Plumfield Moms

Book Review: Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

Diane's review of Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss. 
You may read the review here.

Book Review: The Incredible Journey by Shelia Bunford

In this episode of Monday Morning Book Review, Sara talks about The Incredible Journey by Shelia Burnford. You can find the web version of this review here at our website: www.plumfieldandpaideia.com. 
 
The Boy Book List mentioned in this episode can be found here: http://plumfieldandpaideia.com/books-boys-love/ 
 
The Animal Book List mentioned in this episode can be found here: http://plumfieldandpaideia.com/animal-stories/
 

Book Review: The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs

Diane's review of Alan Jacobs' book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction.
You may read this review at plumfieldandpaideia.com.
You may buy the book here.

Book Review: Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson

“What poetry does is represent nature.  That can be handy because nature is big and changing and various and hard to look at.  Whereas with somebody with a great eye and a big soul, they could explain it to you.”
I heard Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, say this in a lecture shortly after I had finished reading N.D. Wilson’s Leepike Ridge.  “Yes!” I thought.  “That is exactly what I was trying to express to myself while reading the first chapter.”  Wilson has such a great eye. As with anything large seen from close up, the size of his soul has to be assessed by walking around in his story, getting close, stepping back, changing perspectives.
I knew exactly where I was from the very beginning.  I already knew a lot about Thomas Hammond, our hero, because of Wilson’s skill in giving me elements with which I could identify.  Possibilities: “Once upon a time” might be happening right in Tom’s little valley. I grew up believing that was possible in ours. Conflict: Tom doesn’t like watching his mother cook for a man who isn’t his father.  His father has been dead for three years. Mine isn’t dead, but I know the feeling, nonetheless. Impetus: I think every child needs to experience a refrigerator box like Tom’s in some capacity. Ours didn’t come with a raft-sized piece of styrofoam, but it was big enough for my three sisters and me to camp in until it rained.  That could have been the start of an adventure.
I also know Tom because I have sons and grandsons.
“Thomas Hammond, who was down by the stream with a red plastic cup full of leeches, heard them [the refrigerator delivery men] and turned to watch . . .  When the truck had gone and the dust had settled, Tom dumped forty-seven confused leeches onto the bank, where he thought the birds would find them and be pleasantly surprised.”
“Tom found the box easily enough. He danced around it, picked his spot, and then kicked it back toward the base of the stairs.  He liked the sound it made, and he liked how far one kick could send something so big.”
“Tom tried not to think of Jeffrey or the way he smiled at his mother . . . Instead, he focused on finding rocks he could throw at the foam.”
“Wait for the rest of the story, and you will know him better when I am done.”
Just an ordinary boy who ends up in an extraordinary situation with people even more extraordinary; some extraordinarily bad and others extraordinarily courageous.  Thence, a story.
My students and I enjoyed this book so much that I don’t want to spoil it for you.  I will tell you that the story involves intrigue, desperate treasure seekers, underground caverns, plot twists, danger to life and limb, cowardice, heroism, despicable, and admirable characters.
I do want to include a caution.  One of my more sensitive students suffered some anxiety over a weekend because we had to leave off in an intense spot.  She needed resolution. I’m not advising you against reading this book with sensitive children. I’m simply warning you that you may need to plan on a reading binge once the action really gets moving.
I’m truly grateful to Wilson for giving us such a compelling story that one of my most reluctant readers could hardly bear for our class time to end.  How refreshing to discover modern fiction I’m excited to recommend to anyone who asks, and to some who didn’t know they needed to ask.
Sara Masarik, who has read almost everything Wilson, says that he keeps getting better with each successive book.  With a first book this good, I must say, “Bravo!”
 
