Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.95 You Save: $9.00 (65%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.50 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Sarah's Key
Book Review: A great Holocaust story
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll admit it: this week I fell prey to the "Recommended" table at my local book store. Being a bookseller, I find myself to be a bit of a book snob and will rarely listen to advice about my reading material. However, I am also a sucker for a nice cover (yeah, I judge a book by its cover) and "Sarah's Key" indeed has a nice cover. So I picked it up, read a few pages and before I could resist, I was hooked.
"Sarah's Key" is a historical fiction novel that flip flops between two story lines: Sarah's and Julia's. Julia Jarmond is living in modern-day Paris. She is married to a man that she describes as a typical Parisian: good-looking, successful, but also very reserved and often, cold. They live with their daughter, Zoe, and also many secrets.
Then there is Sarah, a 10-year-old French Jew who is taken from her home and sent to a concentration camp during the 1942 Velodrome D'Hiver roundup in Paris. For those of you who have no idea what the Vel D'Hiv roundup is (don't be embarassed - I didn't either!), here is a crash course: Basically 13, 000 Jewish men, women and children were arrested and taken to the Veldrome D'Hiver (a stadium), right in the middle of Paris, where they were left for several days before going to the Drancy and Beaune-la-Rolande internment camps and finally Auschwitz. Now, even if none of the other words in that sentence meant anything to you, I know you recognized Auschwitz. And so you know the fate of these poor, innocent people. Sarah is taken, along with her mother and father.
Julia also happens to be a reporter for a French tourist magazine and is assigned to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vel D'Hiv tragedy. As she begins to dig into the terrible stain on French history, she stumbles upon a 60-year-old mystery that her husband's family is working very hard to keep hidden. And once she stumbles upon it, she knows she has to get to the bottom of it, all while trying to save her crumbling marriage.
I like historical fiction. I started out as a history major in university and cried when I landed in Europe for the first time because of all the historical landmarks I was going to visit. So naturally, this is my kind of story. I had never heard of the Vel D'Hiv roundup, even though I consider myself to be someone who is very concerned about and affected by the Holocaust (I had a near breakdown in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam) and I almost feel guilty about my ignorance now. However, I am happy that "Sarah's Key" enlightened me and entertained me at the same time.
Both story lines are wonderful and like I said, simply hook you. I demolished this book in approximately 4 hours and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. People of all ages are able to connect with the characters and story, since at one point or another de Rosnay seems to elaborate and muse about every age. Because the story is based on a true event, it affected me even more. I often stopped and thought that the story I was reading could be a real-life account, sometimes having to remind myself that, "It's not real, Alex". That is how deep this one hits.
I recommend "Sarah's Key" to everyone. Not only because it tells a great story and entertains, but because we owe it to the victims of the Holocaust to keep their memories alive and relevant. The only way to keep history from repeating itself is to learn from our past, our mistakes, and "Sarah's Key" helps us to remember and be thankful.
Book Review: Book Review: Sarah's Key
Summary: 5 Stars
The SUMMARY
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. (Section is from the website of St. Martin's Griffin)
The REVIEW
The March selection for my new book club is Sarah's Key. I have been seeing that there is noon-time discussion amidst our blogging community regarding this book. So, I picked it up early and started my fascinating read.
The summarization of the book's storyline, above, is the best condensed version about this very intricate and complex read. I was completely spellbound by this book and had difficulty putting it down. As a matter of fact, having insomnia doesn't seem to be bothersome when you have this book to read. It's engaging, horrifying, scary, wonderful, and redeeming simultaneously. I found myself holding my breath as I read the chapters as told by Sarah, Hel' d'Hiv's innocent little victim. I prayed, despite the realistic odds, for her brother Michael. I loathed Julia's husband, Bertrand, for being the horrifically pompous, cheating, and egotistical misogynist that he was. I fell in love with Mame and Eduardo. I prayed for William and praised Zoe. I fell inside of Julia's mind and heart. All of these feelings wrapped up into one little book. The book was, to me, completely unforgettable.
What I discovered on Tatiana's website:
"Sarah's Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English. Sarah's Key is to be published in 28 countries and has sold over 700 000 copies worldwide. Film rights have also been sold."
