Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure (2013)

Lucien Bernard is a young up-and coming architect living in Paris in the 1940s with his wife, and he has a mistress on the side.  He hopes for the next big commission that will bring him money and fame.  Germany has occupied France, and architectural jobs are dwindling.  He has an appointment with Auguste Manet, a wealthy industrialist, whom he hopes will bring him a lucrative commission.

Manet seeks to have Bernard devised a hiding place in one of his properties to hide one of his Jewish friends.  At first, Bernard dismisses the idea, but Manet teases him with a lucrative job designing a factory.  Although Bernard knows that the factory will be making armaments for the Germany, he accepts the challenge to devise a hiding space so he can use his creative talents on the factory building.

Bernard devises a hiding place in a non-structural column in one of Manet’s apartments.  He knows that if the Germans find the spot, and learns that he created the space, he will be killed.  The hiding place is a success.  The Germans ransack the apartment, but fail to find the hiding spot.  Soon, Manet asks Bernard to devise another hiding spot.  Bernard agrees, but says this will be the last time.  “Of course,” agrees Manet.  … Until the next time Manet must hide a Jew from the Germans.

While working on the factory, Bernard meets Herzog, a Germany officer who also has an interest in architecture.  They for a sort of friendship, which makes Bernard realize that he is in collaboration with the Germans.  Still, he continues to devise hiding places for Manet, knowing that his interaction with the Germans can come to an abrupt end should they discover his secret works.

I enjoyed this novel, however, I found the constant stereotypes of Jews to be disturbing.  

Read:

March 27, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Europe and Asia

Edge of Eternity, by Ken Follett (2014)

This novel is the third book in Ken Follett’s The Century Trilogy.  The first two books are Fall of Giants and Winter of the World.  The trilogy follows the generations of 5 families, whose lives are all intertwined, spanning from the early years of the 1900s through the century.  The first book, Fall of Giants, focused on the Russian Revolution and World War II. Winter of the World focused on World War II.  This final book covered a host of social issues beginning with the Cuban missile crisis, the erection of the Berlin Wall and the American Civil Rights marches and ending with the election of Barack Obama.

We meet the later generations of the families from the first two books in the series in this novel.  We experience the Cold War through the eyes of the Franck family who lived in Berlin until almost overnight it became East Berlin.  Families were split – some members free to travel about in the West while other members stuck under the regime of the Stasi in East Berlin.  The novel takes us through to the fall of Communism of the1950s to its collapse in the late 1980s.

The twin sibling in the Russian Dvorkin are close but are on opposite sides of the political structure.  Dmitri gets a job as an aide to Khrushchev, while his sister, Tanya, writes for TASS, but sneaks the dissident writings of a political prisoner to the free world for publication (reminiscent of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).

We experience the Civil Rights Freedom rides through the idealized eyes of young George Jakes, a young man with a black mother and white political father.  He later becomes an aide to Bobby Kennedy and watches the progression of the enactment of Civil Rights laws.

We move on to the music and drug scene in San Francisco in the mid-1960s.  We experience Vietnam through the experiences of a young naturalized citizen.  The characters in the families grow from idealized young people out to change the world into harden by life with some of their dreams realized, while others are left behind.  Nixon becomes President, then we see the cause of his downfall.

The original families depicted in the first book are the same throughout the series, one need not have read the first two books to appreciate this one.  This novel is cram filled with historical events and facts.  It is well researched and provides on of the best explanation of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis that I have read.

The book is long (nearly 1100 pages), but it is a page-turner.  It kept my attention even though I knew the outcome of the historical events described in the book.  I greatly enjoyed this novel and felt I got to know most of the characters in the families living through these momentous events.

Read:  March 24, 2020

5 Stars

The Century Trilogy:

     Fall of Giants; Book I (Read: August 3, 2011)

     Winter of the World; Book II (Read: March 17, 2015)

     Edge of Eternity; Book III (Read: March 24, 2020)

Books Set in North America: New York State

The Romance Reader, by Pearl Abraham (1995)

The Romance Reader, by Pearl Abraham, is a coming of age story told from the perspective of a young Hasidic girl.  Rachel Benjamin is the daughter of a visionary rabbi of a very small community somewhere in New York State.  She is the eldest of 7 children, and as the eldest, is expected to tend to the younger children.

Also, as the daughter of a Hasadic rabbi, she is expected to be an example in the community.  She loves to read secular books, especially gothic romance novels.  She knows that her parents would disapprove, and so work out a scheme to get a library card so she can check out her beloved novels.

She finds ways to rebel against the stringent rules imposed by her father.  Although she attends a religious school, her classmates wear clothing that is more “modern”.  Rachel develops a scheme allowing her to wear shear stockings at school, instead of the thick, seamed opaque tights that her parents insist are more modest.

