The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is a very popular book. People rave about it; it pulls an average of 4.6 stars on Goodreads. Despite being published in 2015, I still had to place a hold at the library and get in line to read it.
In many ways, The Nightingale did not disappoint. It follows the journey of two sisters during the Nazi takeover of France during WWII. You watch the women work through the emotional and physical toll on wartime France and experience alongside them the depths of human depravity and what people will do to survive. It was a heavy read.
One of the things that stood out to me as I began this book was the older sister’s attitude at the onset of the story. The woman bid her husband goodbye as he marched off to war and was left to care for her daughter and their homestead in small-town France as the German troops invaded. And this woman, Vianne, was terrified. I found it so refreshing that a heroine faced genuine fear in the light of a genuinely terrifying situation and had to work through that instead of jumping straight into spitting in soldiers’ faces, defacing posters, and joining the underground resistance movement. She truly wrestled with her fear and how to walk that line of protecting her daughter via obedience to the “rules” while mustering up courage to fight back against the tyranny in her country. I felt for Vianne; Hannah gives her a realistic journey — starting from crippling fear to finding ways to resist the enemy. I enjoyed that.
The second sister, Isabelle, was your more typical WWII novel heroine. From the first chapter, she was angry and ready to take action. A lot of the book follows her boldness and the ways she fights for France through that. At first, I mentally wrote her off as an unrelatable, brave character; but, by the end, I did appreciate the journey Hannah took Isabelle on as well. I did not expect the ending, and I found it pleasantly refreshing in the same way I found Vianne’s story.
Overall, the plot reads like most WWII fiction. It was good, but it is a similar story to the many other Germans take over France and the French do their best to undermine them and rescue Allied pilots and maybe also fall in love storylines. I don’t mean to make light of a horrific time in world history, but the plotlines for many WWII novels follow these patterns. And they are good patterns to follow;these heroic people who worked the resistance networks, aided escaped pilots, thwarted German plans, and so on deserve every accolade and recognition. The women who stayed behind as their men went to war and fought to protect their homes and their children, doing whatever they could to survive truly exemplify what it means to be strong. They too deserve recognition.
Other negatives I felt took away from the story include almost excessive repetition of certain phrases and descriptors. As mentioned above, the plot does follow the predictable pattern. But, I still gave this novel four stars. Why? Because I felt overall, Hannah wrote a page-turner filled with the strength of these people who fought to survive. Her concluding chapters were powerful, and her overall story made me think. What would I do if this happened to me? Would I be courageous? How would I fight for my country? Any book that encourages a little self-examination is worth a read to me.
Meredith
Copyright Kristin Hannah and St. Martin’s Griffin. Image from Amazon.com.
Good point, it did fit almost perfectly the “typical ww2 historical fiction” mould, but I still enjoyed it too, finding so much hope in the love between the sisters especially. 😊
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