"They Both Knew That The Women Who Cried At Night Were The Women Who Died In The Morning. Sadness And Loss Were Drawn In With Each Breath But Never Expelled. You Couldn't Give In. Not For A Second."

By my estimation, I've read just over 1000 pages in about a month. But I just couldn't help it. I totally got sucked into The Nightingale.

I've read quite a few novels based during WWII, but this one was different than ones I've read. It was from the perspective of 2 sisters living in Nazi-occupied France: one sister, Isabelle, is impetuous, stubborn, and enraged by the German occupation of France whereas the other sister, Vianne, is keen to just follow the new (awful) rules set out by the German occupiers in order to protect her daughter. Throughout the course of the war, each finds themselves handling the situation very differently, but ultimately doing what they can to help others. Isabelle helps establish an escape route for downed airmen through the Pyrenees into Spain, guiding hundreds of men to safety on a treacherous route and Vianne saves her Jewish friend's son and forges papers to make him her own and eventually hides many Jewish children in the local convent orphanage.

I appreciated the fact that this novel was about how women made an impact during the war, as part of the resistance or trying to help save others. In fact, there is a statement in the last few pages of the novel asking why one of the characters had never heard anything about how people escaped over the mountains or that there was a concentration camp just for women who resisted the Nazis, and this is the answer:

"'Men tell stories,' I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. 'Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."

It's good to know that these stories are being shared more widely. Because there is certainly truth to the above statement. And of course the soldiers who fought were certainly heroes, but there were so many other moments of courage and heroism in everyday decisions by women who remained in the war-torn areas. And the novel asks the question for all of us: what would we do in those circumstances? Would we have the courage to fight back? Would we risk our own lives to fight something so evil? So sometimes I need to read novels like this to jolt me back into the understanding that of how awful WWII truly was and how the human spirit can triumph in spite of that, and those who did risk their lives (oftentimes losing their lives as a result) to fight such evil in even the smallest ways were absolute heroes.

So now I go back to the book lists. Up next is The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. I haven't seen the movie, but I probably will make it a point to watch it after I'm done (although I said the same thing a couple years ago about Sophie's Choice, and I still haven't gotten around to watching that either). And for some reason, I seem to think this book is about a mystical golf caddy, but I know I'm just confusing my Matt Damon movies. Wish me luck!

Happy Saturday!