easier to understand for someone who didn't live back then, and who have the advantage of hindsight, understand how one "might" have gotten caught up in the Nazi/Hitler ideology and propaganda. (Note - I say this as a person who has NO idea as to how this could have happened...but the author does a great job of helping us understand how the effective propaganda made so many people believe...little by little.)
The book starts at a lavish party that Marianne, the niece-in-law of the "Countess von Lingenfuls" is hosting at a not-so-lavish castle, just outside of a small German town. (The name of the town is escaping me.) It is the night of broken glass, where Jewish businesses and property were destroyed throughout Germany. On this night, Marianne's husband and their friends decide they are NOT going to go along with the Nazi ideology...they are going to be resisters. Marianne makes an oath to the the "husbands" that she will look after their wives in the event of disaster...as one can imagine, disaster ensues. These men end up being the resisters who tried to assassinate Hitler in the failed Valkyrie plot.
Also at the party that night is Benita, the beautiful fiancé of Connie, Marianne's childhood friend. Marianne soon learns that Benita is not a political person, and has no inclinations to be a resister against the Nazis. Sadly, Benita needs the assistance of Marianne in the weeks/months/years following the failed Valkyrie plot and at the end of the war. Shortly after the surrender and during the Allied emancipation, Marianne, Benita, and their children (4 total) are widowed, and living in the castle von Lingenful (formerly the "countesses" castle).
A few weeks/months later, an American soldier in charge of the "denazification" (I'm not sure if this term is used at this time...but there were Americans in charge) contacts Marianne, and says there is another women, a wife of one of the resisters, and she comes to live at the castle with her two sons, too. Marianne doesn't have very many memories of this woman, Ania, as she never met her before, and only recalls meeting her husband once on the "night of broken glass."
Marianne, Ania, and Benita are three vastly different women. Marianne has the most straight forward past, as well as the most definitive sense of right and wrong. During most of the novel, she is very black and white in her views...meanwhile, Benita is a charming, beautiful, and radiant woman. However, she does what she needs to survive, and doesn't think in such black and white terms...plus she is not very political, and just wants to be happy.
Ania is the most mysterious of the three, and her past is the most compelling. It is from her perspective where we learn (at least where I learned) how a German, living in that time period, may have been able to, in good conscience, believe in the good teachings of Hitler. I don't want to give anything away, but suffice it to say that Ania is the "least" innocent of the three women...and she has the most secrets.
The Women in the Castle is a historical fiction novel set in Germany during and directly after the Second World War. It is about three German women who live together in a fictional castle after the war. What connects them is that their husbands have died in the resistance against Hitler. However, it becomes clear during the course of the novel that there are more facets to these women than just being the widows of resisters.
The novel addresses the individual experience of German civilians during the war, their moral choices and conscience and how to deal with their “German guilt”.
I deeply appreciated the attempt to tell a World War Two story from the perspective of German female civilians. I haven’t seen or read anything from that perspective yet and I wish there was more on that topic.
In the acknowledgements the author expresses her thanks to Germans she has interviewed, which means that she must have had some foundation there on which to base her book on. Even so, The Women in the Castle had a distinct inauthentic feeling to me as a German. There were sentences like “I could eat five schnitzels right now”, which just made me cringe. The setting to me didn’t feel authentic in general. There were too many subtleties the author didn’t seem to be aware of. I wonder if Jessica Shattuck ever spent some actual time in Germany for her book. Or did she just eat Schnitzel there? I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I weren’t German and didn’t notice the discrepancies. They are not obvious but the book just never felt quite “right”.
To be honest, the whole book never felt quite right to me. As much as I enjoyed the stories of the three women in the castle, I could never get invested in the characters or the overall story. The Women in the Castle took me a long time to read because it kept dragging on right from the beginning up to the very last page.
The message the novel tries to convey is incredibly important, yet it lacks impact. I felt left wanting more from the Women in the Castle.
Like mentioned above, I appreciated the concept and the different perspective this book takes on. However, the execution is lacklustre. If it wasn’t for the unique perspective, The Women in the Castle would only have been a 2-star read for me. Unfortunately, The Women in the Castle was one of the more disappointing books I have read this year so far.
The novel addresses the individual experience of German civilians during the war, their moral choices and conscience and how to deal with their “German guilt”.
I deeply appreciated the attempt to tell a World War Two story from the perspective of German female civilians. I haven’t seen or read anything from that perspective yet and I wish there was more on that topic.
In the acknowledgements the author expresses her thanks to Germans she has interviewed, which means that she must have had some foundation there on which to base her book on. Even so, The Women in the Castle had a distinct inauthentic feeling to me as a German. There were sentences like “I could eat five schnitzels right now”, which just made me cringe. The setting to me didn’t feel authentic in general. There were too many subtleties the author didn’t seem to be aware of. I wonder if Jessica Shattuck ever spent some actual time in Germany for her book. Or did she just eat Schnitzel there? I think I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if I weren’t German and didn’t notice the discrepancies. They are not obvious but the book just never felt quite “right”.
To be honest, the whole book never felt quite right to me. As much as I enjoyed the stories of the three women in the castle, I could never get invested in the characters or the overall story. The Women in the Castle took me a long time to read because it kept dragging on right from the beginning up to the very last page.
The message the novel tries to convey is incredibly important, yet it lacks impact. I felt left wanting more from the Women in the Castle.
Like mentioned above, I appreciated the concept and the different perspective this book takes on. However, the execution is lacklustre. If it wasn’t for the unique perspective, The Women in the Castle would only have been a 2-star read for me. Unfortunately, The Women in the Castle was one of the more disappointing books I have read this year so far.
There are so many books about the heroes and heroines of WWII, and I appreciated that this book explored the gray area of right and wrong. I often wonder, when I read historical fiction from this era, whether I would make the same decisions if I were in their place. The lives of these women had a ring of flawed authenticity.
Facile da leggere, trama molto scorrevole, ma ho trovato le tematiche trattate piuttosto ripetitive e scontate.
2.5 stars for me. This was written extremely well. My issue with it is that it didn't pull me in like I wanted it to. I loved the historical aspect and I think it's very timely in the current world that we live in. I think I just had higher expectations.