by Nina George
What a lovely life affirming book. It was truly uplifting.
The book starts out with a sad old Parisian man being asked to provide some furniture for a woman who has left her husband and who has nothing. He has little left, he has discarded most possessions but opens up a room he had closed off 20+ years before after the love of his life left him.
He finds a table and chair to give to the woman but finds opening the room brings back memories he had been trying to avoid of a woman he had an affair with.
He is now the owner of a floating barge on the seine, a bookshop. He seems to know the right kind of books to give people.
One of his neighbours is a quirky young man who recently wrote a very successful book and who seems to be hiding from his success and fans.
He visits the neighbour he gave the table to and she gives him a letter, an unopened letter that she found in the table. It is from the man's lover. He received it 20 years ago but never had the courage to open it. He has been living in grief and despair since she left him.
He is reluctant to open it but when he does he is devastated to find that his lover's letter tells him she is dying and asking him to come to see her before he dies. Now he feels worse than ever as he has failed her.
He decides to cut his boat free and sail to where his lover lived/was engaged to another man. He also is seeking to find out a who the author is of a book he particulary liked. His young author friend leaps on board as he is leaving, losing his wallet and ID in the leap. The men sail along the rivers of France making money by selling books or bartering books for food and other supplies. They meet another man who is seeking a woman he met years before.
While travelling Monsier Perdu ("lost') sends postcards to his lady neighbour and eventually invites her to join him in southern France. Both his male friends also find romantic attachments.
While the start of the book is sad the book is a touching affirmation of love and life. I really felt energized and inspired by it.
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Monday, 16 November 2015
Circling the Sun
Paula McLain
I read a previous book by this author, the Paris Wife. I think I enjoyed that one.
I did not enjoy this book. I forced myself to finish it. I did not enjoy the story and had no sympathy for the main character, Beryl Markham.
Beryl's father brought the family to Kenya in 1904. His wife hated it and went back to England with the son, leaving the daughter and father behind. A psychologist would have a field day with this, leaving your daughter but taking your son...
Beryl's father struggles to build a farm and a horse training business and is not successful. He brings a woman to the farm, a housekeeper/lover. Beryl learns horse training from her father. When her father sells the farm with plans to move to South Africa Beryl decides to marry a local farmer. She is only 16. They don't really know each other and the marriage is a disaster.
She eventually leaves her husband on the pretext of getting training to be a professional horse trainer. She has an affair with a black man. Her behaviour and her affair cause a scandal and she fights with her husband but he won't give her a divorce.
The book portrays lives of the rich/party scene in Kenya. Beryl meets Karen Blixen who is married but having an affair with a man who takes rich people on game hunts, Denys Finch Hutton. Beryl has an affair with him and gets pregnant, she aborts the baby.
She later is a kept woman, then goes on to remarry and have a disabled son whom she leaves in England with her husband and his family.
This woman seemed to have a sad life but you have to wonder how much she brought on herself with her wilfulness. I would have liked to have heard other people's impressions of her in addition to the author's sympathetic tone.
The book drones on over the first few years of her life and then covers her aviation career and the rest of her life in 50 pages. It was like the author herself had enough and wanted to get the book over with.
This book is a best seller but I can't say I agree with its popularity. I guess it is the appeal of the strongly independent woman.
I read a previous book by this author, the Paris Wife. I think I enjoyed that one.
I did not enjoy this book. I forced myself to finish it. I did not enjoy the story and had no sympathy for the main character, Beryl Markham.
Beryl's father brought the family to Kenya in 1904. His wife hated it and went back to England with the son, leaving the daughter and father behind. A psychologist would have a field day with this, leaving your daughter but taking your son...
Beryl's father struggles to build a farm and a horse training business and is not successful. He brings a woman to the farm, a housekeeper/lover. Beryl learns horse training from her father. When her father sells the farm with plans to move to South Africa Beryl decides to marry a local farmer. She is only 16. They don't really know each other and the marriage is a disaster.
She eventually leaves her husband on the pretext of getting training to be a professional horse trainer. She has an affair with a black man. Her behaviour and her affair cause a scandal and she fights with her husband but he won't give her a divorce.
The book portrays lives of the rich/party scene in Kenya. Beryl meets Karen Blixen who is married but having an affair with a man who takes rich people on game hunts, Denys Finch Hutton. Beryl has an affair with him and gets pregnant, she aborts the baby.
She later is a kept woman, then goes on to remarry and have a disabled son whom she leaves in England with her husband and his family.
This woman seemed to have a sad life but you have to wonder how much she brought on herself with her wilfulness. I would have liked to have heard other people's impressions of her in addition to the author's sympathetic tone.
