Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
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Book Reviews of Sarah's Key
Book Review: Zakhor. Al Tichkah. (Remember. Never forget.)
Summary: 5 Stars
"On July 16 and 17, 1942, 13,152 Jews were arrested in Paris and the suburbs, deported and assassinated at Auschwitz." Those Jews were drug from their homes in France by FRENCH police following orders given by the Nazis. On the day that she was rounded up by French police, 10 year old Sarah Starzynski had locked her little 4 year old brother Michel in a cabinet telling him that she would be back to let him out when the police let them come back home. The families of men, women and children (most between the ages of 2-12 and most BORN in France) were not allowed to return to their homes; instead they were taken to the Voledrome d'Hiver and sequestered there in abominable conditions. They were separated by sex, husbands taken from wives and even worse -- mothers were torn from their children. These confused, hungry and mistreated citizens were loaded on cattle trains and taken in convoys to the camps.
This fictionalized account of the roundup and of the relationship of two families connected through an apartment on Rue de Saintonge in Paris is haunting and memorable.
The novel shifts from past to present with chapter changes, moving between scenes of Sarah as she is imprisoned in Vel D'hiv to American born, now French citizen and journalist, Julia Jarmond Tezac who is assigned the story when that tragedy is to be memorialized on the 60th commemoration of the Vel' d'Hiv'. Julia soon discovers that the French are largely ignorant of this deplorable event and their embarrassment at knowing that this was done keeps them from remembering those lost families - and in fact, many French families simply took over the homes and possessions of the former Jewish occupants. Sarah's story affects Julia in ways she never imagined and completely alters her views of herself and her life. Julia becomes consumed with knowing what happened to Sarah and her family and begins a mission of discovery.
What she learns provides a lesson and an admonishment for us all: Zakhor. Al Tichkah. (Remember. Never forget.)
Highly recommended - read with Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum and Skeletons at the Feast: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian -- two other incredible novels that provide additional insight into how the horror of the Holocaust affected all of Europe in those very dark days of World War II.
Book Review: Has so much potential...
Summary: 2 Stars
I could hardly wait to read this book for my book club. I do not usually read fiction; but because it was loosely based on historical fact, I figured this would be right up my alley. I was sadly disappointed. It has so much potential, but it falls far short. It loses steam about half-way through the book when Sarah's story suddenly drops off, and the focus becomes Julia. I found her husband's character, Bertrand, to be poorly developed and COMPLETELY unbelievable, in particular, his strange response to her pregnancy. He adores their 11 year old daughter and is a wonderful father, but demands that Julia have an abortion, or it's the end of their marriage. Huh? As a woman who has also suffered from infertility and miscarriage, there is simply no way that someone like that would even CONSIDER abortion (and Julia even makes it as far as the clinic, wearing a paper gown). Furthermore, infertility and miscarriage deeply affect fathers, too (again, speaking from experience here). I simply find it unbelievable that a husband touched by the devastation of infertility and miscarriage would react this way. I challenge the author to show me a real-life infertile/subfertile couple that would approach a pregnancy in this fashion.
Plot turns smack you upside the head, and then the author quickly moves on. I found myself re-reading several passages after having suffered near whiplash. Sometimes the dramatic build-up to an unexpected plot development can add to a story, but in this case, the author fails to pull it off, resulting in jerky and unbelievable storytelling. The ending was more or less predictable. The last few chapters were almost unbearable.
The most annoying part was the anti-French mentality weaved throughout the book; which I find bizarre coming from a French author. It felt like she was pandering to an American audience; but I felt insulted and stereotyped as an anti-French, narcissistic, ugly American who hates all things European. She kept hammering the point home while complaining about her sensual husband with a wandering eye, the French citizens' complicity in the roundup of French Jews, their driving skills, their obsession with appearance, her French in-laws who never liked her anyway; it just goes on and on.
I gave it two stars because the first half of the book, particularly Sarah's story, was compelling, haunting and well-written. Wish I could say the same thing for the second half of the book and Julia's part of the story.
Book Review: Compelling -- Sarah's Key
Summary: 4 Stars
Although "Sarah's Key" does not measure up to the compelling "Suite Francaise" (Irene Nemirovsky, published 60 years after her death, in 2006), it pulls up the curtain on a little known historical event. In 1942, the Parisian police rounded up thousands of Jewish families and forced them into temporary living in the Velodrome d'Hiver, an outdoor stadium in the city that no longer exists. Thus began the Vel'd'Hiv - an episode of infamy in French history, where an estimated 13,000 Jews were imprisoned, families split up, and everyone who survived the initial roundup transported to Aushwitz. The children were almost immediately sent to death camps. Because the Nazis played no physical role in the roundup (they code named it "Operation Spring Breeze") and the mission was carried out by the French, many of those descended from that time in France have hidden the story of Vel'd'Hiv as even more repugnant than the more well known episodes of collaboration by the Vichy French, led by Phillipe Petain. It is said that the Nazis initially had given no orders to round up the children, but that Rene Bousquet, head of the National Police in France, expanded the order to include the children.
