Book 10 (2015) Fugitive Pieces***** by Anne Michaels

This was an e-book read on the road in the Balkans.  A very appropriate reinforcement of the echoes of WW2 and the Holocaust I found everywhere.

This is a story, set in Poland, Greece, and Canada, is about Jacob Beer, a child who survived and was saved by a Greek geologist, and the impact of being a survivor on them, their friends, wives, and their descendants to the present time.

Michaels is a poetic writer meaning you never quite know what is going on and you hope it all comes together by the end.  I am not a fan of this technique but the writing is heart-stopping and the story unforgettable.  

Book 8 (2014) Men at Arms *** by Evelyn Waugh

Satirical memoir of officer life during the war.   

Other books by this author reviewed on this blog:
Officers and Gentlemen ****

Book 28 (2012) Berlin Noir Trilogy** by Philip Kerr

I read it for the background of a detective surviving in Berlin during WW II.   Great read.
The first of the Bernie Gunther series.

Book 27 (2012) Love and War in the Apennines ** by Eric Newby

This is a memoir of a soldier captured in Italy in WWII.  He escaped and was helped by Italian peasants in the mountains at very great risk to themselves.   It's also a romance.
A great story, never before told.   He makes it interesting while not sparing us the miserable details of survival.

Book 20 (2011) Officers and Gentlemen**** by Evelyn Waugh

Everyone who everyone whoever thought about war being necessary or righteous or doubted the harm it does to the individual and society must read this book.   First read Crete by Anthony Beevor, the history of the fall of Crete during WWII, then read this book, the barely disguised experiences of Waugh as a British officer in the same incident.  
Waugh's writing is of course unmatched and each paragraph can be read aloud.
At once humorous and deadly serious, this book will stay with me as few books have.

Book 72 Defiance*** by Nechama Tec

This is the story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans, who rescued over 1,000 Jews who survived WWII in Belorussia by hiding in the forests.   The book describes in detail how the group survived physically and the heirarchy and social organization that developed in order to survive.  

Tec interviewed many survivors including Tuvia Bielski, the charasmatic leader of the group, but the book is not an oral history, although there are some direct quotes.  This book is well researched and well written, other than the lack of stories in the survivors own words.  

The book is fascinating from two aspects --- the sociological/psychological, which is thoroughly analyzed, and the historical, which describes a little known aspect of the war.   Using many specific anecdotes, Tec describes how women were regarded in the forest camps, and especially how many relationships between upper class women and peasant men came about.  

Book 63 The Long Road Home ** by Fred Cederberg

This book provides a real soldier's account of the Canadian's Italian Campaign in WW II.   It tells the human story to complement Dan Dancock's The D-Day Dodgers.  

Again, I was often speechless in wonder at how these men and women not only endured war but threw themselves into bloody battle over and over.  

The book is often short on details, and it seems to have been edited by cutting chunks out of it.  Nonetheless, I strongly recommend it. 

Book 62 The Zookeeper's Wife *** by Diane Ackerman

This is a most interesting book, a true story about a woman who saved many Jews during WW II, by hiding them in the Warsaw zoo.   The stories of the animals, her husband and children, the many guests they had over the entire war well told, intense and lovely. Ackerman is a master of detail.   The history of the appalling Jewish ghetto and the astounding Polish resistance is unfolded in equally grim detail.   There are numerous anecdotes of encounters with the German army and officials and many narrow escapes.   An essential book for readers interested in history and WW II.

I found the writing style a bit annoying at times but can't remember why at the moment.

Book 46 Sarah's Key **+ by Tatiana De Rosnay

This was an emotionally tough one, especially right after The D-Day Dodgers.   There are so many amazing stories that haven't been told yet from that war, that still haunt and compell us today. 

This book has two stories, one of Sarah, a 10 year Jewish girl, rounded up in Paris in the infamous Vel d'Hiv or Velodrome d'Hiver, and from there sent to a death camp.   She has hidden her brother in a secret attic, locked him in, and cannot get back to rescue him.   The other story is about Julia, a writer assigned to cover the 50th anniversary of the round up, and what she uncovers about Sarah.   The story of Sarah and Julia's unravelling of the mystery are very well told.   The writer is a great story teller, and you will not put this book down once you start.  

De Rosnay does a fair job of showing how the Nazis manipulated the French population and the Jews into cooperating with their diabolic schemes, a rather elaborate plan to keep people trusting, hoping and terrorized, by increments, starting with propaganda, and then suddenly  it's all too late.

I didn't like the romance novel writing style in which much of the story of Julia is written, e.g. pages written to explain and justify rather silly behaviour, and I don't like the two stories in one book approach.  I understood the characters' motives and actions most of the time, but they are a little too special, larger than life.  I wanted to strangle Julia for putting up with her husband and her pregnancy seemed too contrived to fit the theme of children.    