For Cautions: https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/leepike-ridge

Book Review: The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

I feel almost silly trying to write a review of The Awakening of Miss Prim by Madrid writer Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera when Joseph Pearce’s piece in The Imaginative Conservative is light years better than anything I would write. Please understand that my attempt here is not to match his eloquent review. Instead, I hope to draw more attention to this remarkable book by giving it a home on our site as well.
“Wanted: a feminine spirit quite undaunted by the world to work as a librarian for a gentleman and his books. Able to live with dogs and children. Preferably without work experience. Graduates and postgraduates need not apply.”
The Awakening of Miss Prim was recommended to my bookclub about two years ago. Most of us knew next to nothing about this international bestseller when we scampered off to Amazon to fill up our shopping carts. Since then, I have purchased three or four more copies of this pretty paperback. All of which were purchased to replace copies that were being loaned out. Each time a new group of friends decided to fall in love with San Ireneo, I would make the trip with them and would need a copy to read.
“…this mysterious prosperity was the result of a young man’s tenacity and an old monk’s wisdom… San Ireneo de Arnois was, in fact, a flourishing colony of exiles from the modern world seeking a simple, rural life.”
In my first reading of this book, I felt like I was having a homecoming. Prudencia Prim is an old soul who was born in the wrong time. “Few could admit to being the victim of a fatal historical error, she told herself proudly. Few people lived, as she did, with the constant feeling of having been born in the wrong time and in the wrong place.” Like many of us women today, she finds her inner femininity to be irrepressible despite embracing the progressive lie that she needs to be androgynous, cold, calculating, precise, and somehow that will empower her feminine genius. The work of maintaining that dehumanizing balance is, in fact, anything but empowering for Miss Prim. I confess to struggling with a similar strain when I was coming of age.
When Miss Prim arrives in San Ireneo, she is flabbergasted by the antiquated and narrow-minded prejudices of her employer, The Man in the Wing Chair. In a play on Pride and Prejudice, much of the book teases out the tension between these two opposites. Miss Prim is irreligious, well-read, but through a progressive lens, and an advocate for modern feminism. The Man in the Wing Chair is a scholar of the classics, a daily mass Catholic with fervent religious convictions, and gentlemanly in his old-fashioned manners. At first blush they appear to be total opposites, but Fenollera renders more complex characters than that. Miss Prim doesn’t resent gentlemanly manners, she is just suspicious of The Man in the Wing Chair. When she isn’t feeling insecure, she appreciates being treated with old-fashioned respect. The Man in the Wing Chair is not quite the picture of perfection. While most of his prejudices are grounded in beautiful traditions, some are just errors in judgement. The more we learn of each of the characters, the more perfectly imperfect they become.