Yes, the book is that great!
Albeit this book is sad, however discovering the emotional side of human atrocities most always is. I won't walk you through this intricately impeccable read because this is one that you should discover on your own. It's a personal road to travel, one which I am glad that I did. I read this book with little forehand knowledge of it and that made this book such a rich read for me. I wish the same for you.
On Sher's "Out of Ten Scale:"
This book tugged at my heart like very few do. I was completely committed to Julia and Sarah and grew to love them both, for many reasons. As such, all I can say is that this superb read gains from me, under the genre Fiction:Historical, a 10 out of 10! I absolutely cannot wait for our book club discussion on it.
Book Review: Powerful subject matter
Summary: 4 Stars
The Backstory
In the summer of 1942, the Vichy government of France rounded up over 12,000 Jewish Parisians and locked them in a local sports stadium called the Vélodrome d'Hiver. They were trapped for five days with only scraps of food, one working water tap and five restrooms. I'll pause here and let you consider that statement. Twelve thousand men, women, and children.
After five days of this hell on earth, the survivors were shipped off to camps where children under the age of fourteen were physically - forcibly - wrenched from their parents, who were sent ahead to Auschwitz. 35 of these adults would survive.
The 3,500 children who were left behind ranged in age from fifteen months to thirteen years of age. They were left to fend for themselves in a local camp called Drancy and then, under the ruse of being reunited with their parents, were shipped to Auschwitz as well. Not one of these of these children survived. 3,500 young Parisian children....every single last one of them killed.
The Synopsis
This sordid, horrific moment in French history is the background for Tatiana de Rosnay's powerful novel, Sarah's Key. It is the story of two women: Julia, a modern-day journalist and Sarah, a young girl separated from her family during the Vel' d'Hiv roundup. Chapters alternate between 1942 and modern times and as the story progresses, the two characters accelerate down paths that will intersect in a most unusual way.
The Warning
I feel compelled to warn readers that this is not a book for the faint-of-heart. Have a Kleenex box nearby. If you are a parent, prepare to have your gut and heart wrenched out of you. Tatiana de Rosnay will transport you into a place in history so ugly that most people would rather forget. It is not comfortable. In fact, the repercussions of the roundup for young Sarah's family are so horrific, I wondered whether the author was a parent at all (she is).
The Literary Criticism
The format of alternating time periods and characters with chapters abruptly ends about midway through the story. I found this disappointing because there was so much more to Sarah's story that I wanted to hear from her perspective. I couldn't find a clear reason why the author chose to do this and it bothered me throughout the second half of the novel.
By the end of the novel, loose ends were tied up a bit too tritely. It felt a tad forced and quite honestly, the story wasn't served by it. If anything, this is what kept the novel from a five-star review from me.
The Recommendation
Regardless of these small criticisms, Sarah's Key is not to be missed. Do not (I repeat: do not) shy away from this novel because you are uncomfortable with the subject matter. The true horror of the Holocaust only has meaning when it becomes real to you. Dry words droning out statistics in a history textbook can never illuminate the monstrosity of this event. It takes a talented author to transport you so vividly back in time, for as the Holocaust retreats farther and farther into history, we lose the immensity of the event. And if we lose that, it loses meaning.
Zakhor. Al Tichkah.
Remember. Never Forget.
Book Review: An Amazing Story
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, I never knew that about the French, that there were Jews deported off to Auschwitz. I never knew that about the French policemen separating the mothers from their children or the passive onlookers who just watched their fellow human beings being marched off to their deaths. This story amazed me as the author combined two stories into one ... tying the threads of what happened on July 16, 1942 and a present-day American journalist, who had to face difficult decisions of her own.
This novel is based on the events that happened one hot summer day. Policemen were searching houses in the middle of the night, yanking innocent men and women and children out of bed and sending them off to a fate that no one dared to believe in. Sarah was a young girl who locked her brother into their closet so he would be safe. This is Sarah's story of how she went on that horrible march in town to the trains to be carried to the concentration camps just outside of Paris. This is Sarah's story of how she watched women and children and men face the most humilating circumstances alive, being treated worse than animals at Vel' d'Hiv', what used to be the stadium in Paris until it was torn down in 1958. Then they were sent off to a concentration camp where soon, the mothers were wrenched away from their children's arms (that part was probably the most realistically described part of the story ... still gives me the shivers!) and the mothers were sent to Auschwitz. This is about Sarah's escape from the prison camp to return home to save her little brother.