In the novel, fictional 10 year old child Sarah Strazynski tells her tale, having been forced from her Paris apartment with her family to the Velodrome. She makes a catastrophic, life changing choice to save her young brother, which haunts her for the rest of her life. The author, writing as Sarah, is compelling and emotional. Less so, is she true to her craft in the alternate story of current day American journalist Julia Jarmond. Jarmond learns Sarah's story when she is given the assignment of writing about the Vel'd'Hiv tragedy and learns that her in-law's apartment, where she is to move, was a Parisian "spoil of war" that came free for the family after the Starzynskis were imprisoned.
Sarah's story is told in alternate chapters with Julia's. The plotting and character development for 1942 is passionate and pulls the reader in; the storyline for the modern tale of Julia is less so. Rosnay's true and compelling voice lasts through ¾ of the book, but when the story turns from Sarah's first person tale to the exclusive chapters where Jarmond overcomes family issues and completes her discovery about what happened to Sarah, it drags.
A more than worthwhile read, especially for history buffs. Well plotted historical fiction.
Book Review: French Complicity with the Gestapo During WWII
Summary: 4 Stars
Sarah's Key is a novel about a relatively unknown piece of history - the French involvement and responsibility for the killing of 13,000 Jewish families. Taking orders from the Gestapo, the French acted on their own, with their own police gathering the Jews and leading them to their deaths in Auschwitz.
The story is told from two vantage points. One takes place in 1942 and is told by the Jewish child Sarah who is rounded up from her home with her parents by the police. She hides her brother in a cabinet thinking he will be safe there, not realizing she will be unable to get back to him to set him free. The reader shares Sarah's horrific trials as she is put in a French internment camp, escapes, and runs for her life.
Alternating chapters are from the viewpoint of an American woman in France named Julia in the present. She is fascinated with Sarah's history once she learns that her husband's family moved into Sarah's family's apartment once they vacated it. She is obsessed with finding Sarah and learning what happened to her. She is also in the midst of marital crisis. We get to know her daughter Zoe, too precocious for her years. She seems like 11 going on 40. We also get to know her narcissistic husband, Bertrand, who has been having an affair with another woman for most of their marriage. The search for Sarah takes Julia across the world and she learns the history of France's role in the extermination of the Jews. We also learn the horrifying secret that Bertrand's family has been hiding for 60 years.
Somehow, despite the horror, poignancy, and occasional lightness of the story, Julia and Zoe's dialogues don't always ring true. I have never known a scorned woman to act so unresponsively to her husband's infidelity as Julia does. It does not ring true. She also does not seem to have a clue when he is being unfaithful though she describes the thick and heavy perfume of Bertrand's lover which is on his clothes and person.
I was riveted by the story of Sarah and the history of the Vel d'hiv round-up. I, too, had not known about the extent of French complicity with the Germans during World War II and was amazed to learn how many French people hated Jews and how many turned the other way. I was also heartened to learn that there are always those that stand tall, are willing to help, and risk their lives doing so. Overall, a very good book.
Book Review: The Telling of 2 Stories
Summary: 3 Stars
I have always loved learning about the Holocaust. When my mom told me about a Holocaust drama, I had to read it. Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay is the perfect World War II drama with an amazing twist. Along with that, the book has an amazing twist. It will keep you intrigues for days. There have been many books written about the Holocaust, but this one is like no other book. It is unique in its own way.
Sarah's Key is about a round up of Jewish men and women in the 1940's. It is fictional, but based on historic events. The story goes back and forth between a 10 year old girl living through the Holocaust and a modern day journalist living researching the round up in Paris, France. The author explains how people try to hide historic events because they are so horrific. The thesis of this story would be that just because you try to hide horrific events, it doesn't mean they disappear.
July 1942 was a hard time in the history of France. Thousands of Jewish families were round up and had to stay in the Velodrome d'Hiver. They were then sent off to transit camps in France such as Drancy, before being packed off to Auschwitz, a nazi death camp. What is so frightening about this whole incident is that the rounding up and recruitment of Jews for deportation was done by the French authorities.
The story goes back and forth between the point of view of 10 year old Sarah and modern day journalist Julia. The genre of this book is historical fiction, and it is aimed at either young adult readers. The parts of World War II you kind of have to understand and enjoy this book. The book kind of uncovers the horrific things Paris had to go through during the roundup.
Overall I thin the book was very well written. Once you get used to the alternating roles you really understand the story a lot better. The book was definitely not like any other book. It didn't really seem too cliche to me. There are a lot of books out there that have been written about WWII and this one has its own twist. This is the first book that I read that switch characters in it. Also most of the Holocaust books have been written about Germany or Denmark. This one was about Paris. For the audience it is going for, it gets the job done. My favorite part of the book is how everything is tied together between the two roles it switches between. It just adds a nice touch to this really good story.