A review by shelovedtoread
The Sweetness of Forgetting by Kristin Harmel
4.0
I really enjoyed this book - much more than I expected to from the description!
True story: I started reading it in the morning before work, got totally sucked in, called out of work, and read the whole thing in one day.
I wasn’t really in the market for another Holocaust book and luckily this wasn’t that. While parts of it take place during WWII, the Holocaust itself wasn’t the focus.
Hope is a recent divorcee and mother of a teenage girl. She runs her family’s bakery and not very well. Her grandmother Mamie has dementia and sends Hope on a mission to Paris before Mamie’s memory completely leaves her. The book alternates between the current timeline in Boston, New York and Paris, and the 1940s mostly in Paris.
I’m trying to figure out what I liked so much about this book and honestly have no idea. I liked all the characters but didn’t find any all that compelling, however the writing made up for it. The author has a lovely style and the imagery she developed was so easy to see. The ending was a bit predictable but very sweet so I didn’t really mind. I definitely connected as a Jewish woman. And with an interfaith family, I so appreciated the care the author gave toward acceptance and understanding.
I’m looking forward to reading more by Kristin Harmel and would highly recommend this book.
True story: I started reading it in the morning before work, got totally sucked in, called out of work, and read the whole thing in one day.
I wasn’t really in the market for another Holocaust book and luckily this wasn’t that. While parts of it take place during WWII, the Holocaust itself wasn’t the focus.
Hope is a recent divorcee and mother of a teenage girl. She runs her family’s bakery and not very well. Her grandmother Mamie has dementia and sends Hope on a mission to Paris before Mamie’s memory completely leaves her. The book alternates between the current timeline in Boston, New York and Paris, and the 1940s mostly in Paris.
I’m trying to figure out what I liked so much about this book and honestly have no idea. I liked all the characters but didn’t find any all that compelling, however the writing made up for it. The author has a lovely style and the imagery she developed was so easy to see. The ending was a bit predictable but very sweet so I didn’t really mind. I definitely connected as a Jewish woman. And with an interfaith family, I so appreciated the care the author gave toward acceptance and understanding.
I’m looking forward to reading more by Kristin Harmel and would highly recommend this book.