A Ladder to the Sky

by John Boyne
Sept 19-Oct 14, 2019

This book pulled a protagonist-fast-one on me. For whatever reason, I was ready to abandon it within the first 50 pages, mistaking its intention, when suddenly the pace picked up with no turning back. What at first appeared to be about an old German writer, Erich, changed dramatically in tone when the true lead, Maurice, took center stage.

Wow, what an utterly pathetic human being. I have never read a more dislikeable character, nor have I read such a skillful build-up and decline of a person. Just when I thought I couldn't like him any less, Maurice became even more despicable. Just when I thought, "oh no, he can't possibly," he did. Boyne was superb at bringing Maurice to life and creating a story that simultaneously could and couldn't ever really happen.

“... he was essentially talentless, nothing more than a good-looking hack, and that only charm and sycophancy could keep him in the game.”

The surprise appearance of Gore Vidal was clever and made me want to pick up a couple of his higher-praised works. The book constantly leaves the reader questioning the proverbial good vs. evil. Are Maurice's actions really that of a sociopath, or of cunning, calculated success? The fact that Maurice had absolutely zero self awareness answers that question with the former.

And then, out of nowhere, this:

“You’ve heard the wonderful news, I presume?” “No. Has Mr. Trump died?”

Ha! One could only imagine that world.

* * * * *

The Lost Girls of Paris

by Pam Jenoff
Aug 18-Sept 18, 2019

I wanted to like this book more than I did. What on the surface is a terrific premise, I came away with two major issues. The first was that the facts and the timeline were poorly researched and seemingly rushed to publish without proper fact-checking. The second was the author's note at the end. Much of why I love historical fiction is for the reason that I learn about events, people, etc. that I didn't know about before, and a successful novel will spur me to research its subject further. But pretty much the first sentence of the author's note said that while these overall events actually did happen, none of the actual story lines can be taken with even the slightest grain of salt. Extremely disappointing considering the backbone this book started with. Instead of an homage to these female heroes, we were "treated" to insipid love stories and unfortunately, stereotypical, shallow women.

The 1946 chapters told by Grace were completely gratuitous and did nothing to further the plot. While Grace's portions were meant to increase the drama, they did nothing but induce eye rolls and diminish the female viewpoint. A much more credible novel would have omitted this altogether. The "love" story between Marie and Julian was shallow, unbelievable and unnecessary. Again, trying to be too much. It speaks to why I would go several days in between before picking the book up again.

However, I will never tire of reading about Paris!

* * and 1/2 * * *