The story that is not told is that of the French police who did the horrible deed, including running the camps, how they were persuaded to, tricked and manipulated into, or eager to carry out the plan .  Some heroic and kindly French people who helped at huge personal risk play parts in the book.  France has now acknowledged its role in the death of 76,000 of its Jewish citizens and erected a monument listing all of their names. 

How can the population stand by and do nothing?  I have only to remember the poor ragged Indians who came to beg at our farm when I was a kid.   Why did we do so little?

Book 45 The D-Day Dodgers The Canadians in Italy 1943-1945 **** by Daniel G. Dancocks

This is a fabulous book describing the experiences of the Canadian in the WWII in the Italian Campaign.   I read it in preparation for a study tour of Italy, and the battlefields, and cemeteries, so my focus was on geography.

Dancocks covers the movements of divisions and regiments, and many stories of individual experiences, not leaving out any names of military units, individuals, and the houses and hamlets and riverbeds they fought through.   He outlines the promotions, demotions, and medals won and why.   Inspite of or because of this much detail, each paragraph is riveting and highly visual --- I could see the movements of the men ande how they won each inch of ground.

Dancocks includes some analysis of the reasons the Allies beat the Germans, and a little more political commentary --- I wished for more.   He mentions the writings and opinions of other historians and the diaries of those present, and so presents all sides.  I would have like more perspective, such as the relative manpower, and more background about the Italians, and better and more maps.  

Despite the horrible tactical mistakes and very poor leadership at times, the Canadians eventually won every battle target they were assigned.   It is hard to conceive of how brave these men and women were as there were many casualties and conditions were harsh.   

Fans of history and war, read this one.   I am giving it 4 stars due to originality, great research, and good story telling.

Book 29 Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson****

Amazing writing, amazing story about a boy growing up during the country and unknowingly participating in his father's affair and life as a partisan during WW2 in Sweden.

Book 15 Agent Zigzag ** by Ben Macintyre

The story of a criminal, master spy and con artist, and double agent for Britain and Germany during WW II.  Eddie Chapman conned the upper classes who ran and manned both the German Abwehr and the British MI5.   The spy runners were all easily charmed and manipulated by Chapman, who was only out for money and fame, although he was supposedly quite useful to the British.   On both Allied and Axis sides, the individuals involved had a lot invested in the success of these projects.

The fascinating aspect of the story is that Chapman had the nerve, the intelligence, and  controlled grandiosity to actually go into German held territory twice, remaining there for months each time, then parachute into England twice, and at the same time, quell the suspicions of the spy masters.   He had the ability to socialize with and make friends with his minders, who liked him enormously while looking down on him.   According to MacIntyre, he worked hard to memorize details, learn languages, etc.   My suspicions are that he learned enough and read enough just to show off and make an impression on the average unsuspicious person.

As all con artists and sociopaths do, he used his victims' superiority against them. By letting them look down on him and believe they are more intelligent and have power, he controls them.   They, including the author, naively never quite realize that his motivation is solely money and thrills or the totallity of his betrayal.

Macintyre's theme is that even a harded criminal and incorrigible liar like Chapman was loyal to England, which means he also was conned.   I am surprized that the book had such acclaim (as bragged about on the cover), but then the publishing industry will promote one of its own.  However, it is well researched and well written and I see he has now written another book, which I will read.

In any case, a great story well researched and well told, set in one of the most interesting times in living memory with lots of historical detail.

Book 1 Crete** by Anthony Beevor

This one is from my shelf of half read books.  I love Anthony Beevor, after reading the unputdownable Stalingrad.  Crete is not in that league, but still well written, fascinating, and full of well researched opinion. 

Beevor's thesis is why the Brits very incompetently lost Greece to the Germans in WW II and then followed suit by even more incompetently losing Crete.   He blames it on the British officers running the show there and on one particular officer, Major General Freyburg, who "misread" Ultra communiques from Britain and prepared for a sea invasion instead of an airborne one.  The son of this officer wrote a defence of his father so it is a well known controversy.  

Beevor admires the Cretan partisan defence, made up of mainly priests, women, and kids (the Cretan men being in Greece defending the mainland) that went into action as the German paratroopers landed and kept it up through the entire occupation. 

The Med was teeming with boats and submarines making secret landings on Crete and other islands, dropping off and picking up Brits and partisans, including the King of Greece.  

Beevor as usual makes the whole story fascinating and easy to read, and I eagerly and constantly referred to the maps provided to follow the battles and other events. 

Although there are many characters, he describes them and their relationships in interesting detail as to make them distinct and memorable.   He especially likes to include opinions the players had of the others.   He mentions Evelyn Waugh several times, as he was one of these officers --- Officers and Gentlemen was based on his experiences in Crete (it's on the reading pile).

The story ends with well drawn explanation of the Greco/Cretan political rivalries leading to civil war and chaos as the Germans leave Crete.