By Kristin Hannah
This was the next Armchair Adventure Book Club selection. It reminded me of the prior selection In the Time of the Butterflies. Again, sisters were forced into tough circumstances by hostile governments. One sister was quickly drawn into rebellion where the other more cautious sister wanted to keep the family safe by avoiding provocation. Both stories were passed on by the surviving cautious sister who came to view the acts of resistance as heroic even though she rejected them as they happened.
The romantic element between Isabelle and Gaetan felt unnecessary, like it was artificially added on. They didn’t really know each other. Their relationship wasn’t based on anything but occasional dramatic meetings during a war. That made it feel more like a romantic plot for romance sake.
The pages turned easily enough. I think the rarity of my fiction consumption lends this bonus to basically anything with characters and a plot. I was content to keep following the story, but at the end of it, I feel a little empty, the same as I have with the other fiction. Did I learn anything? Was I changed or affected by this? It feels like “no.” In that sense, it’s a bit unsatisfying to go through so many pages and not feel like there were any insights gained. I think fiction is capable of it. Certainly its possible to examine complex characters and have them face impossible decisions. Nothing sticks out to me in this story that is worth further deliberation. Should they have done that? What should they have done instead? It seems their options were mostly selected for them and the characters lived them out. There’s a touch of Man’s Search For Meaning in the suffering with a purpose but I didn’t need a lighter, fictional recreation of that.
Like the others, I’m not sad to have read it, but I’m not going to suggest to anyone else that they should.