As Prudencia settles into the community of San Ireneo, we meet a cast of characters who are refugees from the dehumanizing, fast-paced, tradition-less, progressive modern world. Each has retreated from the world they believe debases the human experience, frays the nerves, and seeks to alienate man from his Creator. The community, built near a monastery, by The Man in the Wing Chair, is a fictionalized version of what many Benedict Option communities are seeking to build. When Rod Dreher was working on his new book, The Benedict Option, someone suggested Miss Prim to his wife. In this post, Dreher explains that his wife told him that Fenollera had captured in fiction the essence of what he had been writing about for years.
Ultimately, Miss Prim is stretched. So too is her employer. More importantly, both realize that they are heading towards the precipice of romance. Unlike Pride and Prejudice, The Man in the Wing Chair, has truly good reasons for not allowing that to happen. While Lizzie Bennet’s situation was materially objectionable, Miss Prim’s is spiritual.
When we read this book in our book club, a number of readers thought that the book was unsatisfying because most of the supporting characters are mere caricatures. Initially, I half-heartedly agreed them. It is true that we never get much to feast on by way of the individual characters. I think, however, that that is because the community itself is one character. I think this is by design. Each person Miss Prim interacts with is just an expression of the community.
In his review, Joseph Pearce quotes Evelyn Waugh. “Conversion,” Waugh wrote, “is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made; and then begins the delicious process of exploring it limitlessly.” I think that Fenollera is giving us a sense of this Looking-Glass world. As Prudencia falls into this community, the community itself becomes so substantial and so real that it feels surreal compared to what she knows, so she resists engaging. Because she doesn’t engage, we don’t get to engage with the characters. But, as Waugh indicates, the more she is in the community, the more she realizes how absurd the modern world is. I think that we don’t get much characterization because Prudencia is keeping one foot in the modern world and one foot in San Ireneo. She can’t focus on anyone or anything therefore, we can’t either.
Near the end of the book, Prudencia makes a big change. I won’t spoil, and frankly, it would be impossible to spoil. Fenollera leaves us breadcrumbs, but we never have any real resolve on what is happening and what will happen. This bothered me a lot when I read it the first time. In subsequent readings, I grew to appreciate it. I think that the way this book ends is a testimony to the reality that life is always shrouded in mystery.
If you have read the book and wonder what is really happening in the end, let me give one place to study: look at her coffee order and the exchange with the waiter. I can take no credit for the discovery of this tell-tale clue as a friend noticed it and pointed it out to me.
 

