"Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."
I know that's a long pull quote, reader, but it's so true that I had to include the entire thing. Women survive. We do what we must. Sometimes, we must run; sometimes, we must stay and entertain the enemy. Sometimes, we must turn ourselves over to the authorities (just kidding, Agent Hawthorne!) - sometimes, we must disguise ourselves as gas station attendants and fill the tanks of our pursuers while they buy gum and Mountain Dew (really, though, Hawthorne, you should lay off the green stuff - that's why you have the ulcer. It's not because of me; it's because you drink soda that glows in the dark).
Men go to war; women stay behind. Men lose legs and eyes and lives, and they get parades. Women lose husbands and sons and brothers and food and clothes and housing and dignity and decency, and when the men come back, we lose the jobs that we did in their stead while they were off fighting for Queen and Country. And we take care of them, because they have suffered.
Nobody takes care of the women. We wrap our prematurely white hair in scarves and we go to the market to buy food and we look at each other as though we are the same people who we were before we did the things that we had to do while the men were away.
One day, reader, I will pick up the pieces and start my life over. I won't be on the run forever. One day, Agent Hawthorne will retire to a cozy cabin with his husband and their daughter Melanie, and I will put down roots in a small town far from where they live, and we will exchange the occasional postcard and laugh about all of this. I will never get my left pinky finger back, but I will do what all women must do with loss: accept it, and continue.
The Nightingale by the phosphorescent Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah masterfully examines several angles of the invasion and occupation of France by Nazi Germany. This examination is woven into the story of a family - two sisters, a father, and a child. Vianne, the older sister, is at home with a young daughter; her husband is a German prisoner of war, and Vianne and her daughter are left behind to cope. Isabelle, the younger sister, is caught in the march out of Paris when the Nazis invade - a girl alone in a war fought by men who history will remember as great and terrible.
What happens, then, to the women in this story? Isabelle - after an accelerated wartime romance and betrayal - dives into the resistance. She is loud, fearless, and reckless. She puts herself, her sister, and her niece into constant danger. She is brave.
Vianne, meanwhile, is forced to take on a Nazi when her home is quartered. He sleeps under her blankets, eats at her table, and speaks to her child. She is terrified. She is disgusted. She is afraid of how likable the Nazi soldier is. She is afraid of how easy it would be to cooperate with him. She is also very brave.
The women in this story are written beautifully: they are flawed, they make stupid decisions, and they hurt each other. They are also strong, and tenacious, and put themselves into danger to help each other. They are not fearless, but they are valiant. They are survivors.
Now, for Spoilers.
This story is not about how brave people can prevail over all odds and against all obstacles.
It is about the horrors of war, and the brutality that is visited upon women when men decide to fight.
As a reader, I was incredibly proud of the way that Isabelle grows up in the latter half of the book. She goes from impetuous and headstrong to competent and sharp. She is honed by the war - she starts as someone who seeks adventure, and becomes someone who seeks to do what is right. She puts herself at great personal risk, shepherding downed Allied pilots over the Pyrenees to safety. Her story is realistic: she is captured by the Nazis, who subject her to brutal torture. This is what happens to freedom fighters, reader. They suffer.
She is released by them when her father claims her code name - Nightingale - and forfeits his life so that she might survive. Her struggles do not end there, but I shan't give everything away, reader.
Her sister Vianne also grows up, although in a very different way. Her story is not one of triumphant rebellion that is punished brutally; her story is instead one of brutal punishment that feeds a low, steady flame of resistance. After she and her sister inadvertently kill the Nazi who is living in her home, she is forced to provide lodging to another Nazi - one who presents a far less nuanced picture of the men who go to war. We are reminded by this second tenant that, while not all Nazi soldiers were monsters, some certainly were.
She protects her daughter from the man, but cannot protect her from the knowledge of her mother's suffering: Vianne's life is colored by starvation, beatings, and rape. During this time of absolute suffering, she also quietly smuggles Jewish children to an orphanage, giving them new identities so that they might survive the occupation. Her suffering fuels her drive to combat the Nazi occupation.
At the end of the story, the sisters are reunited. Vianne is pregnant. Isabelle is broken. Vianne's husband returns home; he is also broken, but in a very different way.
And everyone picks up the pieces, and they start over.
They do not all survive the starting over. It's that way, with war - some people are able to hold themselves intact until the horrors end, and when they relax, they crumble. This is the spoilers section, but I will keep that part to myself, reader; you should really go and find this book and sit down with it and turn pages until it is finished. Then, you should turn back to the first page and start reading it again.
It is about the horrors of war, and the brutality that is visited upon women when men decide to fight.
As a reader, I was incredibly proud of the way that Isabelle grows up in the latter half of the book. She goes from impetuous and headstrong to competent and sharp. She is honed by the war - she starts as someone who seeks adventure, and becomes someone who seeks to do what is right. She puts herself at great personal risk, shepherding downed Allied pilots over the Pyrenees to safety. Her story is realistic: she is captured by the Nazis, who subject her to brutal torture. This is what happens to freedom fighters, reader. They suffer.
She is released by them when her father claims her code name - Nightingale - and forfeits his life so that she might survive. Her struggles do not end there, but I shan't give everything away, reader.
Her sister Vianne also grows up, although in a very different way. Her story is not one of triumphant rebellion that is punished brutally; her story is instead one of brutal punishment that feeds a low, steady flame of resistance. After she and her sister inadvertently kill the Nazi who is living in her home, she is forced to provide lodging to another Nazi - one who presents a far less nuanced picture of the men who go to war. We are reminded by this second tenant that, while not all Nazi soldiers were monsters, some certainly were.
She protects her daughter from the man, but cannot protect her from the knowledge of her mother's suffering: Vianne's life is colored by starvation, beatings, and rape. During this time of absolute suffering, she also quietly smuggles Jewish children to an orphanage, giving them new identities so that they might survive the occupation. Her suffering fuels her drive to combat the Nazi occupation.
At the end of the story, the sisters are reunited. Vianne is pregnant. Isabelle is broken. Vianne's husband returns home; he is also broken, but in a very different way.
And everyone picks up the pieces, and they start over.
They do not all survive the starting over. It's that way, with war - some people are able to hold themselves intact until the horrors end, and when they relax, they crumble. This is the spoilers section, but I will keep that part to myself, reader; you should really go and find this book and sit down with it and turn pages until it is finished. Then, you should turn back to the first page and start reading it again.
Rating: Magnificent.
Possible ratings: Magnificent, Divine, Satisfactory, Tiresome, Lamentable, Execrable. This is a blog about words, what rating system did you expect?
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