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optimaggie's review against another edition
2.0
It has been years since I read this book but I was a bit surprised by the low rating I gave it. I have rated other books much higher that I don't even remember reading but this one I recall a good deal of. And if I remember correctly it started out very interesting but then got less so and was a bit more about famous women of opera than I was interested in reading.
emiged's review against another edition
4.0
Ms. Cook has a very conversational tone as she writes. As I was reading I could just imagine sitting down to a cup of tea with her and hearing her tell her fantastic story. OF course, a conversational tone can include rather abrupt changes in topic or tenor or seeming leaps from light subjects (opera) to very dark subjects (ghettos, beatings, concentration camps). For some this might be off-putting (especially if you don't care for opera), but I felt drawn in to her confidence and her exuberance. When she wrote about opera, the friends she made who were world-famous opera singers and conductors, the operas she'd been able to see, her travels to New York and the continent for different productions, her passion and enthusiasm for opera practically jumped off the page.
Likewise, she threw herself into her descriptions of the bleakness facing so many Jews during the late 1930s; they were heart-wrenching. But amidst the indescribably inhumane treatment the Jews and others suffered at the hands of the Nazis, there were moments of incredible goodness. Ms. Cook carefully balanced the stories of injustice and terror and fear with lighthearted tales of close escapes and moments of real human kindness so that the horror of the Nazi regime came through, but it wasn't able to quite overwhelm the reader.
Ms. Cook and her sister took enormous risks in order to save as many people as they could, with little thought for their own safety. I hope that if I were in a similar situation I would do the same. Ms. Cook seemed to have a generally optimistic outlook on human nature, despite the evil she saw in Germany. I found that very comforting and encouraging.
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
Likewise, she threw herself into her descriptions of the bleakness facing so many Jews during the late 1930s; they were heart-wrenching. But amidst the indescribably inhumane treatment the Jews and others suffered at the hands of the Nazis, there were moments of incredible goodness. Ms. Cook carefully balanced the stories of injustice and terror and fear with lighthearted tales of close escapes and moments of real human kindness so that the horror of the Nazi regime came through, but it wasn't able to quite overwhelm the reader.
Ms. Cook and her sister took enormous risks in order to save as many people as they could, with little thought for their own safety. I hope that if I were in a similar situation I would do the same. Ms. Cook seemed to have a generally optimistic outlook on human nature, despite the evil she saw in Germany. I found that very comforting and encouraging.
For more book reviews, visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
amdame1's review
2.0
2.5 stars
A compelling story about the love of opera and the heroic efforts made to help refugees escape Europe during WWII, and how those worlds intersected. It is the true story of two sisters who made great sacrifices and were able to save 29 different families from the Nazi reign of terror. However, the writing was not the best and there were times when the operatic information was too prolonged - even for someone who enjoys opera...
A compelling story about the love of opera and the heroic efforts made to help refugees escape Europe during WWII, and how those worlds intersected. It is the true story of two sisters who made great sacrifices and were able to save 29 different families from the Nazi reign of terror. However, the writing was not the best and there were times when the operatic information was too prolonged - even for someone who enjoys opera...
eleneariel's review
4.0
A simply written but moving account of two British opera-loving sisters who worked tirelessly to rescue Jews from the clutches of the Nazis in the months before WWII broke out.
kjcharles's review
The extraordinary story of Ida Cook, an ordinary-in-her-own-mind young woman obsessed with opera. She and her sister save up to see concerts, even travel to the US to meet the big stars. She becomes a romance novelist in large part to fund their opera habit.
And then it's the 1930s, and they go to Germany to see opera and are introduced to Jewish people who need guarantors to leave Germany thanks to the shitty laws on refugees. So Ida and Louise Cook spend three years desperately, frantically raising money, finding guarantors, smuggling jewels out so the refugees would have something to live on, bullying or wheedling bureaucrats, and using their opera connections in order to get Jews out of Nazi Germany before the axe falls.
It's a jawdropping story, and a deeply moving one, especially in Ida's telling, in a terrifically reasonable "what else could we have done?" tone. Well, yes, any normal person would have pinned a diamond brooch worth thousands on a glass-beaded M&S sweater and walked past Nazi border guards with their coat open. Not special at all, certainly not.
And then she lived through the Blitz, and was named Righteous among the Gentiles for her work saving lives, and went on working to help refugees for many years and--not even mentioned in the book, which really does major on her favourite opera singers--was president of the Romantic Novelists Association for twenty years. Remarkable.
And then it's the 1930s, and they go to Germany to see opera and are introduced to Jewish people who need guarantors to leave Germany thanks to the shitty laws on refugees. So Ida and Louise Cook spend three years desperately, frantically raising money, finding guarantors, smuggling jewels out so the refugees would have something to live on, bullying or wheedling bureaucrats, and using their opera connections in order to get Jews out of Nazi Germany before the axe falls.
It's a jawdropping story, and a deeply moving one, especially in Ida's telling, in a terrifically reasonable "what else could we have done?" tone. Well, yes, any normal person would have pinned a diamond brooch worth thousands on a glass-beaded M&S sweater and walked past Nazi border guards with their coat open. Not special at all, certainly not.
And then she lived through the Blitz, and was named Righteous among the Gentiles for her work saving lives, and went on working to help refugees for many years and--not even mentioned in the book, which really does major on her favourite opera singers--was president of the Romantic Novelists Association for twenty years. Remarkable.
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