<p>SJChessMom, I was wondering where you were! Even though you didn’t get to Sarah’s Key yet, you should definitely put it on your reading list. It doesn’t take long to get through. </p>
<p>It’s hard to pick a favorite. I was glad I read all three books, but if pressed, I would say The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Maybe that pegs me as a shallow reader, what with the quaint characters and the happy ending, but so be it. When I was finished, I thought of three people who would like it, so around it went, and then it came back to me well-worn and well-reviewed. In that way, it passed a certain booklover’s “litmus test” that the other two novels didn’t quite match. </p>
<p>I didn’t have as much affection for the characters in Dreamers of the Day, and although I loved Sarah in *Sarah’s Key<a href=“who%20wouldn’t?”>/i</a>, I found Julia rather irritating. She may have been relentless in pursuit of the Vel d’Hiv story, but in other respects, she lacked a backbone. I think any of those Guernsey women would have shown Bertrand the door after his first affair with Am</p>
<p>I found Sarah’s silence about her history and her suicide surprising, yet still plausible. I have read about the phenomenon of “survivor’s guilt,” in which a Holocaust survivor feels uneasy about his/her own survival in the face of so many deaths, despite the blamelessness of the survivor. Sarah would probably have had a very severe case of this. The blame for her brother’s death falls entirely on the Nazis and the people of Paris, who did nothing to stop the arrest and deportation of the Jewish people in the city. The odds that Sarah’s brother would have perished in a concentration camp, if not even before he reached one, are very high. Yet her action, when she had no idea what was to come, virtually set the time of his death. That would have been an incredibly heavy burden to carry. Add to that the issue of the odds against her successful escape. The guard who let two young girls go might not have let them escape, if her brother had been with them, too. And then the people who helped Sarah and her friend might have had more difficulty to shelter three initially (and then, sadly, just two). I think that de Rosnay may have deliberately placed Sarah’s suicide at (about) the time that Sarah’s son had reached the age that Sarah had been, when the Vel d’Hiv round-up occurred.</p>
<p>I have thought a bit about the issue of the people of Paris looking the other way during the round-up, and particularly the issue of people moving into apartments that had been vacated when the Jewish people were forcibly removed, without much concern in evidence. The novel stirred a very strong tide of anti-French sentiment in me–which may have been the author’s intention. Yet–although we are separated in time by much longer–I cannot honestly say that I know very much about the particular group of Native Americans who were displaced from the region where I now live.</p>
<p>Finally, on the slightly lighter side of the commentary: Bertrand. What was the attraction there? Who would marry a personification of the banality of evil?</p>
<p>It took me a minute to figure out “GIB”…lol…I think Julia does allude to that one positive aspect of their relationship. </p>
<p>Julia says early on that Bertrand is “impossibly attractive,” exudes “manliness” and “class” and is “like good wine, maturing with grace and power.” Ugh. He’s more like Cisco Red, if you ask me.</p>
<p>QuantMech, I agree with your analysis of Sarah—both the reasons for her silence and Michel’s inevitable fate. Even Sarah must have known (at least by adulthood) that Michel would likely have died if he’d come with her. But he wouldn’t have died alone, waiting for her–which ultimately must have been more than she could bear. I wonder if having a son was more difficult for Sarah than if she’d had a daughter. Did she spend years continually comparing William to the boy that Michel was…or would have been had he lived?</p>
<p>Interesting point about the Native Americans. I guess the passage of time plays a key role in “washing away” our collective guilt. If Julia’s in-laws had moved into the apartment 100 years after the Vel d’Hiv roundup, the story of the previous tenants would have been a poignant but impersonal bit of history. But moving in a mere two weeks later makes them seem somehow complicit in the crimes that were committed against their neighbors.</p>
<p>I didn’t make that connection when I read the book, but it seems so obvious now. Yes, of course – a major crossroads for her would be when her son reached that age.</p>
<p>“I’m still struggling with the idea that Sarah didn’t share her Jewish identity at all with her husband or son.”</p>
<p>I have a 50something friend whose mother was a French immigrant to the U.S. My friend didn’t find out that her mother was Jewish until after her mother died about 15 years ago. My friend learned her mother was Jewish because her mother’s sister came for the funeral and said, “I didn’t know that my sister stopped being Jewish and became Episcopalian.” My friend was surprised, but not put off to learn that her mom was Jewish.</p>
<p>“If Julias in-laws had moved into the apartment 100 years after the Vel dHiv roundup, the story of the previous tenants would have been a poignant but impersonal bit of history. But moving in a mere two weeks later makes them seem somehow complicit in the crimes that were committed against their neighbors.”</p>
<p>White people in California did the same thing during WW II when Japanese Americans were rounded up and taken to live in internment camps in the desert.</p>
<p>^ Yes, that’s right. There’s no end to the horrors we’ll inflict on one another, is there? Did you ever read Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson?</p>
<p>I really enjoyed Sarah’s Key, even with its flaws. It doesn’t surprise me to hear that it will be made into a film. One of my favorite parts of the book was how it ended.</p>
<p>“Kristin Scott Thomas will play American journalist Julia Jarmond in the film adaptation of Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (Saint Martin’s Press). The movie will be shot during summer 2009 and autumn 2009 by Gilles Paquet-Brenner of Hugo Films.”</p>
<p>Mary13, it’s very interesting that you bring up this book. It’s been a number of years since I read it but it was the very last book before “Sarah’s Key” that I just could not put down before finishing it.</p>
<p>alwaysamom- My In real life book club felt the same way. In spite of the flaws everyone enjoyed reading the book and learning about that time in history.
A big thank you to Mary for organizing the CC Summer Book Club!</p>
<p>^^^ Agree! Well done, Mary13. My RL book club starts up again in September (we take the summer off) but if others want to continue this virtual one over the winter, I’m in.</p>
<p>Mary13 - Thank you so much for picking the books and leading the book club. I honestly can say I would never have read these three books and I am very glad I did.</p>
<p>You’re welcome! It was a labor of love. Looks like we’d be a small reading group for the Fall, but that’s fine by me. If any of those who are “in” have something in mind that they’d really like to read and discuss, say the word.</p>