Interview: Meet Biblioguides

"Every book tells a story and every book has a story. The best books become part of your story. Discover books for the people and moments that matter most." - Biblioguides
In this week's Plumfield In Person episode, Diane and Sara chat with Tanya Arnold and Sarah Kim of Biblioguides.com about their dynamic and evolving reader's database. It was a lot of fun and just the first of many conversations we hope to have with them about the best books. 
Books Mentioned in this Podcast:
Books and Links:
But No Elephants
The Paper Bag Princess
The Pilgrim’s Progress
The Practical Princess
Jay Williams
Jan Bloom
Sabbath Mood Homeschool
Let’s Learn About Mushrooms
Join the conversation:
Biblioguides Webpage, Facebook Page, InstagramBiblioguides Free Mighty Networks Group (Plumfield Reads is there too!)Plumfield Facebook Page, Instagram, Podcast Page
 
We are a Partner Guide at Biblioguides because we really believe in what they are doing. You can find our Partner Guide here. We are curious how many people are discovering Biblioguides through our podcast and so we have a signup link. It is not an affiliate link. We do not receive anything if you use it. But if you do use it, you will have a free 7 day trial. 

Book Review: Good Old Archibald by Ethelyn M. Parkinson

When Bethlehem Books was having their big summer sale, I combed through their catalog for books that would captivate my reluctant boy reader. My nine-year-old son is a much better reader than he gives himself credit for, but he is easily intimidated by long or text-heavy books. I knew that Bethlehem Books would have some books that would be appealing to boy interests, be short enough to not be terribly intimidating, and potentially have some illustration to aid the reader. Good Old Archibald was highlighted in their catalog as being just such a book. Absolutely wholesome but totally hilarious it was enjoyed by everyone in our family!
I purchased Good Old Archibald to put in my son’s independent reading basket. I thought that to get him interested I would read a chapter or two aloud and then put it in the basket in the hopes that he would go to it himself. A funny thing happened, however. No one was content for me to put it down – including myself. Good Old Archibald started off with some engaging humor and an intriguing story line. Within two chapters were we on the hook. Within five chapters we were finding excuses to pick it up whenever we could and sneak in a few more pages.
Smart, creative, funny, wholesome, and interesting, it is a fair bit like Henry Huggins or the Ramona books – just more 1950s than 1980s.
If you were to take Cheaper By the Dozen (book or original movie) and merge it with a more wholesome version of The Sandlot into a book for middle grade readers, you would get something like Good Old Archibald. Set in mid 20th century Middle America, it has a timeless small town feel, a huge boyish family with endearing parents, a smart and sweet great aunt, a baseball subplot, and a happy ending. The story is very predictable in some places and quite unexpected in others. A little Frindle, a little Homer Price, a lot Henry Huggins, and all delightful, it is ideal for the middle school boy crowd or a family read aloud. The principle characters are in 5th and 6th grades.
Ethelyn Parkinson, the author, is from Oconto, Wisconsin which is just 30 minutes from our home. It was no leap at all for us to see that she was writing about 1950s Green Bay, Wisconsin. For us, it was a delightful series of rabbit trails to see how she got her names for things. For example, in one scene the boys are going to Sensenbrenner Grocery. Probably no one but a local would know that Sensenbrenner is an important name. Frank J Sensenbrenner (1864-1952) was a major player in the paper industry that defined northeast Wisconsin economy for a century. What is interesting is that Sensenbrenner’s first job as a teen was in a grocery store. Parkinson was clever!
At the opening of our story, good old Ralph, the star of the baseball team and an all-around good guy has left their economically depressed town just a few weeks before their annual rivalry baseball game. The new kid, Archibald, is the exact antithesis of good old Ralph. Ralph’s family moved due to lack of industry in the town. Archibald has moved to town to live with his great aunt while his mother is in long term medical care and his wealthy father is out scouting locations for a new factory. Ralph arrives at school in “best” clothes, a gold watch, and highbrow manners and vocabulary. When Archibald occupies “Good Old Ralph’s” seat, the boys of the sixth grade class are distraught.
The story is classically boy: wrestling in the backyard, sliding down clothing chutes, and lots and lots of baseball. This girl and my daughter, however, loved it just the same.

