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jed's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
lattelibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
I am normally not one for historical fiction, but I am one for anything to do with France. Clayton introduces each chapter with a quote that sets the tone for the following section, and helps her audience view a primary source of what it was like to be in the middle of a war. I’m nowhere near being a history buff, so this helped immensely. Clayton uses beautiful imagery to contrast the grittiness of war alongside the cleanliness of being away from the front, to compare the struggles of women attempting to make their careers to those of men whose careers are already made, and to show just how important it is to these characters to take photos and how important it is for them to stay alive.
In the midst of war, broken families, and degrading marriages, these two women do what seems to be impossible–and that is a plotline I can get behind.
Get the full review here!
In the midst of war, broken families, and degrading marriages, these two women do what seems to be impossible–and that is a plotline I can get behind.
Get the full review here!
ifyouhappentoremember's review against another edition
2.0
Oh, I found this book to be so dull and tedious. I thought, based on the synopsis, I was in for a fast-paced ride through a side of World War 2, I never really considered: the war correspondent who covered the fighting. Unfortunately, I found this book to be so boring. It felt like it was never going to end. I never got a sense of the personality of what each of the main characters was, only that they were pieces on a chessboard, moving in the way the author wanted them to. It honestly felt like nothing happened in this book.
I am so relieved to be finished.
I am so relieved to be finished.
laure24's review against another edition
1.0
Couldn’t get past the first 50 pages. I found the premise interesting, but literally nothing was happening in this book. You can’t file stories if all you do is hang out in your tent.
kdurham2's review against another edition
3.0
check out the full review at Kritters Ramblings
A historical fiction that is completely based on truth and I loved that behind the fiction there was a layer of truth. Jane is a reporter and Liv a photographer and they by chance meet covering a medic hospital nowhere near the front line. Liv charges Jane with the idea to try to make it to Paris and the front line before everything is freed, so they can be the first to report - big problem is they don't have the credentials and will have to go without anyone knowing.
This was a fun adventure. There was definitely a lot of war things which at moments weren't completely entertaining but they were necessary to know where in the timeline they were. Usually I can say that historical fiction doesn't feel like a textbook, but there were moments where this one felt like a lot of facts.
A historical fiction that is completely based on truth and I loved that behind the fiction there was a layer of truth. Jane is a reporter and Liv a photographer and they by chance meet covering a medic hospital nowhere near the front line. Liv charges Jane with the idea to try to make it to Paris and the front line before everything is freed, so they can be the first to report - big problem is they don't have the credentials and will have to go without anyone knowing.
This was a fun adventure. There was definitely a lot of war things which at moments weren't completely entertaining but they were necessary to know where in the timeline they were. Usually I can say that historical fiction doesn't feel like a textbook, but there were moments where this one felt like a lot of facts.
tessisreading2's review against another edition
3.0
Too much history, not enough fiction. It felt like the author was loathe to take away from the historic accomplishments of actual women reporters and photojournalists - which is understandable - but that meant that the narrative kept ducking aside to assure us that Lee Miller did such-and-such or here's the latest gossip about Margaret Bourke-White. The chapters began with quotes from real war reporters and photojournalists, which again detracted from the actual novel - because rather than hear any insights from the characters themselves, we were hearing them from their real-life models. It made it difficult to get attached to the characters, except perhaps for Fletcher who seemed to be the only one permitted to have a real inner life; I was most attached to the book when Jane, the narrator, displayed an actual personality, but the use of the first-person (from Jane) meant that it was difficult to really get a grasp on Liv. Additionally, the ending/epilogue was frustrating:
Spoiler
We learn that Jane and Fletcher married - despite the fact that when the main narrative ended Fletcher was in love with Liv and Jane seemed to have no hope that he might ever love her - that they adopted the child of a woman they saw giving birth in the Netherlands (really? They felt the need to go back and adopt that particular child? Why?), that Liv's brother survived the war (but Jane and Fletcher didn't bother to meet him for the next fifty years), that Liv's husband never remarried, etc. It was just a whole host of endings, most of which had never even been hinted at in the actual book - so for example Fletcher never once seemed to reciprocate Jane's feelings, Jane and Fletcher didn't seem to display any major connection to the pregnant mom (although Liv did so I guess that's why?), we didn't really find any hope for Liv's brother being alive, etc. I'd question why the epilogue was there, except that the main part of the narrative ended without any real resolution, so I guess she just threw every resolution imaginable in the epilogue.mwgerard's review against another edition
4.0
As the Normandy invasion’s ground forces advanced across the French countryside, the obvious objective was to liberate Paris. Allied forces crept at a snail’s pace, encountering mine fields and holdouts along the way.
