While Paris Slept by Ruth Druart

While Paris Slept: A Novel by Ruth Druart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 512

Publisher - Headline

Source - Vine

Blurb from Amazon

Paris 1944
A young woman's future is torn away in a heartbeat. Herded on to a train bound for Auschwitz, in an act of desperation she entrusts her most precious possession to a stranger. All she has left now is hope.

Santa Cruz 1953
Jean-Luc thought he had left it all behind. The scar on his face a small price to pay for surviving the horrors of Nazi Occupation. Now, he has a new life in California, a family. He never expected the past to come knocking on his door.

On a darkened platform, two destinies become entangled. Their choice will change the future in ways neither could have imagined...


My Review

Duo timeline, multiple characters - we open in 1953 with Jean-Luc and Charlotte, alternating chapters. Happily settled in America with their son, recovering from the horrors of the war things are going relatively well. Until the past comes knocking and turns their world upside down - everything they love and cherish will be threatened because you can never forget or outrun your past.

Flipping to Paris, 1945, the war is in full grip and Jean-Luc is doing what he has to to survive, working on the railways near a camp where Jewish people are being held. Charlotte is helping out at a German hospital, each facing inner turmoil or judgement being so close to the German's and bearing witness to some of their evil and cruelty.

This is an emotive story, from reading different narratives and characters we see what it was like to live through the war, different perspectives. The worker, the carer, those trying to escape the Germans and the effect it had on them all in years to come. The struggles each faced, the love, loss, sacrifices, risks, danger and how it was in Paris with the German rule. I can't believe this is a debut, it is so well written, captures the reader early on and I wasn't expect to be swept along or have an attack of the emotions. Historical fiction isn't normally a genre I pull toward but I have been finding in recent years I am and enjoying although that seems the wrong choice of word because of the content. 4.5/5 for me this time, I will be looking forward to the next offering by this author.

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The GraveDigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates

The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 19 days

Publisher - Harper Perennal

Pages - 582

Blurb from Goodreads

In 1936 the Schwarts, an immigrant family desperate to escape Nazi Germany, settle in a small town in upstate New York, where the father, a former high school teacher, is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery caretaker. After local prejudice and the family's own emotional frailty result in unspeakable tragedy, the gravedigger's daughter, Rebecca, begins her astonishing pilgrimage into America, an odyssey of erotic risk and imaginative daring, ingenious self-invention, and, in the end, a bittersweet - but very "American" - triumph. "You are born here, they will not hurt you" - so the gravedigger has predicted for his daughter, which will turn out to be true.


My Review

Rebecca Schwart aka Hazel Jones aka Hazel Gallagher is our main character. We open up with Rebecca reflecting 10 years post her fathers death. Then we skip to New York, Rebecca has another name and is living a working married lady who encounters a man following her and mistaking her for another woman. We follow this time in her life briefly before heading into her childhood and her life as the Gravedigger's daughter. Here we get a view of Rebecca's life and her journey into early adulthood. The story then goes to her life as an adult and the tale follows from there.

I don't know what I expected from this book however it wasn't what I got. The main theme is really just about Rebecca the individual, who progresses in her life and becomes Hazel. She goes through a lot of hardship, loss and hurt, we follow the life of her, her husband and her son. It then, I felt, abruptly changes, leaves you hanging although in the letters at the end it hints at the sons outcome. The chapters are quite short in length which I really did appreciate and generally like in a story and a warning that there is some bad language throughout. There are many themes touched upon within the story, Nazi's, war, grief, murder, suicide, violence, love, abuse to name just some that are covered.

I found the character of Rebecca/Hazel very different although she is shaped by things that happen to her, there isn't a clear cut reason to why the big change. The relationship with the men in her life is so different, this could be reflective of the time and past male influences. Some people have loved this book, I just found it really hard to get through. I can honestly say I think this is the longest I have read a book as I had to keep putting it down to try something else as my interest would drop. Some of it is quite interesting, the decline of her fathers mental health during and after the war, how her brother reacts to the town despising them. Rebecca's personal growth and changes, in between there was a lot I really didn't like and found it didn't hold my attention. Your left with questions and the ending, whilst is can be perceived as cleverly done and well thought out, it is also rather abrupt which I personally am not a fan of. 2/5 for me this time, this was my first time reading this author and I am not sure I would read her again. Her writing style just didn't engage me however, as I have said, some people really loved this book so I would suggest giving it a bash.

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