All The Light We Cannot See

Two young people’s live  intersect when American bombers head for St. Malo, the last German stronghold.

Only a rare writer can develop such nuanced characters or create such beautiful moral complexities.

Wherever he goes, Werner hears his sister Jutta’s sad question reverberating in his head: Is it right to do something only because everyone else is doing it?

Marie-Laure who is involved in the resistance with her Uncle Etienne wonders if they are the “good guys.”

Neither knows the meaning of the numbers Etienne recites into the clandestine radio transmitter.

Tension builds as both Marie-Laure and Werner become trapped. Werner is trapped under a hotel, L’Abeille, when it is hit by Allied bombs. Marie-Laure is trapped in her great Uncle Etienne’s secret room in the attic.

Sergeant Major Von Rumpel frantically searches the house for the gem, The Sea of Flames, the one Marie-Laure’s father has sworn to protect. 

Tired of hiding, Marie-Laure nearly gives herself away. Werner, who has managed to escape from his own ruin, decides to make things right in the only way he has left.

All the Light We Cannot See is a contemplative, well-researched novel.  All The Light You Cannot See won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Recently, it was adapted to film for Netflix.

The Teacher of Warsaw by Mario Escobar

This wonderful historical novel dramatizes the struggles of real life historical figures, Dr. Korczak and Irena Sendler, who worked to help the orphans of the Warsaw ghetto.

In an attempt to isolate and starve the Jews, the Germans enclosed Warsaw’s Jewish population within 1.3 square miles. Janusz’s orphanage and school was relocated within these borders.

At first he and his colleague, Stefa, are hopeful that life would more or less remain the same. They are quickly disillusioned, however, as the situation turns more and more dire.

Janusz sees the best qualities and the worst qualities of human nature on display. He sees Jews that turn on themselves–the Jewish police–and one German officer who has qualms about what the Nazis are doing.

The same officer urges Janusz to save himself yet the doctor refuses to abandon his orphans.

I loved this work of fiction that celebrates the real life hero, Dr. Janusz Korczak and his accomplishments.

The World That We Knew

A Jewish mother, Hanni, makes a sacrifice so her daughter may live. She, with the help of a rabbi’s daughter, brings to life a golem, Ava.

This is no ordinary golem in many respects; she is female, she speaks, and she has some feelings. Golems, which are born without a heart or soul, are not supposed to have feelings. 

The story moves back and forth between Ettie, the rabbi’s daughter, and Lea, the girl the golem was created to protect. Ettie becomes involved in the Jewish resistance, along with Victor and his brother, Lea’s soulmate, Julien.

This unique novel which uses magic realism captures the darkest hour in human history. Demons hide in trees and angels wander the earth. And then there’s Ava whose tattoo on her arm reads “truth.” She can speak to birds and has the strength of one hundred horsemen.

Ava can peer into the future; she knows what her ultimate fate will be. The truth is that Ava isn’t made by God. In a locket given to her by her mother, Lea has instructions on what she must do to the Golem.

The magical elements never detract though from the real story–the horror of the trains, the camps, the senseless killing.

If you want to read more about this book and the inspiration behind it, I recommend this article from the Jewish Women’s Archive by Karen Kashian, https://jwa.org/blog/bookclub/interview-alice-hoffman-about-world-we-knew 

The Plum Tree by Ellen Marie Wiseman

World War II-era fiction is popular right now but what makes this debut different portrays an ordinary German family. The incidents were inspired by the author’s own family. Wiseman’s mother’s family lived in Germany during the war. 

The story is centered around Christine and her desire to protect her family and her boyfriend who is Jewish.

The Plum Tree is about longing, loyalty, and incredible bravery of the people who fought injustice. 

For a time, resistance was simply leaving hard-boiled eggs in places where the Jewish prisoners could find them. 

Eventually, Christine hides Isaac in the family attic. Once he is discovered, though, both are sent to Dachau.

She receives one of the better jobs and works for one of the better captors. Even so, her stay in Dachau nearly kills her. 

Wiseman explains in an afterward which historical details were altered to fit the story.

Eight Girls Taking Pictures

Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto.

In Eight Girls Taking Pictures, Whitney Otto experiments with a new kind of fiction–a fictional portrait of real-life personalities. Though she changes their names and some details about their lives, what develops is a collage of fiction and non-fiction that tells the truth of the lives of eight innovative photographers.

In eight somewhat interconnected stories, Otto tell the stories of Imogen Cunningham, Madame Yevonde, Tina Modotti, Lee Miller, Grete Stern, Ruth Orkin, Judy Dater, and Sally Mann.

Though these women lived in different time periods and cultures, one constant emerges. Despite feminism that emerges in the 1970s, all of the women feel conflicted about their role as artist which conflicts greatly with other areas in their life. For most of these women, their roles as artist conflicts with motherhood, but for some, their work interferes with politics or other deeply held beliefs.

In the first story, Cymbeline faces the perplexing problem of wanting both a career (as a photographer) and a family. She first become enamored of her professor, Julius, while he and she photograph the “Procession of Princes,” in Dresden.

Her time in Berlin both opens and closes doors for her. Cymbeline is a fictional version of Imogen Cunningham, a trailblazing photographer, who was once an apprentice at Edward Curtis’ famous portrait studio in Seattle.

Other fictional portraits are those of Madame Yevonde whom Otto renames Madame Amadora. Madame Amadora feels conflicted between her life’s work, photography, and motherhood.

Clara Argento, a fictional character based on the life of Tina Modotti, also feels conflicted. While she has no children, she feels torn between her role as artist and revolutionary.

Charlotte Blum, a fictional version of Grete Stern, sums up best the conflicts these female artists feel:

“She didn’t hate being a wife any more than she hated being a mother. What she hated was the way that wife, mother, and photographer created an unsolvable equation. What she hated was trying to solve the mathematics of her various roles.”

Torn between her family in Argentina and her loves for Ines and photography, Clare laments that, “a woman always has to choose.”

According to Clare, women, cannot have career and family and love; they must choose one role at the expense of another–a theme that repeats itself throughout Eight Girls Taking Pictures.

Miri Max (Ruth Orkin), for instance, laments that she cannot be in,

“two places at once, two people at the same time. If she could split herself one Miri would be happy spending all day with her toddling children…Her other self would be making movies with David. Or possible taking pictures on her own…”

Eight Girls Taking Pictures does not shy away from the issues that have been tackled often–issues of women’s rights, marriage, and work. Otto, however, delves further by looking at the way motherhood conflicts with a woman’s role as artist. She distinguishes work from fulfilling work that involves creativity and a sense of achievement.

In the last chapter, Jenny can work as a photographer by taking wedding or debutante photographs but she wants something more. Though she is criticized for it, she takes intimate photographs of her children. The photographs are not merely family snapshots as they show the viewer both childhood and motherhood in the abstract.

Characters and their real life counterparts:

Cymbeline Kelley–Imogen Cunningham
Madame Amadora–Madame Yevonde
Clara Argento–Tina Modotti
Lenny Van Pelt–Lee Miller
Charlotte Blum–Grete Stern
Miri Marx–Ruth Orkin
Jessie Berlin–(partly-based on Judy Dater)
Jenny Lux–Sally Mann

A “Select bibliography” at the end of the novel is an unexpected  gift to readers eager to learn more about the women portrayed in this work of historical fiction.

For more information about Whitney Otto, http://www.whitneyotto.com