06-04-2019, 10:38 AM
I would not have read this, but my nephew gave it to me, and I felt like I should at least give it a try. It's about two intersecting stories in the WWII era, one of a blind French girl, and the other of a German orphan who goes to an elite Nazi school and becomes a radio operator, and it's told in alternating chapters about each. The plot is too much to summarize, but they meet during the war, only briefly yet decisively.
I'd say it was good, and the guy can really write, but not something I'd come back to since it was kind of depressing. It seems to have been heavily researched - in fact the author wrote another book about living in France and researching/writing it - and so was very detailed and consequently rather long, covering at least 5-10 years in the main text, with a coda years later.
It did make me realize that I pretty much never read mainstream "literary" fiction, such as gets reviews in major publications.
I'd say it was good, and the guy can really write, but not something I'd come back to since it was kind of depressing. It seems to have been heavily researched - in fact the author wrote another book about living in France and researching/writing it - and so was very detailed and consequently rather long, covering at least 5-10 years in the main text, with a coda years later.
It did make me realize that I pretty much never read mainstream "literary" fiction, such as gets reviews in major publications.
the hands that guide me are invisible