The book drones on over the first few years of her life and then covers her aviation career and the rest of her life in 50 pages. It was like the author herself had enough and wanted to get the book over with.
This book is a best seller but I can't say I agree with its popularity. I guess it is the appeal of the strongly independent woman.
Monday, 9 November 2015
The Nightengale
by Kristin Hannah
This book is the story of two French sisters and their resistance activities during WWII.
The girls' father returns from WWI a broken man. When his wife dies he sends his daughters off to be cared for by another woman. The girls are both devastated at the loss of their mother and the abandonment of their father.
When one of the daughters, Vianne, gets pregnant he is furious. She marries her boyfriend and he sends his other daughter, Isabelle, to live with them. The girls don't get along and the second daughter is sent to various boarding schools from which she gets expelled or runs away.
When the French surrender to the Germans the French hope things won't change much but pretty soon the Germans are taking over Paris, claiming homes, goods, and food. The father sends Isabelle, who has once again been sent home from school, to live with her sister.
Soon the German presence is felt in the small village. Vianne's husband is off fighting. Her priority is to lie low and keep her daughter safe. Isabelle wants to resist and starts distributing French resistance newsletters in the area. Later she goes on to lead airmen who have been shot down over the Pyrenees and back to safety/freedom. The Germans know she is called the Nightengale but don't realize she is a woman. They are trying to track her down.
Meantime Vianne is forced to let a German officer board with her. The first one is a kind man. He even tries to help her out by getting food and other items for her. Vianne is asked to report jews and communists in the area and she is forced by her houseguest to name her neighbour. The woman is rounded up a short time later and Vianne takes on the woman's son, giving him a new Christian name.
When the German accidentally sees that Isabelle has attempted to save an allied pilot Vianne and Isabelle kill him.
The next German houseguest is a brute, he forces Vianne to have sex and threatens to hurt her children if she does not cooperate.
In the end Isabelle is reunited with her father and is surprised to find out he is preparing forged documents for jews.
Isabelle and her father are eventually captured. Her father says he is the Nightengale and is executed. Isabelle is sent to a concentration camp. She survives the camp but contracts TB or pneumonia and dies shortly after she returns home.
Isabelle's son has just moved her into a senior's home. He wants her to be safe. He is shocked when he finds out she is going to France for a reunion. He joins her on her trip. The book ends with Isabelle telling her son (who is actually the product of the German's rape of her)
the story of her life... but not all of it.
This book was superb. It was a great story and really gave you a sense of what life was like for the French during the war.
This book is the story of two French sisters and their resistance activities during WWII.
The girls' father returns from WWI a broken man. When his wife dies he sends his daughters off to be cared for by another woman. The girls are both devastated at the loss of their mother and the abandonment of their father.
When one of the daughters, Vianne, gets pregnant he is furious. She marries her boyfriend and he sends his other daughter, Isabelle, to live with them. The girls don't get along and the second daughter is sent to various boarding schools from which she gets expelled or runs away.
When the French surrender to the Germans the French hope things won't change much but pretty soon the Germans are taking over Paris, claiming homes, goods, and food. The father sends Isabelle, who has once again been sent home from school, to live with her sister.
Soon the German presence is felt in the small village. Vianne's husband is off fighting. Her priority is to lie low and keep her daughter safe. Isabelle wants to resist and starts distributing French resistance newsletters in the area. Later she goes on to lead airmen who have been shot down over the Pyrenees and back to safety/freedom. The Germans know she is called the Nightengale but don't realize she is a woman. They are trying to track her down.
Meantime Vianne is forced to let a German officer board with her. The first one is a kind man. He even tries to help her out by getting food and other items for her. Vianne is asked to report jews and communists in the area and she is forced by her houseguest to name her neighbour. The woman is rounded up a short time later and Vianne takes on the woman's son, giving him a new Christian name.
When the German accidentally sees that Isabelle has attempted to save an allied pilot Vianne and Isabelle kill him.
The next German houseguest is a brute, he forces Vianne to have sex and threatens to hurt her children if she does not cooperate.
In the end Isabelle is reunited with her father and is surprised to find out he is preparing forged documents for jews.
Isabelle and her father are eventually captured. Her father says he is the Nightengale and is executed. Isabelle is sent to a concentration camp. She survives the camp but contracts TB or pneumonia and dies shortly after she returns home.
Isabelle's son has just moved her into a senior's home. He wants her to be safe. He is shocked when he finds out she is going to France for a reunion. He joins her on her trip. The book ends with Isabelle telling her son (who is actually the product of the German's rape of her)
the story of her life... but not all of it.
This book was superb. It was a great story and really gave you a sense of what life was like for the French during the war.
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