Book Review: The Chosen by Chaim Potok

The podcast version of this book review can be found here.
“When Mendal was already the far-famed and much-hated rabbi of Kotzak, he once returned to the little town in which he was born. There he visited the teacher who taught him his alphabet when he was a child and read five books of Moses with him. But he did not go to see the teacher who had given him further instruction, and at a chance meeting the man asked his former pupil whether he had any cause to be ashamed of his teacher. Mendal replied: ‘You taught me things that can be refuted, for according to one interpretation they can mean this, according to another, that. But my first teacher taught me true things which cannot be refuted, and they have remained with me as such. That is why I owe him special reverence.’” – Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidism (reprinted in Tending the Heart of Virtue)
Several years ago The Chosen was recommended to me through an educational group which was trying to nurture parents in their vocation of cultivating a lifelong learning environment in their homes. I had never heard of the book, the cover was forgettable, and I was terribly unimpressed by the first chapter. In the second chapter, things became more interesting but almost painful to read. Because I was resigned to the task of reading it, but wasn’t excited about it, it became my mission to read the book as quickly as possible so as to be done with it and move on. While every chapter improved upon the chapter before it, that first reading experience was quite challenging for me. In fact, through much of the book, I felt an oppressive heaviness weighing down on the characters and my soul as I read. And then, just as it was ending, it all came together. Not unlike Brideshead Revisited and Till We Have Faces the end contextualized everything that came before it. My first reading was complete and I knew that I needed to re-read it again immediately. I have been re-reading it every year, ever since. I am always learning something new, always delighting in some idea better understood, and always wishing there was even more there so I could stay in the story a little longer.
The educational group was not wrong. This book is about cultivating a well-ordered love of learning. It is also about mentoring and parenting. It deals deftly with deeply human questions of identity. And, it is a sublime window into Orthodox Jewish culture in the United States and in Europe. The more I read this book, the more convicted I am that my children’s education will be incomplete if they do not encounter this at least once in their high school career.
Like any classic, this story has many layers. In the first layer, we have a tale of friendship. Two unlikely friends become confidants through a crisis. While both are Orthodox Jews, the subculture they live in is extremely divided. Essentially, it is only with the blessing of the rabbinical leadership that Danny and Reuven are permitted to cross traditional lines and share the journey with each other. Central to their friendship, however, each boy’s relationship to the other boy’s father. Each boy fundamentally loves and respects his own father, but has intellectual and spiritual needs that only the other father can address. This makes the story of friendship complex and fascinating.
In the second layer of the story, we have two young men who are coming of age in a world that is recovering from war. When the story opens, WWII is in its final stages. Not long after the celebration of V-Day, the atrocities of the death camps are discovered. When the boys cross the traditional cultural lines to become friends, they are echoing the hope and joy that Americans feel as the war resolves. As the world contends with the shocking realities of the holocaust and the devastating effects on the Jewish people as a race, American Jews become polarized in their responses. Potok uses the undulating emotions of the American Jews to cause a unique tension in the friendship of the two boys. In one moment their fathers are unified in their shared contempt for the death camps, in the next their fathers are at odds over the appropriate Jewish response. This pushing together and pulling apart gives the story momentum and authenticity.
In a third layer of the story, we have a collection of vignettes which are quilted together by the blossoming friendship between Danny and Reuven. As an example, Reuven’s hospital stay feels isolating even when the young man is sharing a room with other uniquely interesting characters. Potok uses Reuven’s eye injury and fear of blindness to bind him to other characters who are vastly different than he is, but who are similarly challenged. In doing it this way, Potok guarantees that we will care about all of the characters regardless of how small a role they play because we are learning about the main characters and their internal struggles through their relationships with the minor characters. The ways in which Reuven and Danny are blessed by the Almighty are accented in the ways in which the minor characters do not receive blessings. While each scene almost stands alone, they are best understood together. This is masterfully done.
I know that there are many more layers to this story. In four readings, I think I have just begun to scratch the surface on what this book can teach me. Beautifully written, I am sad that this story is largely unknown and not more commonly advanced as an example of great American literature. My life is richer for having read The Chosen.