Not only is it Sarah's story, it is Julia's story. Julia is a transplanted American who married a Frenchman, and Julia is a journalist. Julia's husband's grandmother was sent to a nursing home and in the course of her research on the La Grande Rafle (the round-up of the Jews), Julia found out that her new apartment, that was Mame's, was also Sarah's home. Obessed with finding Sarah, Julia had to come to terms with her own life, marriage and beliefs.
The author traveled back and forth from Sarah's story to Julia's story ... and made it a mystery that is also full of historical facts. This novel kept me turning the page after page while holding my breath. It felt more like a memoir than a novel, with two different voices chiming in on their thoughts and concerns and fears. Yes, there were tears shed on my part. I couldn't help it as De Rosnay is an excellent writer with great visual cues in describing some of the most horrorific scenes to happen in humankind. I was slightly disappointed with the section of 2002 to 2005 as it seems to be a little bit off especially after such an intense first three quarters of the book. And this book is intense. Everything about this book is intense. I would not recommend reading this book before bed as it might be nerve-wracking with all of its descriptions of the concentration camps and the grief that is evident throughout the entire book.
If you like historical fiction, then you will like this book. This is one that I will definitely recommend to my book club and to other avid readers. It is just that intense, thought-provoking and like Sarah said in a letter, "Never forget."
8/21/09
Book Review: France's Willing Participation in The Holocaust
Summary: 4 Stars
In July of 1942 the French police rounded up 10,000 French Jews and deported them to a French concentration camp where the children under 12 were seperated from their mothers and the mothers and fathers were shipped to Aushwitz. Amazingly, the French police willingly participated in this torture and murder of its Jewish citizens. Ten thousand Jews of which 6,ooo were children under 12 were rounded up and held in a French stadium. They were without food, water, or sanitary facilities for days until the cattle cars were made ready to transfer them to the death camps. Many died in the stadium. There were toddlers and infants without food, water or diapers crying in terrible distress. A woman gave birth to a still born child during the episode. Then they were shipped to a camp 2 hours from Paris where the men, women , and children were separated. After the men were shipped off to their deaths, screaming children under 12 were torn from their mothers. The hysterical mothers separated from their young were also sent to the death camps. The children including infants & toddlers were held there and left to their own devices. One 10 year old little girl, Sara, must return to Paris to unlock the cabinet where she hid her 2 year old brother before the round up. She escapes and flees into the countryside. She returns to her Paris apartment with the family that took her in to find it occupied by another family. She discovers her baby brother dead behind the door to the cabinet. He had been there at least 9 days.
The story is narrated by an American journalist living in France. She is the wife of the grandson of the family that moved into the apartment vacated by Sara's family. They knew the apartment previously had belonged to deported Jews. The apartment has been vacated by her husband's grandmother and she and her family are remodeling it for themselves. The story shifts from the story about the girl to the story about the narrator from chapter to chapter. There is one chapter about Sara then one about the journalist ending in several chapters just about the journalist. This style worked well in Songs From the Butcher's Daughter, but it fails here. The parts of the book about Sara are excellent. However, the narrator's angst over her narcissitic and gorgeous French husband is unimportant by comparison. Her distress at discovering the history of the apartment and her husband's infidelities and disloyalty pales in comparison to the tragedy of Sara's life. Sara's story pretty much ends with the discovery of her brother's dead body, and we finish the tale as part of the narrator's story. The novel would have been improved had the story continued to focus on Sara and the life she fled to in the U.S. It could have described her angst, guilt and lonliness because of the horrible tragedy visited by the French on the Jews of France. I simply can't feel distressed by the plight of the journalist/narrator when compared to Sara's plight. It seems cliched, hollow and unimportant. If you love holocaust fiction ,there is enough in here to interest . I previously was unaware of the horrible conduct of the French in WWII. They should be hung by their thumbs for what they did.