Caroline by Sarah Miller - historical fiction
I won Caroline: Little House, Revisted from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in August 2017, but never received a copy from the publisher (William Morrow). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed the e-book this month.
Despite growing up in the 1960s, I don't recall reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series then or later, and I was not a big fan of the television series. This was probably an advantage (based on many of the other reviews I've read), as I could be more open-minded about this version of the Ingalls family's life. Despite not growing up as a Little House fan, I was eager learn more about the lesser-known "Ma," Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls.
This book tells the story from Wilder's Little House on the Prairie from the point of view of Caroline, not Laura. In it, the reader learns of the hard and sometimes frightening life of a pioneer woman moving from Wisconsin to the Native American territory in Kansas (and back again) in 1870-1871.
Besides detailing the grueling chores of preparing daily meals for the family (on the road as well as in rustic shelters), sewing and mending, laundry, and so on, Caroline deals with crossing thin ice and a swollen river, a sprained ankle, wolves, Indians appearing in the cabin at any time, pregnancy on the road (tiny covered wagon), childbirth at home, illnesses, the vagaries of weather, and a fire. Being a pioneer woman was not for the faint of heart.
It's important for readers to remember that this is historical fiction. Most whites were prejudiced against Native Americans at the time, and most women were taught to be subservient to their husbands, so efforts to portray things differently would not be realistic for the time period of the story.
At the end (and in a FAQ on her website), author Sarah Miller explained some differences from Wilder's memoirs. It's important to note that the novel was authorized by the Little House Heritage Trust.
The Model Spy by Maryka Biaggio - LibraryThing Early Reviewer, historical fiction, biographical novel
I'd never heard of Catharina "Toto" Koopman before reading this book. Born in Java (then part of the Dutch East Indies) in 1908 to a Dutch cavalry officer and a part-Javanese mother, she got her nickname from her father's favorite horse. At age 12, she was sent to a boarding school in the Netherlands, where she became fluent in English, French, German and Italian. After finishing school in London, she moved to Paris, where her exotic looks led to a career as a model, and an unconventional lifestyle.
In the 1930s, Koopman met a lot of influential people in England, Germany, and Italy, settling in the latter country in 1939. During World War II, she used her contacts and language skills to spy for the Italian Resistance. She was captured/escaped/recaptured (more than once), and spent time in prisons and work camps, including six months at the Ravensbrück concentration camp just before it was liberated in April 1945. Over half of the book deals with her gripping experiences as a prisoner in these places.
Maryka Biaggio's biographical novel of this fascinating woman is absorbing and thorough. She made Toto come alive once again. I also appreciated the extensive bibliography of key resources at the end.
The Queen's Fortune by Allison Pataki - historical fiction
The Queen's Fortune (a vague title) is about Désirée Clary Bernadotte, Napoleon's first love, who later became queen of Sweden. I've been a long-time fan of Annemarie Selinko's 1951 book Désirée (which is written in first person from Désirée's viewpoint in diary format), and this book is similar in content.
A big difference, however, was that author Allison Pataki has Napoleon and Désirée making love while they were engaged, later justifying this (on page 389) with a supposed passage in Napoleon's memoirs referring to this. However, I can find no reference to this in Napoleon's published memoirs, so it is apparently an invention of (or at least an undocumented statement by) Pataki - one I find very irritating.
This book does offer a good book club kit online that includes a family tree listing Désirée's descendants, the royalty in Sweden and Norway.
Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole - LibraryThing Early Reviewer, historical fiction
I won this from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program way back in April 2013, but never received a copy from the publisher (Ballantine). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list, so I checked to see if any of my libraries had a copy - and my small local public library did have it in print.
Letters from Skye, as the name implies, is an epistolary novel, a story told almost entirely in letters, in this case written by five main correspondents in two time periods.
In 1912, Elspeth Dunn, a Scottish poet who lives on the Isle of Skye, gets a fan letter from David Graham of Illinois. They begin corresponding regularly, through David's last year of college, and his time volunteering as an ambulance driver in France during the first World War. Slowly but surely, they fall in love.
In June 1940 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Elspeth's daughter Margaret is writing to her English pilot friend Paul (with whom she's falling in love) as well as her mother, bringing back memories for the latter. After a bomb blast at their home, which uncovers the letters from David that Elspeth hid many years before, Elspeth disappears, and Margaret ultimately writes to Elspeth's brother Finlay in an effort to find her.
To write much more in this review would spoil the story. Suffice to say that chapters alternate between the 1912-1919 time period (Elspeth and David), and 1940 (Margaret, Paul, Finlay, and a few others), and it's a romance. The plot was a bit predictable, but the letters were heartfelt. I would have liked to see the inclusion of more of Elspeth's poems and David's fairy tales (referred to in the letters).
The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton - historical fiction
The main character in this historical fiction novel, Nanée (I never found her last name), is based on two real-life women involved in the effort to smuggle refugees out of France during World War II. One was Mary Jayne Gold, an Evanston (not Chicago!) heiress, and the other was German refugee Lisa Fittko, who (along with her husband Hans) helped others escape over the Pyrenees.
Nanée was an American much like Mary Jayne, single and living in Paris at the time the Germans occupied it in 1940, but choosing to stay in France. She fled to Marseille and joined up with Varian Fry (who is also in the book) and others working to help Jewish or anti-Nazi writers, artists, musicians, and others to flee. Having plenty of money, she rented a large old chateau outside Marseille called Villa Air-Bel, where many of the workers lived and the escapees hid until they could get out of France.
Nanée was an American much like Mary Jayne, single and living in Paris at the time the Germans occupied it in 1940, but choosing to stay in France. She fled to Marseille and joined up with Varian Fry (who is also in the book) and others working to help Jewish or anti-Nazi writers, artists, musicians, and others to flee. Having plenty of money, she rented a large old chateau outside Marseille called Villa Air-Bel, where many of the workers lived and the escapees hid until they could get out of France.
Many of the characters in the book were real people. The other main characters, Edouard Moss and his young daughter Luki, are entirely fictional. Edouard, a German photographer, is based on many of the creative people Mary Jayne, Varian, and the others helped to escape, after they spent some time interned at Camp des Milles in France.
In an interview, author Meg Waite Clayton explains, "I combine the acts of Gold and Fittko into a single character [Nanée] so that the reader doesn’t have to leave one protagonist behind and join another late in the novel. And Nanée’s personal story, especially her love life, takes a very different path than either Fittko’s or Gold’s, largely to allow me to explore and reveal the emotions people experienced in these circumstances, and the challenges and personal sacrifices, through Nanée and Edouard’s relationship." It will be clear when one reads the book when Nanée transitions from being Mary Jayne to being Lisa - the author has a clever explanation for how this happens.
I enjoyed this book, despite the surreal activities of André Breton (also a character in the book) and the Surrealists and others staying at Villa Air-Bel. ("Exquisite Corpse"? Ugh.) For people who were supposed to be in hiding, their lives and actions (taking photos while you are escaping France?) seemed a little too raucous and carefree for the times.
I also agree with some other reviewers that the title of this book makes little sense. "Postmistress" was a code name Nanée used in her undercover work, but she didn't do this work in Paris, which was then overrun by Nazis. I guess the author or editor like the alliteration - it's easier to say than Postmistress of Marseille.
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