In 1940, when Paris surrendered to Nazi Germany, the event was documented. Footage of a triumphant Hitler in a motorcade, driving around all the landmarks of the city, flickered across the movie screen newsreels everywhere. It was a sobering image. The capital of western Europe was under the Kaiser’s thumb.
Documenting its impending liberation promised to be even more affecting. Photographers and journalists wanted to the first to reach Paris and send a dispatch back to their outlets. Being on the frontlines and seeing Paris liberated was no easy feat for a soldier, never mind an artist. For female photographer, this was all but forbidden.
Military orders allowed only approved journalists in very limited situations. Women were further discouraged and often assigned to secondary detachments.
Read the rest of my review here: http://mwgerard.com/review-the-race-for-paris-by-meg-waite-clayton/
In 1940, when Paris surrendered to Nazi Germany, the event was documented. Footage of a triumphant Hitler in a motorcade, driving around all the landmarks of the city, flickered across the movie screen newsreels everywhere. It was a sobering image. The capital of western Europe was under the Kaiser’s thumb.
Documenting its impending liberation promised to be even more affecting. Photographers and journalists wanted to the first to reach Paris and send a dispatch back to their outlets. Being on the frontlines and seeing Paris liberated was no easy feat for a soldier, never mind an artist. For female photographer, this was all but forbidden.
Military orders allowed only approved journalists in very limited situations. Women were further discouraged and often assigned to secondary detachments.
Read the rest of my review here: http://mwgerard.com/review-the-race-for-paris-by-meg-waite-clayton/
sarah_reading_party's review against another edition
Tried to read in February 2016...didn't finish. Too slow, too much else to read. Maybe another time.
cmzukowski's review against another edition
4.0
I was so torn on the rating for this book. I did enjoy it but between the first half and the second half it seemed as if I were reading two different books; the first I wanted to give three stars and the second four stars (If only we could give half star ratings!). I was incredibly excited to read the book for several reasons. When I was younger it was my dream to become a war correspondent and to this day I regret not following that dream. I thought it would be so hard to be respected in that field as a woman so I was immediately pulled towards this book. Also, I am a sucker for war books and for books about women who are all about kicking the rules to the curb and showing they can do anything that men can do.
The story is based on real life events portrayed by fictional characters. The narrator is a journalist named Jane and the story follows her experiences with Liv, a female photographer, and a male photographer named Fletcher. The women, grown tired of all the rejection they receive to their requests to go to the front, decide to go AWOL and they meet up with Fletcher (a friend of Liv’s husband) who aids them on their quest to become the first to photograph Paris at the moment cease-fire is declared. The issue I ran into early in the book is how slow it was progressing. It bordered on slightly boring sometimes and seemed to drag on quite a bit. A lot of time was spent on the characters earlier lives, a love triangle, and jealousy that I feel could have been portrayed in a more intriguing way. Instead a lot of it fell flat. The book definitely picks up halfway through when they reach Paris and the second half of the book I found too exciting to put down. I only wish the entire book had been like that.
The main characters were interesting but not well-developed, in my opinion. It was hard to feel any emotional attachment or bond with them and I found myself caring more about the history behind the book than the main characters in it. On a positive note, I admire the amount of research that Meg Waite Clayton put into writing this book. Her portrayal of war, soldiers, and civilians was absolutely brilliant and she was able to make you feel something for what those people were going through at that time. Her account of the moment in Paris where the cease-fire was declared was so brilliant and powerful that it gave me chills.
