The Nightingale

 Synopsis

France 1939. In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn't believe that the Nazis will invade France . . . but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs on the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne's home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after the other to keep her family alive.

Vianne's sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaetan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can . . . completely.  But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.

The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love and freedom in German- occupied, war-torn France-- a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women.

Loved

• The intensity. As with every WWII novel, this story has intensity and suspense that drive the reader forward, always wondering what tragedy will happen next. The sense of foreboding fills every page- with Vianne living the horrors of a German-occupied town, especially with a German soldier living under her roof, and Isabelle risking her life everyday to work with the Resistance and sneak downed airman out of France. Although the story isn't always fast-paced, the suspense propels the story and compels readers to turn pages quickly.

• The historical perspective. This is an interesting WWII novel in that the main characters are not Jewish. To me this was an interesting reminder that the Holocaust and all the events of WWII were horrific for everyone, not just the Jews. Although Vianne and Isabelle were born Parisians without Jewish blood, they still were at risk everyday and every decision they made came with dire consequences. I enjoyed seeing the perspective of what it would have been like for people in the small towns of France during the War and how it affected every aspect of life for everyone in Europe.

• The redemption. While most of this story dealt with desperation, regret, and heartbreak, there were some moments of redemption for the characters that was inspiring and moving. Each character is forced to choose how they will react to tragedy and the constant threat of death, and it shapes each person's character nicely. Imperfect relationships began to be mended, hearts were softened, and reckless immaturity turned into selfless wisdom for many of these characters, which beautifully complemented the horrors of the story.

Didn't Love

• The writing. I found Kristin Hannah's writing to be very distracting right from the beginning. It felt very stark, bland, and unoriginal in its style. Maybe I'm just a sucker for lyrical writing full of imagery, but this just felt forced and even cliche at times. Reading her bio at the end and understanding that she was a lawyer before becoming a writer does make more sense- because her writing does feel much more academic than lyrical or rich. In some ways I guess the stark bluntness of her writing matched the austerity and horror of the story, but I think the story was really held back by the lack of beauty in the narrative itself.

• The melodrama. Now I get it- this is a WWII story and it's not supposed to be a feel-good novel or have a happy ending. I wasn't expecting that. But this did feels somewhat melodramatic in the way the story was told. I may have been biased going into the story because I knew it would be emotionally draining, but I did find myself distancing myself from the characters because I knew things would not turn out well for any of them, so I didn't want to get invested. It felt at times that the author wanted the readers to hurt and not feel closure, so she didn't wrap up scenes and provided as little information as possible about the tragedies to make them even more sad- if that's possible? But that may have not been intentional and could have been faulty writing as I mentioned above.

• The lack of healing. Again- I wasn't expecting a happy ending, nor would that be appropriate with the context of this war, but I did feel like the characters didn't even begin healing in this story. We get the perspective of a main character as an old woman, which does provide for some closure (60 years later!), but we don't really get to see any healing happen for the characters as the events unfold. I would have liked to see how they grew from their struggles, instead of having tragedy after tragedy happen right up until basically the last chapter.

Content

• Language: 
• Strong language at times: a few uses of "F***."
• Frequent uses of "damn," "hell," sh**," "a**," bastards.

• Sexual content: 
• A husband and wife have sex together multiple times in the book. Described as lying naked together, hands "searching each other," kissing, and being in each other's arms.
• Multiple kisses from a male/female couple, as well as multiple implications of sex. Nothing described apart from "being in each other's arms," "making love," and being naked together in bed throughout different points in the story.
• **Rape scene: Described as the man ripping clothes from the woman's body, holding her against the wall, forcing her legs apart, kissing her, and making her look him in the eye, all while issuing threats.

• Violence
• Lots of war violence: constant talk of bombings, assassinations, disappearances, people being shot in the streets, innocent people getting beaten and raped, etc.
• Intense scene of bombings where main character sees many innocent people killed from bombs- injuries described.
• A man is killed by getting hit with a shovel and pulling his scalp off and then getting shot in the chest.
• A child is killed with a machine gun.
• References to innocent people being shot in the streets- mentions pregnant woman getting shot in the belly.
• Talk of a town getting locked in the church as its set on fire.
• A main character spends time in a concentration camp- descriptions of corpses, women being shot at random, and women starving and being beaten.
• Men fighting the Gestapo are hanged or shot, and bodies are hung around the towns. A secondary character's body is hung up as a warning.

Overall Thoughts

I had been avoiding reading this book for years because everyone said it was so hard to read and so emotional. Going into the story I knew it would be difficult and tragic, so I did go in with some emotional distance to protect myself (especially being pregnant ;) I did enjoy the historical aspect of this story and getting a different perspective on WWII and how it affected life for the non-Jewish Europeans. I also appreciated the redemption aspect of the characters and their development and relationships. However, I felt like the writing was quite distracting in that it felt cliche, forced, and blunt. I also felt like the author did not address the tragedies very well- as in barely describing some of them or not letting the characters even begin healing before the book ends. I didn't love this one and definitely didn't feel like it lived up to its huge hype, but I think it's worth reading to understand the history behind this story and to better appreciate the people on whom it was based and the brave sacrifices they made.