Book Review: 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Marks & Co. 84, charing Cross Rd. London, W. C. 2 England Gentlemen: Your ad in the Saturday Review of Literature says that you specialize in out-of-print books. The phrase “antiquarian booksellers” scares me somewhat, as I equate antique with expensive. I am a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books and all the things I want are impossible to get over here except very expensive rare editions, or in Barnes and Noble grimy, marked-up schoolboy copies. I enclose a list of my most pressing problems. If you have clean secondhand copies of any of the books on the list, for no more than $5.00 each, will you consider this a purchase order and send them to me?Very truly yours, Hélène Hanff (Miss) Hélène Hanff
What an introduction to a story! From the first lines of this slender spine, we have a sense that this is going to be a healthy mix of intrigue, love, and quirkiness. As a bibliophile myself, I can appreciate Helene’s predicament. Her desire for worthy copies at every man prices is familiar to most lovers of books. Generic and impersonal “Barnes and Noble grimy, marked-up schoolboy copies” connote a disrespect for the soul of a beloved story and a lack of relationship with the reader. Collectors of stories know that it is hard to not form an attachment to the books we love, and so, therefore, we want a spine that is worthy of our love.
As a child, my mom introduced me to a delightful old movie starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann Bancroft about a brassy, sassy, and delightfully funny paradox of a woman and her true story friendship with a buttoned-up, prim, and proper London bookshop. Helene is a New York woman author in 1949, who is looking for specific books which are nearly impossible to come by in American bookshops. Her above letter opens up a transatlantic correspondence that spans twenty years (and beyond). In her brassy and sassy way, she endears herself to Frank Doel and the rest of the shop clerks and secretaries at Marks and Co., 84 Charing Cross Road, London, England.
I loved the movie. I loved the epistolary relationship. I loved the way they all grew to care for each other. I loved the respect for good and great books that was celebrated throughout. I loved the spunk and humor and character. I loved all of it even more when I realized that it was a movie based on a book and a true story. This was an example of a movie remaining perfectly faithful to the book. The movie came about only after multiple stage adaptations – all overseen by Helene and scrupulously careful production experts.
In this charming story, Helene’s big personality is perfectly balanced by her generosity and affection. The staff at 84 Charing Cross Road appreciated her sincere love of excellent books, self education, lifelong learning, and good taste. Helene appreciated their care for her orders, their reasonable prices, and their work in preserving good books. It was a romance of ideas, and a love affair of books.
In the early 1950s, war was over but rations were still on. Helene had a British friend in her apartment building from whom she learned how poorly the Londoners were eating. Appalled, she found a whole series of excuses to send them food packages with real eggs, real meat and other things that that were so scare. It is impossible not to cry when you read the letters that the bookshop sent to her in thanks:
“Now then. Brian told me you are all rationed to 2 ounces of meat per family per week and one egg per person per month and I am simply appalled. He has a catalogue from a British firm here which flies food from Denmark to his mother, so I am sending a small Christmas present to Marks & Co.” – Helene, December 8, 1949“I should just like to add that everything in the parcel was something that we either never see or can only be had through the black market. It was extremely kind and generous of you to think of us in this way and we are all extremely grateful.” – Frank Doel, 20th December, 1949 “Where is Leigh Hunt? Where is Oxford Verse? Where is the Vulgate and dear goofy John Henry, I thought that they’d be such nice uplifting reading for Lent and NOTHING do you send me. You leave me sitting here writing long margin notes in library books that don’t belong to me, some day they’ll find out I did it and take my library card away. I have made arrangements with the Easter bunny to bring you an Egg, he will get there and find that you have died of Inertia.” – Helene, March 25, 1950 “I have to thank you for the very welcome Easter parcel which arrived safely yesterday… I am sorry we haven’t been able to send you any of the books you want…” – Frank Doel 7th April, 1950 “We were all quite dazzled to see the meat. And the eggs and tins were so very welcome.” – Megan Wells, 5 April 1951
This across the sea and back again banter and friendship just grew and grew, leaving the reader with a very acute sense of loss when the little volume ends. Easily read in a lazy afternoon, it is the perfect length. Digested in one or two sittings and short enough to return to again and again.
When our book club read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I was reminded of this powerful little true story and reached for it again after having forgotten it for many years. Since then I have read it three times and watched the movie once. Perfect for a rainy day, transition between harder and heavier books, or a long car ride, I will always feel like Helene and Frank are old friends who remind me that it is ok to love beautiful old books, be fussy about translation, and miss the quaint old bookshops (like Shop Around the Corner) that have been replaced by the impersonal and useless mega stores (like Fox Books).
Funny, charming, smart, endearing, and an ode to the preservation of Old Western Culture, 84 Charing Cross Road makes me a better reader, a better lover of books, and deepens my romantic sensibilities about book culture. Some time, soon, I hope, I will read my way through Helene’s book orders. I want to read her John Henry Newman, John Donne, Oxford Verse, Pepys’s Diaries, etc. I want to get the “Professor Q” education.
Update: Squeeeeeeee! The audiobook is now available in the US through Audible! You can find it here.
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/84-charing-cross-road