When her mother goes to Israel and her father goes to South America, 15-year old Rachel is left in charge of the household.  She and her younger sister, Leah, decided to take a class in lifeguarding so that they can work and earn money over the summer.  (Somehow, they had learned how to swim and were strong swimmers).  Their only concern is whether or not they will be able to continue the class once their parents return.  They decide that their best course of action is to remind their father that lifeguarding will, indeed, save lives.  The parents, however, are more concerned about the girls wearing bathing suits.

As Rachel nears her 18^th birthday, she knows she is expected to marry.  From her readings, she has fantasies of being with a man.  She isn’t eager, however, to step into the life of an arranged marriage that is expected of her in her restrictive community.

Her rebellion and struggles are what all young women go through, except that her family is deeply religious and have certain expectations that she is not sure she is able to meet.

Read:  March 15, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in North America: American Mid-West

Your Sins and Mine: The Terrifying Fable of a World Without Faith, by Taylor Caldwell (1955)

This book was published in 1955 and is set in the mid-1950s during the Cold War.  Political tensions are high between the United States and the Communist countries.  This is the background of this dystopian novel.

The novel is narrated by Pete, a young farmer, who lives with his family somewhere in middle America.  His family consists of his wife, his parents, his brother and his brother’s family.  His brother was blinded in Korea, so his farm chores are limited.  The patriarch is a deeply religious man who can quote the Bible almost by heart.

The novel begins when the father notices changes in weather patterns.  At first he just silently noticed the changes.  Then the lack of rain becomes obvious.  The earth becomes parched and the crops dry up.  Winter comes, but no snow falls.  The lakes and rivers are not replenished.

Then, where the fields were once lush with growing wheat and corn, thorny weeds begin to take over the grounds.  The weeds are so thick that it becomes impossible to walk through them.  They must be continually trimmed to avoid entering the house.  The weeds give off a toxic sulfurous fog which encompasses the countryside.  Soon poisonous scorpion-like critters inundate the land ~ critters whose sting means instant death.

In the cities, the shelves are bare, as the food source from the farms has dried up.  The government keeps silent.  No one knows what is going on and the government’s silence only brings further terror.  Riots ensue.  No one knows that all around the world the people are experiencing similar draughts and famines.

One day, in desperation, Pete falls to his knees and silently makes a prayer.  Suddenly, the circle of weeds around him wither away and grass begins to grow.  The city people and the government are convinced that Pete and his family have some sort of special chemical that can make the weeds dissipate.  People are slowly dying from starvation and are convinced that the farmers are hording stores of food.

There is only one thing that can save the people, and the world, but it is something that each person must discover on his own.

Knowing that this novel was written during the Cold War gives this novel some perspective.  It is interesting, however, that the theme of government keeping the truth from populous never really goes away.

The book was interesting, but not one of my favorites by Taylor Caldwell.

Read:  March 14, 2020

3 Stars

Books Set in North America; United States; New England; Massachusetts and Vermont

The Inn at Lake Devine, by Elinor Lipman (1998) is a delightful little romantic comic novel.

We first meet Natalie Marx, the heroine of The Inn as Lake Devine, as a young girl, who lives in a tight-knit Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts.  The year is the early 1960s.  While exploring a resort for a summer vacation, her mother writes a letter of inquiry to the Inn at Lake Devine, which is situated on a beautiful lake in scenic Vermont. Ingrid Berry, the owner and manager of the Inn, writes back stating that the clientele at the Inn is for gentiles.  This seems to be Natalie’s first experience with anti-Semitism.  It also convinces her that she absolutely must find out what is so great about this particular Inn.

Soon after this event, the Civil Rights Act became the law.  Young Natalie began a campaign to flood the Berry’s letters reminding them that they could no longer restrict their clientele to only gentiles.

Later, while at summer camp, Natalie meets Robin Fife, whose family just happens to vacation at the Inn at Lake Devine each summer.  Natalie befriends Robin, even though she finds Robin a bit dull.  She devises a scheme to get herself invited to go to the Inn with Fife family for a week’s vacation.

Flash-forward 10 years.  Natalie is now a professional chef who is between jobs.  Natalie and Robin have more-or-less lost track of each other when Natalie learns that Robin is working in Boston at the Pappagallo store on Newbury Street in Boston.  (How well I remember this store!)  Natalie learns that Robin is engaged to marry Nelson Berry, son of the infamous Inn at Lake Devine.  Robin insists that Natalie attend her upcoming nuptials, which will be held at … (wait for it) the Inn!

Natalie returns to the Inn for the wedding and, on the way to the event, Robin is killed in a tragic car accident.  With family gathered for the wedding, the family decides to hold the funeral there instead.  Natalie stays for the week, cooking for the grieving families where she befriends Kris Berry, the groom’s younger brother.

