NUMBER: 52TITLE: The Kommandant's Girl
AUTHOR: Pam Jenoff
STARTED: September 5, 2007
FINISHED: September 11, 2007
PAGES: 395
GENRE: Fiction
FIRST SENTENCE: As we cut across the wide span of the market square, past the pigeons gathered around fetid puddles, I eye the sky warily and tighten my grip on Lukasz's hand, willing him to walk faster.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] Nineteen-year-old Emma Bau has been married only three weeks when Nazi tanks thunder into her native Poland. Within days Emma's husband, Jacob, is forced to disappear underground, leaving her imprisoned within the city's decrepit, moldering Jewish ghetto. But then, in the dead of night, the resistance smuggles her out. Taken to Krakow to live with Jacob's Catholic cousin, Krysia, Emma takes on a new identity as Anna Lipowski, a gentile.
Emma's already precarious situation is complicated by her introduction to Kommandant Richwalder, a high-ranking Nazi official who hires her to work as his assistant. Urged by the resistance to use her position to access details of the Nazi occupation, Emma must compromise her safety—and her marriage vows—in order to help Jacob's cause. As the atrocities of war intensify, so does Emma's relationship with the Kommandant, building to a climax that will risk not only her double life, but also the lives of those she loves.
REASON FOR READING: That's a silly question.THOUGHTS: This book was probably written with the future feature film (staring Naomi Watts) in mind. There were many times I actually found myself mentally staging the actors and framing the cinematography for the scene. There's nothing wrong with that, mind you, I can just tell that the author was writing images and acted emotions.
I enjoyed this book for the simple reason that it made me think. What would I do in Emma's situation? Can the Kommandant possibly be a good person at heart? Can one justify violence if it means stopping a greater evil? Jenoff did a phenomenal job of keeping the melodramatics out of the plot and out of her writing. Sure there were moments when the story trended more toward romance novel than fiction but it was a nonetheless a moving and intelligent book.
Emma is the core of the book. The story is about her internal logical and emotional battles about her outward decisions. Emma may waiver and question her decisions, but Jenoff never waivers in her heroine's essential character. The reader is allowed to see Emma grow and they are taken along for the dramatic ride as she makes life altering decisions that balance her personal sense of self against the greater good. Emma has moments of pure selfishness, but the reader could never fault her choices. She fights for her husband, her parents, and herself - she spends the majority of the book trying to balance all her desires. Jenoff forces her character to make tough decisions and she writes the struggle with apologies.
The Kommandant is a big mess o' gray character. He's a Nazi with a conscience... or at least he seems to have a conscience. Jenoff was actually able to paint his character in very sympathetic shades. Instead of being a Nazi, the Kommandant comes across as a man who was simply caught up in a situation not of his own making. And, like Emma, we see the battle he seems to be conducting with his personal feelings, past history, and morals. While the story is never shown from his point of view, the reader can actual feel the Kommandant's internal emotions and thought process.
The secondary characters in this story are the main plot movers. Instead of seeming superfluous or fully-action oriented, the continue to convey the emotion of the story. Emma was forced into her situation and the secondary characters are their to foster her decisions. The secondary characters are also their to give Emma the questions she must answer.
The plot relies on the traditional question of "How far do you dare to go?" but the story never feels stale. It may just be my personal experience, but I have read no novels structured in such a setting. There are tons of personal narrative novels set in World War II, but this one felt different. This may be due to the fact that story is set entirely from the female's perspective. It's not a spy thriller or really even a war story. It's an internal battle whose actions are externalized.
Jenoff's writing style is very visual. The scenes, while not always described in explicit detail, are nonetheless fully formed in the reader's mind. Perhaps this is why the story feels so cinematic. The scene is not always verbally described or detailed to the reader, Jenoff just hands it over, fully formed. The prose has a nice momentum to it, neither to fast nor too slow. It paces with the emotional fluctuations of the story. And, while giving the reader a complete story, Jenoff somehow makes the book feel as if there is something more than just the plot. Jenoff forces the reader to internalize Emma's struggle and that is what makes the story so endearing.
MISCELLANEOUS: I hear rumor of a sequel. Part of me says "Yes!" the other part says "You don't really need one..."
RATING: 8/10 [Terrific]
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