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society
 
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Once upon a time, in a book club far, far away some friends got together and read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I must confess that I instigated the request for the book.  I had read it a while before, and was positive they would also like it. I love to read stories regarding World War II, and with a name like that, is HAS to be good, right?? Well, it is.
Guernsey begins about a year after the end of World War II. The main character, Juliet Ashton, spent most of the war years writing uplifting newspaper articles to help her fellow countrymen keep stiff upper lips and a smiles on their faces. Now that it’s all over, her works have been made into a book, and she has set about on a tour of bookstores and guest appearances at clubs, to promote the book. She is excited for the book’s success, but it is exhausting, sometimes thankless work. She longs to be able to put the war and her literary character, Izzy Bickerstaff, behind her and write something that has nothing to do with the war. Enter a letter from a pig farmer on the Isle of Guernsey, which is in the English Channel between England and France.  He has somehow acquired a copy of a book by Charles Lamb that used to belong to Juliet, and he is hoping she will be able to put him in touch with more books by this same author. Her question to him was, “I wonder how the book got to Guernsey?” and with that, began an unusual pen pal relationship.
With every note and letter from Dawsey Adams (the man on Guernsey), Juliet becomes more interested in his life and life on the island, especially after she learns they endured German occupation for five years. How did they exist? What did they do for fun? How did they steer clear of the Germans? Life in London at the same time pretty much occupied all of Juliet’s thinking, leaving little time for any thought of an island in the Channel. She learns how Dawsey and his friends were invited to a secret pig roast, stayed out too late, and, in order to avoid arrest, made up their “literary society.” They had become so engrossed in their book discussions (so they said) that they completely lost track of the time. That bit of seat-of-the-pants thinking was the brainchild of Elizabeth McKenna, who showed no fear, could think on a dime, and walked them all away from the soldiers as if it were a walk in the park. The next day is a frenzy of rounding up the other supper participants and as many books as they can lay hands on in order to look like a real book club. Several join under protest, but as time wears on, and the war seems never to end, it becomes a lifeline for them all.
As time and letter-writing progresses Juliet becomes acquainted with the members of the GLPPPS. She wants to write an article in The Times focusing on their wartime experiences.  Juliet wants to intimately learn of each member, and how they fit into the group. There are several characters who are pioneers of the group; all from as various backgrounds as you can imagine. Each of these members, and a few others that are heard from later in the book, have one main, binding character, and that is Elizabeth. She is the Guernsey equivalent to Juliet. It seems there is nothing she can’t do, and none of it is ever done for her own glory or personal gain. In the midst of such evil going on around them all, Elizabeth is the epitome of grace under fire; and it is that loving, giving heart that gets her into trouble.
“A warning (reminder) from the dead to the living.”
By the time Juliet meets up with the islanders, there have been some significant changes in the dynamics of the members; so now, on top of writing more for her stories, she wants to know what happened.
Now this is the part that might become a sticking point for some. A beloved character who has engaged in an affair outside of marriage, a child born out of wedlock; there are mentions of a couple of characters in the book who are homosexuals, but they are only mentioned by way of explanation, they are not glorified for their bent, there is minimal swearing, and it is not for shock value or to add words to a page. It is usually used in a form of disbelief at something that has happened that wasn’t expected. No matter how war is presented, it is not pretty. People do and say ugly things. That is a byproduct of war. This is to inform you, to make you aware that though this is not a terrible story, it IS a terrible story! The practices of the Germans during the occupation were downright ugly. You don’t have to read much to find that out in any other book about the war. Though horrible things are talked about in this book, they are done so tastefully that you should not be offended by their telling. It is a truth that needs to be remembered when the world tries to scream that it never happened.
Last year I got to spend two weeks in Europe with my nephew and his school group touring Paris, Munich, Dresden, Prague and Berlin. The highlight of the trip, for me, was a day trip to Normandy. We got to see Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc, and the American Cemetery. The drive from Paris to Normandy goes through a lot of small villages that were right in the path of all the armies. We got to stand in the bunkers on the cliffs, and see the guns that were used against the allies as they stormed the beaches. I was truly hoping I would get to catch a glimpse of the Channel Islands from where we stood, but the weather was not quite good enough for that. I did stand there looking out over the water imagining the island and the people I had read of as they endured the long years of occupation. I was fortunate to visit Dachau. Fortunate seems a strange word to use for such a place, but it’s true. To see where the prisoners lived and died was quite sobering; especially as I walked across the creek to see the crematoriums, the large brick ovens used nonstop. There is a statue near that building in honor of the victims. The inscription on the statue reads:  “Den toten zur ehr den lebenden zur mahnung” (A warning or reminder from the dead to the living).  It reminded me of the todt workers in TGLPPS.  All I could do was stand there and cry. I will  never forget any of that, or the sights in Munich or Berlin.
If you have read this book, I would encourage you to also listen to the audio version.  It is read word for word by several different actors as the different characters in the written text.  It is engaging and heartfelt.  In my humble opinion, you will love it!