It’s 1962. The Allies lost World War II. Slavery is legal. The United States has been divided by its conquerors, with the Japanese ruling the West, and the Germans in the East, with a small No Man’s Land in the Rocky Mountains. The Nazis have exterminated Africans, drained the Mediterranean to make space for farmland, and developed and used the hydrogen bomb. Not content to only take over the world, they’ve started colonizing space. Meanwhile, there’s a book. It’s not banned, but it’s […]
A Shameful Reminder
Before the war, they had names. Identities. They had neighbors, friends, teachers, classmates. But as soon as Japan rained bombs down on Pearl Harbor, everything about these people was stripped away. Only their ethnicity remained. Japanese. Traitor. Other. Nameless, they were crowded onto trains, clutching their suitcases, trying to convince themselves they’d be home again soon. They were on their best behavior in the camps, trying to convince the guards they were “good Americans.” And they waited. Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine follows […]
Please don’t make me defend a Nazi sympathizer
In Dietrich & Riefenstahl, Karin Wieland compares the lives of two famous German movie personalities. On the surface, Marlin Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl seem very similar. Born a year apart, both harbored big dreams. Both defied their parents, studied dance and worked as actors. Both took lovers and refused to live their lives the way others demanded. But when Hitler ascended to power, the two women reacted very differently. Dietrich became an American citizen and entertained Allied troops during the war, and Riefenstahl supported Hitler, […]
As Secret Identities Go, It’s Not A Very Good One
The Nightingale is the story of two sisters caught up in Nazi-occupied France, and how they survive – and fight back – in their own distinct ways. Viann’s top priority is survival, for both her and her young daughter, as life gets increasingly difficult as the war continues, while Isabelle, the younger, feistier sister, joins the Resistance and finds a way to fight more actively as the Nightingale. Except their real last name is Rossignol, which literally means Nightingale, so it feels a little weird […]
I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds
On the morning August 9, 1945, the American bomber Bockscar dropped a thousand pound bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man” over the city of Nagasaki. When the bomb was about 1,600 feet above ground it exploded and, “the entire city convulsed.” Windows shattered miles away from the epicenter. It’s estimated that some 74,000 died in the initial detonation. They may have been some of the lucky ones. Those who survived the initial blast faced horrific injuries. The city roared with the moans and cries of the injured. […]
The Darkness of World War II
All the Light We Cannot See (2014) by Anthony Doerr may have suffered from unrealistically high expectations. I’ve been waiting to read it for months, I’ve heard great things about it from a number of different people, and it won a Pulitzer Prize. Don’t get me wrong. This was a well-written and haunting book. However, after all the hype, I was expecting it to be one of my favorites of the year. World War II is the backdrop for our two young protagonists. Marie Laure is […]
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