2013 Book Review #23: The Storyteller

Well, I know I say this often about books and how one just stands out as being the "best I've ever read". I just love a good story!!  Give me a great fiction book and my mug of coffee and I'm in heaven. Give those things to me after a day of great hiking and I am higher than heaven!!  This book is one I started after a hike last weekend.  I was in heaven.

Seriously, this book. Oh, this book.

The author has done it again. Keep in mind that I have read every.single.book she has written from Picture Perfect to this latest one.  And I have loved them all. Yes, there were some that are favorites.  This is by far the best (in my opinion). And it will definitely be a fave. I am buying this one for my oldest daughter who is collecting Picoult novels.

Her writing!! Oh.....what a range of emotions my heart went through while reading this story.  Sadness, anger, laughter, guilt (yes, guilt...I have a little bit of German blood in me from my mother's side), "sick to my stomach" horror, relief...........and shock. The ending was NOT something I was prepared for. As soon as I read the words "how does it end?" I had a funny feeling.......and had to keep reading to find out. I cried. I literally had tears in my eyes.  I won't tell you WHY I had that funny feeling because it would ruin the plot for you.

This book is so believable.

In fact, in the middle of the book, I had to keep reminding myself that "this is fiction based on historical knowledge and research." But friends, let me tell you:  this book reads like it is real.  The character, Minka, is just like a real person.  She is fiction but oh how she epitomizes the survivor of the Holocaust. And oh how I hope to be as brave as she was if I am ever faced with religious persecution, or persecution of any kind.

STORY SUMMARY

  The story takes place in New Hampshire with a brief look at a character who lives and works in Washington, D.C. The entire mid-section is set in World War 2 Germany during the Holocaust. It is in this section that we get to know Minka, Sage's grandmother. She tells her story of growing up in Germany as a young Jewish girl.  We also get to know Franz and Reiner who are brothers and who end up being SS officers for Hitler.

Sage Singer is a disfigured young woman.  She works as a baker, which means she is typically working at night when no one else is around. She is also in a grief group, to help her deal with the loss of her mother.  She has 2 sisters whom she doesn't relate well with, and who live in a different area.  

Josef Weber, an elderly man who is also in the grief group, begins to strike up a friendship with Sage. He is in his 90's.  Even though they have many differences, they are both dealing with hidden scars.  Josef becomes her closest friend, other than her friend and boss, Mary, who is an ex-nun.

One day, Josef confesses to Sage about his horrendous acts during the Holocaust.  Nobody else in the small town would ever suspect Josef of being an ex-Nazi.  He asks Sage for a favor but if she says "yes", she will face moral consequences as well as legal ones.  Sage starts to question all the expectations and assumptions that she has made about her own life and her family's lives.  When does a moral choice become a moral imperative?

As she learns about her grandmother's life...the life that Minka has never spoken aloud, she begins to question her own identity.  And she begins to wonder about Josef.....his integrity is now flawed in her eyes because of her grandmother's story.  And while Minka shares her life with Sage and the government official Leo, whom Sage has contacted to "report" Josef, she learns of another story that Minka wrote as a young girl.  A fairy tale.  How does this fairy tale tie in with Minka's real-life story??  Are there any parallels?  What happens when Minka is done sharing?

Can a person draw the lines between punishment and justice?  between forgiveness and mercy?

The author does an excellent job of showing us that we, as humans, can go to great lengths to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future. 

MY THOUGHTS

I shared most of my thoughts in the opening of this post.

However, I want to share with you a couple of quotes from the book that really made me pause and ponder for a bit.

"History isn't about dates and places and wars.  It's about the people who fill the spaces between them." (pg 373, c.2013 Jodi Picoult)

and this one:

"I don't know what this person did to you, and I am not sure I want to.  But forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself.  It's saying, You're not important enough to have a stronghold on me. It's saying, You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future."

(pg 451, c.2013 Jodi Picoult)

As a Christian, I need to cling to that. And remember that.  We forgive because God wants us to but also we forgive for ourselves.  If not......the "bad guy" wins. Don't let ANYONE have that power over you.  Forgive to fully live.

This book has much graphic descriptions of the Holocaust horror.  Of course, after reading all the books like Diary of Anne Frank and The Hiding Place (and seeing both movies) and just learning the history in school, I know about that time period. But reading about it the way Picoult has woven it into fiction is just heart-pounding.  The book is fiction but the story is so real.  I had to put it down and do other things during the middle section because of the horror  I was reading about.  Because people really did live through that. 6 million Jewish people were murdered.  And it took this book at my age of 53 to really get that into my head. SIX MILLION MURDERS.  Horrible atrocities.  

I cried.  Many books do not make me cry.  The ending is powerful.......and there really are no words to fully describe it. At first i was angry at the ending.  And then.......well.....you will have to experience it for your self.

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 14 and older.

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 12. :)