Lilac Girls (Martha Hall Kelly)

 

I was drawn to the story, even though I felt like the writing was not stellar. I started it during the week of Remembrance Day and the timing seemed to make it more impactful. I didn't know about "the rabbits" and the all female camps ran by the Nazis. The urine letters written were fascinating as well. 

This book is centered around three women. One is a German woman that is a doctor. She seems like a good person in the beginning, but she ends up being a doctor in the camp that does experimental medical experiments on women, as well as letting them be killed. Her likability decreases as the novel continues but all along the way I felt like the author wanted me to feel sympathetic towards her. I suppose she did a good job of making some like-able qualities in someone who did some abhorrent things. However, you don't get a glimpse into how she makes the transition from a seeming good person to a doctor who does some of the worst atrocities in history. 

Another woman is from Poland and ends up being in the camp and a victim of the experimental surgeries. She had a lot of anger, which seemed understandable. 

The third was a woman from the US whose life was spent trying to help disadvantaged groups. She is based on a real person and did in fact do some great things in life, but I found myself irritated by her luxury and wealth running parallel to such atrocities. I should have hated the German doctor the most, but I found myself really not having any sympathies for Caroline. She's just too privileged and made out to be a hero that I don't connect with. Although she did have to sell her silver. I guess that is something (spoiler: she gets it back in the end). There was too much about the galas she organized, yearnings to be with someone she can't be with (even after she could actually be with him) and description of perfectly chosen outfits for different scenes.

I dislike the cover. When you go into the historical fiction section of a book store, almost all the books have a picture of a woman taken from the back. I don't know who the three women are on the cover. It certainly can't be the three main characters. Maybe it's Caroline (the woman from New York?) and Kasia (the Polish woman) and her sister? And the cut off with the lilacs at the bottom....weird. They're there, I guess, because Caroline had a lovely garden with lilacs. It's not a key part of the story though.

Apparently, it's the author's first book. The book is quite long, but I felt like many of the situations weren't well developed. For example, when Kasia decides she'll take up Caroline's offer and go back to Germany to identify the doctor, she must have had some internal conversation that wasn't shared. One page she isn't going, the next she gets up and goes. Not sure what changed her mind. There was also a few sex things that were odd. The German girl is abused by her uncle in the back of his butcher shop. It's not explained not does it seem to really negatively affect the character. It's just there. It seems to be implied that the mother of the girls gives sexual favors to soldiers to keep the family off their radar....but that isn't a key part of the story....it's just there and then it's not talked about anymore. Odd. Most of all, I found the sections with dialogue between two or more characters odd and choppy and not well developed.

There are a lot of amazing World War II books that are amazing. I'd skip this one. This one is definitely a story worth telling, but I told think it's very well told in this book. Disappointing. 

All that being said, I did read the entire thing. I wanted to see how issues would be resolved. I hadn't finished it when my book club met and everyone seemed to like it - which gave me hope. My hopes were dashed though. It just isn't a great book.

Goodreads says:

Inspired by the life of a real World War II heroine, this debut novel reveals a story of love, redemption, and secrets that were hidden for decades.
 
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.

On ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
 
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
 
The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.