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A review by nonabgo
Se numea Sarah by Tatiana de Rosnay
2.0
There's a lot of good historical fiction out there. This is not. I feel like it's such an abused genre, especially when it comes to WWII and the Holocaust. It sells, yes; people (some, at least) look for tragic stories that make them feel something. I'm one of them. But, because it's an almost certain seller, some authors put minimum effort into it and we sometimes get rubbish books.
I liked Sarah's story (the WWII one). It's emotional, it's well written, it's dramatic without being a telenovela.
Julia's story, though... is a whole different experience. Nothing she does makes sense. Her actions are chaotic, her motivations feel forced and fake. She insists in her search, despite not having any relationship whatsoever with Sarah and despite knowing that her husband's grandfather did not want anyone to know what he did for her, just because... she wants Sarah to know her family was "the good guys"? What would that accomplish except make her feel better about something she was not even involved in, like, at all? It was all for her benefit, no one else's.
Julia, as a character, feels fake, as does her relationship with virtually everyone around her. There's little growth, her choices (except for) are questionable, absurd. And she's a stereotype from start to finish, l'américaine who ticks all the boxes and can be recognized as such every time she opens her mouth.
The last chapters, once Sarah's voice disappears, are tedious, absurd, lifeless. They had no point being in this book.
It's good to talk about events like Vel d'Hiver. I felt outrage at the collective amnesia the French seem to have about this episode. But this writer, instead of focusing on that, turned this novel into an absurd comedy. There are a lot of good historical fiction novels that talk about WWII out there. This is not one of them.
I liked Sarah's story (the WWII one). It's emotional, it's well written, it's dramatic without being a telenovela.
Julia's story, though... is a whole different experience. Nothing she does makes sense. Her actions are chaotic, her motivations feel forced and fake. She insists in her search, despite not having any relationship whatsoever with Sarah and despite knowing that her husband's grandfather did not want anyone to know what he did for her, just because... she wants Sarah to know her family was "the good guys"? What would that accomplish except make her feel better about something she was not even involved in, like, at all? It was all for her benefit, no one else's.
Julia, as a character, feels fake, as does her relationship with virtually everyone around her. There's little growth, her choices (except for
Spoiler
her decision to keep her baby, which was courageousSpoiler
She stays in a marriage despite having known for years that her husband is cheating on her, she pursues this guy she's only seen once because of... reasons?The last chapters, once Sarah's voice disappears, are tedious, absurd, lifeless. They had no point being in this book.
It's good to talk about events like Vel d'Hiver. I felt outrage at the collective amnesia the French seem to have about this episode. But this writer, instead of focusing on that, turned this novel into an absurd comedy. There are a lot of good historical fiction novels that talk about WWII out there. This is not one of them.