The Irregulars and Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British spy ring in wartime Washington by Jennet Conant and Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs by Patrick K. O'Donnell, non-fiction category

You would think that a real life book about espionage would be interesting, but two books in a row proved that not to be the case. Maybe it's because the author has to leave out too much, or because there is not enough good source information, so the author has to guess. But both of these were hard to get through. Too much boring detail to get through and not enough pictures. Too much politics, not enough action.

I really enjoy Roald Dahl as an author, so I was looking forward to The Irregulars. I had no idea that Britain was working so hard to sway American policy toward World War II and get Americans involved. This should have been an interesting book. But I got lost in all the names, and if anything interesting happened, I missed it. Two stars is being generous, but I did enjoy the biographical parts about Dahl's family life and early writing career.

The second book was about the OSS, organized by division. WAAAAAY too much detail. There were maps, but I was still confused about what was going on. The most interesting part to me was about the 'amphibious squadron' - sorry, I had a Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow moment. But you know what I mean, the forerunners of the Navy Seals. I also liked the part about how the OSS got started. But I basically skipped around in this one too. Neither is recommended unless you are a major WWII buff or a big fan of Roald Dahl's

Suite Francaise (27/81)

Ever since picking up my first work by Nemirovsky last year, I've admired her talent for observing the human condition. There's something about her observation of people and their actions that suggests a balance between optimistic humanism and world weariness. In Suite Francaise, she trains her fine eye on the way that people react, and then adjust, to war, specifically Germany's invasion of France in WWII.

The book is divided into two sections. The first section begins as the news spreads through France that the army has been unable to stop the Germans. With the Blitz heading towards Paris, panic spreads, and people begin to flee to the countryside. Nemirovsky quickly introduces several people, including one family, and the preparations they make to leave. At first, the sheer number of characters made it a bit confusing, but as the story progressed, I got to know the characters better and became able to distinguish them.

As the Parisians flee, they often find themselves in pretty harrowing circumstances. The invasion has thrown things into disorder, and people who've led lives of privilege and prestige suddenly find the charmed existence that they enjoyed has suddenly disappeared. At first the Germans appear only as news on the radio, but then there are bombings and aerial strafing, followed by pitched battles. The story reflects the horror and confusion of war. As the first section ends, the government has fallen, the fighting has ended and people are in the process of putting their lives back together.

The second section begins in the countryside, specifically in one of the villages to which one of the Parisians had fled. The Germans have gone from being an invading army to an occupying one, and in the process have gone from being an amorphous threat to having a very human face. In fact, the presence of all the young men in a village which has seen its own boys killed or taken prisoner gives rise to a strange dynamic of affection and resentment. This section felt even stronger, as Nemirovsky probes all the fault lines, allowing for a much slower boil of conflicting emotions and allegiances.

Because Nemirovsky was sent to the death camps, she never finished the novel, so the second section of the novel ends somewhat abruptly. Though not part of the novel, I couldn't help but contrast Nemirovsky's eye for day-to-day humanity with the sheer inhuman evil of the Holocaust. I also couldn't help wondering how this chronicle of the war, with all its fine detail and observations, would have continued had she lived.

The Long Walk - 51/81

The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz, biography category

Slavomir Rawicz was a Polish cavalry officer in World War II. He came home on leave and found himself arrested by the Russians for the crime of, well, being Polish. He was kept in prison, but refused to confess. After a few months, he was tricked into signing a confession and shipped off to Siberia for 25 years hard labor. After a horrible trek up into the northern wilderness, he finds himself in a Siberian work camp.

He decides he's not about to spend 25 years there, and makes plans to escape. He enlists six other men, a Latvian, an American, other Poles, and they sneak out in the night. Their escape plan will take them through Mongolia, across the Gobi Desert, up and down the Himalayas, and through India.

It's an incredible story. I couldn't put it down once I got started. Sometimes there were gaps in the story, but it was absolutely gripping. Really worth reading.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (30/81)

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Category: New-to-me Authors

In 1986, the current owner of the Panama Hotel begins remodeling, and finds possessions of several Japanese families who left Seattle in the 1940s when they were sent to internment camps. This discovery makes the news, and reminds newly widowed Henry Lee of his experiences as the son of Chinese immigrants in 1942. "Scholarshipping" in an all-white school, he makes a friend when Keiko Okabe transfers to his school and works alongside him in the cafeteria.

The narrative shifts between 1942 and 1986, and we see past and present from Henry's perspective. Ford evokes a rich sense of place in his descriptions of Seattle neighborhoods and the jazz scene in the 1940s. More a story of internal discovery than external events, the story and its characters insinuated their way into me until I found, to my surprise, that I cared enough to cry. 4.5 stars.

Cross-posted at Born Reader.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - 20/81

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, for Library Thing/Good Reads category.

I *LOVED* this book. 

Writer Juliet Ashton has come through World War II more or less intact, although her flat was destroyed by bombs. But she's doing all right and ready to start a new project. Around then, she starts a correspondence with Dawsey Adams, an inhabitant of the tiny island of Guernsey. They've been cut off from all communication with England for 5 years and are desperate to catch back up to what they've missed.

Soon Juliet (and through her, the reader) finds herself completely drawn into the wartime history of this small community. Through letters, she makes friends with people she's never met, and must reexamine what she wants out of life.

It sounds just too heartwarming and sappy for words, but I thought it was great. I actually remembered a little of the history of Guernsey before I read the book, but I found myself horrified at some of the things I read. I kept telling my husband - "Guess what!" and then telling him something I had read.

The characters are wonderful, funny and tragic and pathetic. The setting is so well done. I have to add the isle of Guernsey to another of the places I would love to visit.

I really recommend this book! It's one of those books that as soon as I finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again.