“Tears streamed down the hollow, stubbled cheeks of old men, the old and the sick brought out from hospitals to greet freedom in the streets. Young women pulled their children tightly to their sinewy legs, watching for their children’s fathers, hoping they might appear in a passing truck and wondering if they would recognize them.”
Overall I think the second half of the book made it worth struggling through the first half. I never knew of what women actually went through during World War II as war correspondents and what they had to do to be allowed the same chances as men. A male photographer or journalist would be given permission immediately to go to the front to cover the war while a female photographer or journalist (in her fitted Saks Fifth Avenue uniform that she was required to wear) needed to go AWOL to get that same opportunity. Even then there was no guarantee their work would be published, because of their AWOL status, unless they allowed a man to take credit or it was published uncredited. The history this books teaches and the glimpse it gives into war from a woman’s viewpoint is fascinating and ultimately, The Race for Paris is worth the read.
“It is quite a job being a woman, isn’t it; you cannot do your work and simply get on with it because that is selfish, you have to be two things at once.” - Journalist Martha Gellhorn in an April 28, 1944, letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Check out more book reviews on The Book Cafe
The story is based on real life events portrayed by fictional characters. The narrator is a journalist named Jane and the story follows her experiences with Liv, a female photographer, and a male photographer named Fletcher. The women, grown tired of all the rejection they receive to their requests to go to the front, decide to go AWOL and they meet up with Fletcher (a friend of Liv’s husband) who aids them on their quest to become the first to photograph Paris at the moment cease-fire is declared. The issue I ran into early in the book is how slow it was progressing. It bordered on slightly boring sometimes and seemed to drag on quite a bit. A lot of time was spent on the characters earlier lives, a love triangle, and jealousy that I feel could have been portrayed in a more intriguing way. Instead a lot of it fell flat. The book definitely picks up halfway through when they reach Paris and the second half of the book I found too exciting to put down. I only wish the entire book had been like that.
The main characters were interesting but not well-developed, in my opinion. It was hard to feel any emotional attachment or bond with them and I found myself caring more about the history behind the book than the main characters in it. On a positive note, I admire the amount of research that Meg Waite Clayton put into writing this book. Her portrayal of war, soldiers, and civilians was absolutely brilliant and she was able to make you feel something for what those people were going through at that time. Her account of the moment in Paris where the cease-fire was declared was so brilliant and powerful that it gave me chills.
“Tears streamed down the hollow, stubbled cheeks of old men, the old and the sick brought out from hospitals to greet freedom in the streets. Young women pulled their children tightly to their sinewy legs, watching for their children’s fathers, hoping they might appear in a passing truck and wondering if they would recognize them.”
Overall I think the second half of the book made it worth struggling through the first half. I never knew of what women actually went through during World War II as war correspondents and what they had to do to be allowed the same chances as men. A male photographer or journalist would be given permission immediately to go to the front to cover the war while a female photographer or journalist (in her fitted Saks Fifth Avenue uniform that she was required to wear) needed to go AWOL to get that same opportunity. Even then there was no guarantee their work would be published, because of their AWOL status, unless they allowed a man to take credit or it was published uncredited. The history this books teaches and the glimpse it gives into war from a woman’s viewpoint is fascinating and ultimately, The Race for Paris is worth the read.
“It is quite a job being a woman, isn’t it; you cannot do your work and simply get on with it because that is selfish, you have to be two things at once.” - Journalist Martha Gellhorn in an April 28, 1944, letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Check out more book reviews on The Book Cafe
manaledi's review against another edition
4.0
There are a lot of war novels out there, and I've read some of them (in what's starting to feel like a lot), and I appreciate the ones that can provide a different angle and a different aspect. Here the angle is war photographers, but the key is actually gender relations.