She hopes that her budding friendship with Kris will develop into something more.  Her parents aren’t thrilled with her involvement with Kris because not only is he not Jewish, but at least 1 member of his family is anti-Semitic.  They fail to give Natalie messages and letters from Kris.

Ultimately, Kris and Natalie get together and go off to a resort in the Catskills with Nelson and his college friend Linette.  Linette’s family runs a kosher resort in the Catskills and she is engaged to a rabbinical student.  She and Nelson, however, renew their friendship as Natalie and Kris’s relationship blooms.

I liked this book, however, the ending was a little too trite.  Nelson quickly became involved with Linette so soon after Robin’s death.  This seemed very callous.

There is a brief, but interesting, #MeToo incident between Natalie and her influential boss.  He tacitly promises to provide her with job opportunities in exchange for sexual favors.  Natalie declines his “offer”, but this passage was written 20 years before such actions were even remotely being taken seriously by the public at large.

Read: February 26, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe and North America: France, England and the United States

Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, by Deborah Davis (2003)

Strapless is about a painting and the story behind the painting.  The portrait of Madame X is probably recognizable by almost anyone with any interest in the arts.  It is the portrait of a woman from the late 1800s, wearing a black, low-cut dress with thin and jeweled straps.  The woman is looking towards her left and her face is in profile.  When this painting hit the Paris Salon in 1884 it caused quite a scandal for both the artist, John Singer Sargent, and the subject, Virginia Amélie Gautreau.

Both Sargent and Gautreau were American ex-patriots living in Paris at the time.  Virginie Gautreau, known by her friends as Amélie, came from a wealthly Louisiana family that had made its fortune in the sugar cane industry.  After the American Civil War, she and her mother moved to Paris, where the family had ties.  There she married a wealthy and much older man and made it her business to become a socialite.

John Singer Sargent was an American due to his American parents, but was born and lived much of his life in Europe.  He was able to study with the great artists of his time and decided to focus his career on portraits.  When he began showing his work at the famous Paris Salon, he began to make a name for himself.

He met the lovely Amélie and wanted to paint her portrait for his entry into the 1884 Salon.  She was flighty and didn’t like to pose for long periods of time, however, he eventually convinced her to pose in a revealing black dress.  As originally painted, one of the straps was depicted to drop off her shoulder.  It was this feature that created the scandal.  For months afterwards, the newspapers articles and gossipers talked about the painting.  The scandal caused Sargent to flee France and rebuild his painting career.  

Amélie, who for years had worked hard on her image to remain in the public spotlight, suddenly was ostracized.  Although Amélie and her mother approved of the painting before its public showing, afterwards, they, too, were scandalized.  The painting had ruined Amélie’s image, both to herself and in the public’s eye.

Intertwined with Amélie’s story, was the story of Sargent’s painting career.  He worked hard to restore his position in the art world.  He found patrons in England, where his painted his famous Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose ~ a picture of young girls in a summer garden with Chinese lanterns.  I have seen this painting and it is truly amazing!  The light from the lanterns seems to truly come from within the painting.

He later began traveling between the United States and Europe.  He encounter the formidable Isabella Stewart Gardner and painted her portrait.  This portrait scandalized Gardner’s husband, but apparently no one else.

Sargent retained the portrait of Amélie.  Because he had not painted it on commission, the Gautreau’s were under no obligation to purchase it.  He held on to the painting for over 30 years, before finally selling it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Under the terms of the sale, the painting was to be known as Madame X, hence, Amélie’s name became almost lost to history.

I loved this book.  John Singer Sargent is a favorite artist of mine and when his work was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston several years ago, I made a special trip to view the work.

Read:  February 22, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: United States: Arizona

The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver (1988)

This is a very quiet novel about everyday life of love and friendship.  The novel is mostly narrated by Marietta Greer, a young woman who reinvented herself and changee her name to Taylor when she left her home in Kentucky and headed for adventure.  When she made a stop in Oklahoma, near a Native American reservation, a Cherokee woman dropped a toddler into her beat-up VW Beatle and asked Taylor to take the baby.  Taylor did so without question.

Taylor knew nothing about the toddler and the child was in a catatonic state.  Because the baby clung to Taylor, Taylor began calling her Turtle.

Taylor drove on through the American West until she landed in Tucson, Arizona when her car broke down.  In Tucson, she became friends with Mattie, the woman who ran the auto repair shop and fixed up Taylor’s car.  After some time, Taylor began to realize that Mattie had a secret ~ that she was assisting undocumented immigrants find safe havens out of the State.

In the meantime, Taylor befriended Lou Ann, another young woman with a baby and an abandoned husband.  The two women shared a house and took turns taking care of each other’s respective children.

When the State became aware that Taylor was not the legal guardian of Turtle, Taylor must make a critical decision.

This is a short book, but it didn’t hold my interest.  

Read:  February 12, 2020

3 Stars