Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
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Book Summary Information
Author: Tatiana de RosnayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-30
ISBN: 0312370849
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780312370848
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Sarah's Key
Book Review: Difficult book, in many ways
Summary: 3 Stars
First let me say, like many people, I knew nothing about the Vel d'hiv, the round-up of thousands of Jews - mostly women and children - in the heart of Paris, France. I knew nothing of how the French police themselves orchestrated the round-up, held the parents and children in the Vel d'hiv for days, shipped them to camps in the Parisian suburbs, separated the parents from the children, sent the parents to their deaths and left the children to wither and die before eventually shpping them to their deaths. I don't frankly know whether to be embarrassed or outraged by this glaring knowledge gap - this certainly wasn't taught when I was in school, the French were on "our side", after all. For this reason alone, this book is well worth reading.
Had I reviewed this book when I was only about half-way through it, I would unhesitatingly have given it five stars. I was riveted and horrified; I could hardly stand to put the book down. The alternating stories - Julia's discovery and research on the history of her family's apartment and Sarah's story of the round-up and its aftermath - intertwine seemlessly. Unlike some reviewers, I didn't feel that Julia's story was merely a frame for Sarah's story. Both stories are important in their own right. The events from sixty years ago have a profound impact on Julia's life, but only in the confluence of events in her own life - the past illuminates her present. When the two stories come together, it is disappointing to lose Sarah's thread of the story, but Julia's voice is still strong enough to carry the story alone. For a while, anyway. Had the story ended soon after that point, it would still deserve five stars.
However, the longer the book goes on after that, and the farther we get away from Sarah's story while getting deeper into Julia's story, the worse the book gets. Ms. de Rosnay apparently felt the need to wrap the book into a tidy package for us, but the more she tries to do so, the more contrived it feels. Many of the events are just too easy, too predictable. Not that there are any big surprises in the book at all. In the first half of the book, we know largely what's going to happen in Sarah's story because we know the history of the Vel d'hiv and we know Julia's present knowledge. We also know much of what's going to happen in Julia's story because we know Sarah's story. The suspense comes not from finding out what happens, but from the drama and horror of watching it play out. It's much like watching a train wreck. Even though you might see it coming well in advance, you still can't tear your eyes away from watching how it plays out, even hoping against hope that somehow things will be all right.
But the second half of the book is predictable in a much more trite way. There were so many times I found myself thinking, "Wouldn't it be convenient if...." or "I bet...." and, voila, I was right. Wrapping up the book in such a predictable, tidy package stole so much of the thunder of the first half of the book that I was left feeling so disappointed I almost threw the book away.
Julia's character, in my opinion, also becomes less sympathetic as the second half of the book progresses. At the beginning of the book she is largely unsympathetic in the way that many abused wives are. While we understand her husband's charm and the hold he has over her, we might find ourselves annoyed that, despite everyone pointing out to her how arrogant and unfeeling he is toward her, she is immediately drawn back in every time he is attentive and "loving" to her. His bedroom behavior is clearly more important than his day-to-day treatment of her. But our opinion starts to improve as Julia, drawn in by Sarah's story, begins to make her own decisions and stand up to Bertrand, first in little ways, then much bigger ways. Bertand, ever the narcissist, having belittled and dismissed her interests and concerns all along, now crumples and accuses her of not loving him, not seeing his pain, poor baby. Julia, always easily manipluated by him, is crushed by his "pain", but nevertheless, she stands up to him and we begin to feel that she has some genuine depth to her self. However, as the second half of the book progresses, Julia herself becomes more shallow and narcissitic. She's obsessed with her need to follow Sarah's story, and she plunges on without much thought for the feelings and needs of others, including her own daughter (who is, perhaps precocious precisely because she's had to take care of her mother?) and the other person most affected by Sarah's story. I felt that she started the book as a flat caricature, gained a lot of depth as the book went on, but then ended again as a flat caricature (albeit a different kind of caricature).
I had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. As I've said, the first half deserves five stars, but after the second half, I didn't really want to give it any stars. But the subject matter and Sarah's story make the book compelling enough to recommend it, so I decided on the rather wimpy compromise of three stars. I don't believe I will be reading any of Ms. de Rosnay's other books, but I'm glad I read this one.
[Side note, and not really important to the book, but Ms. de Rosnay needs to spend more time with small children before attempting to write about them. The child she depicts at the end is not two years old. Two-year-olds don't "coo", they talk. Perhaps not entirely understandably, but more or less fluently. It's also unlikely that a two-year-old would fall asleep in the stroller in a busy cafe, especially after having just gotten up from a nap, nor would a two-year-old need her sister's help to stay on a tricycle.]
Summary of Sarah's Key
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel? d?Hiv? roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.Paris, May 2002: On Vel? d?Hiv?s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.
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