This book's cover quotes a review by A.S. Byatt which calls it 'brilliant,' and I won't argue with her. Translated from German, this is the story of Helene, a beautiful, intelligent, decent woman born a few years before World War I, and how she comes to abandon her little son at a railway station shortly after WWII. That's not a spoiler; the book opens with the scene at the station, then moves forward through Helene's childhood and youth. Don't think
Sophie's Choice here; Helene's choice appears more the result of a natural progression of events, personalities, and pure accidents. The narrative concentrates heavily in the period between the wars, and there are cultural allusions - to popular artists, poets, and playwrights of the time - which I couldn't fully appreciate. That didn't take away from the intensity of the story for me, though.
My only criticism is of the character of Wilhelm, Helene's husband, who appears late in the story. Franck shows less imagination with him than elsewhere, falling back instead on a stock 'Everynazi,' the kind we've all read about before, right down to the brutal sexual proclivities. (The portrait of the Nazi with the distorted sex life is almost a fictional chestnut, if you'll pardon the expression. I wonder what sociological research has to say about this? I'm sure that many a thesis has been written on the sex lives of Nazis.) But I digress.
The conclusion of this novel is almost perfect. Don't look for Disney to buy the screen rights.
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