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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really loved this book but felt that the ending was a bit saccharine. It certainly made me pause for thought about the lengths I'd go and the choices I'd make to keep my family safe - would I compromise my enter life, and would those decisions ultimately lead to the safety I would want?
Really great concept, although certain aspects I wonder about the realism or likelihood of it.
I also wonder about the choice to show some SS officers as people who had just gone along for the ride as it were, and weren't bought in. The ending, in that sense, for me was really hard to read - would Mayim really be as comfortable around them and happy for them to still be in their lives when Jürgen had facilitated the misery and torture of so many people?
Really great concept, although certain aspects I wonder about the realism or likelihood of it.
A wonderful human story depicting the lives just before WWII and the aftermath. A well off German family and a very poor American one. It poses the dilemma of going against one’s principles to save the lives of those you love and later having to face the consequences of those actions
This was an incredible story. I hadn’t heard of Operation Paperclip prior to this. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction about WWII but reading the story from the perspective of Germans who felt they had no choice but to find ways to survive in Nazi Germany was astounding. The choices they made at times are infuriating and it really makes you wonder if they could’ve done anything else. We can only hope that more people would stand up if faced with this again. Yet, as stated at one point in the book, antisemitism wasn’t new. People were simply hiding it. What a sad state of affairs.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was such an interesting read as it was based on true events with the author's character development. It was challenging because it delves into the realm of, "how would I respond in this situation?" It's a scary thought that this event didn't happen that long ago and how is it transpiring even today? Really nicely done, I just wish I had more people to discuss this with!
Side note, this would be an excellent dual read with The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult as they are different stories within the same time period and evoke two different viewpoints.
Side note, this would be an excellent dual read with The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult as they are different stories within the same time period and evoke two different viewpoints.
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is my 3rd historical fiction from Rimmer and they seem to follow the same flow - the first third is fast and engaging, second is way slow, third is a bit quicker than the second until there’s a decent finish. I loved the characters and the dual storylines, though I wish the timelines were synced between the 2 main characters through the book.
I appreciated the perspective of the German wife as a lesson of what not to do when fascism attempts to take over a democratic society, which is timely for the US at the moment.
I appreciated the perspective of the German wife as a lesson of what not to do when fascism attempts to take over a democratic society, which is timely for the US at the moment.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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:
Yes
This book is incredible. It's thought-provoking and heartbreaking. It really makes you evaluate the complexity and flawed nature of humanity. I sobbed multiple times while reading. It is a WW2 book but from a different perspective/experience than I've read in the past. I found myself googling and learning new pieces of history.
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
The story was fascinating and compelling - two women, about the same age, with similarly challenging backgrounds. One from Texas, another from Berlin; one rather wealthy and privileged, the other a struggling-but-relatively-happy farmer.
The Texan hates the German, as they come together in Huntsville, AL. Their back stories are both fascinating - how does one become a Nazi? Is one a Nazi? And how does one live through the American Dust Bowl. So much relevance to life today.
Plot = 5
AND YET, I couldn’t give it a 5. The voices of both women were a) almost exactly the same and b) NOT of their time. If you’d given me a passage of one of them thinking, I couldn’t tell you who was who. There was no variety of tone in their thinking, word choice … both of them were very 21st century. One example is that Felix, the living son of Sofie, wants to watch television incessantly. IN 1950. NO THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. He wanted to get up at 5:30 am to watch tv.
I’m old enough to remember that the “farm report” came on around 6 or 7 am in the late 1960s, so i strongly doubt that there was any TV for Felix to watch at 5:30 am in 1950.
So much more research should have been done.
*sigh*
The Texan hates the German, as they come together in Huntsville, AL. Their back stories are both fascinating - how does one become a Nazi? Is one a Nazi? And how does one live through the American Dust Bowl. So much relevance to life today.
Plot = 5
AND YET, I couldn’t give it a 5. The voices of both women were a) almost exactly the same and b) NOT of their time. If you’d given me a passage of one of them thinking, I couldn’t tell you who was who. There was no variety of tone in their thinking, word choice … both of them were very 21st century. One example is that Felix, the living son of Sofie, wants to watch television incessantly. IN 1950. NO THAT DID NOT HAPPEN. He wanted to get up at 5:30 am to watch tv.
I’m old enough to remember that the “farm report” came on around 6 or 7 am in the late 1960s, so i strongly doubt that there was any TV for Felix to watch at 5:30 am in 1950.
So much more research should have been done.
*sigh*