A review by rebeccagee
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks

3.0

Far from being the best of Faulks' work, Charlotte Gray was an interesting read but a little bland for me. Some of the dialogue dragged, the central love story was completely hollow, and Faulks' narrative seemed to know that; the weaknesses were constantly prodded with awkward conversations between the protagonist and interchangeable characters, all summarising thusly: 'Just because you barely know each other doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend a year tramping around war-torn France looking for him, even if he didn't tell you why he was here, oh and he might be dead anyway, but yeah, go ahead, look for him. Sounds great. Honestly.' The more gripping parts of the book - the missions into Occupied French countryside, brushes with the SS, the truly heartbreaking concentration camp chapters which had me in tears - were skimmed over, quickly narrated as though they were irrelevant portions of the much bigger picture. Frankly, the bigger picture was dull. I love Faulks but Charlotte Gray was a serious disappointment and the only reason I'm giving it three stars is because he still has the ability to reduce me to tears, although sometimes with despair.