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cmartintx's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting depiction of the ad hoc underground railroad style networks that self-organized to hide people. Feel-good pastoral depictions of non-mainstream French people and their convictions during the war. Compelling depiction of what we might normally consider Christian extremists solidly upholding the core values when the shit hit the fan. Poignant depictions of the random secondary tragedies & casualties of war, occupation, peaceful resistance on civilians.
hoserlauren's review against another edition
3.0
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a small village in the mountains of France, known as place for summer vacations. During World War II, it served as much more than that. The locals helped hide Jews, resisters, and communists. Many were children that were integrated in to every day life so that non-locals wouldn't know who was supposed to be there and who wasn't. The villagers thought their actions were completely normal and wanted no recognition for what happened, which is why we are only hearing about this story now.
My expectation from this book was to be horrified by the Nazi's actions and uplifted by the actions of the French villagers. This book paints Vichy France, the government, as the problem by blindly following the Nazis and doing whatever they request without pushing back. Having read Sarah's Key a while back, this wasn't surprising but for some reason it still surprises me when I read it.
The problem with this book is that I didn't feel overly uplifted by the story of what the French villagers were doing. Reflecting on this, I think it's because I felt that Moorehead skimmed over everything, trying to cover off each person, story, event and never took anything in to details. Just when I was starting to get in to the rhythm of the story that was being told, it was on to the next person, the next story. For example, author Camus was mentioned because he was in France during the war but it didn't really tie in to anything in the village and it was never in more than a few paragraphs at a time.
The other item in this book that seemed to have me reading it slower was the use of proper nouns. Every single sentence in this book had multiple proper nouns being used. I had to slow down for each to try and remember whether it was a city, person, group, etc. Opening up the book to a random sentence (I added the bolding): "His headquarters were at Le Puy, on the Boulevard Marechal Fayolle, named after the much-decorated hero of the Somme and the Marne." None of the proper nouns mean anything to me. It's a weird complaint and one I've never had about a book before, but an issue to me nonetheless.
I feel that this book would have been much more effective if Moorehead had focused on a few characters and committed to telling us their stories from beginning to end.
My expectation from this book was to be horrified by the Nazi's actions and uplifted by the actions of the French villagers. This book paints Vichy France, the government, as the problem by blindly following the Nazis and doing whatever they request without pushing back. Having read Sarah's Key a while back, this wasn't surprising but for some reason it still surprises me when I read it.
The problem with this book is that I didn't feel overly uplifted by the story of what the French villagers were doing. Reflecting on this, I think it's because I felt that Moorehead skimmed over everything, trying to cover off each person, story, event and never took anything in to details. Just when I was starting to get in to the rhythm of the story that was being told, it was on to the next person, the next story. For example, author Camus was mentioned because he was in France during the war but it didn't really tie in to anything in the village and it was never in more than a few paragraphs at a time.
The other item in this book that seemed to have me reading it slower was the use of proper nouns. Every single sentence in this book had multiple proper nouns being used. I had to slow down for each to try and remember whether it was a city, person, group, etc. Opening up the book to a random sentence (I added the bolding): "His headquarters were at Le Puy, on the Boulevard Marechal Fayolle, named after the much-decorated hero of the Somme and the Marne." None of the proper nouns mean anything to me. It's a weird complaint and one I've never had about a book before, but an issue to me nonetheless.
I feel that this book would have been much more effective if Moorehead had focused on a few characters and committed to telling us their stories from beginning to end.
msjaquiss's review against another edition
2.0
I struggled with this book. It needed some serious editing in places.
catgood's review against another edition
3.0
This was very interesting and I learned a lot but I listened to the audiobook and found it very hard to keep track of all the people. The narrator also had excellent French pronunciations but that also made it difficult to distinguish between people and places.
mcguffin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
xxstefaniereadsxx's review against another edition
dark
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a primarily Protestant and Huguenot area of France. During World War II, the residents of this town, led by their pastors, decided to help out victims of the Nazis. They rescued members of various Allied militaries, fed them, hid them, and gave them aid. They rescued and aided members of the targeted demographics- resistance fighters, religious people of various religions, orphans, and especially Jewish people. They hid them in their own personal homes, in defiance of the Nazis and their cohort government in Vichy France. They fed and clothes these people, got them forged papers and ration cards, smuggled them out of super dangerous zones, and genuinely cared and wanted to help their fellow man. They did all of that at great personal risk, and some of them were even arrested by the Gestapo, sent to camps, and murdered.
I had never heard of this town or these people, and that is a crying shame. These people were of strong characters and morals, and even today the town is known for helping out those in need. Everyone needs to pick this book up and read it, becauses this is such an important part of World War II and French history, and an inspiration to just be a decent person and help out in anyway you can. I really enjoyed this book and learned so much about these awesome people.
I had never heard of this town or these people, and that is a crying shame. These people were of strong characters and morals, and even today the town is known for helping out those in need. Everyone needs to pick this book up and read it, becauses this is such an important part of World War II and French history, and an inspiration to just be a decent person and help out in anyway you can. I really enjoyed this book and learned so much about these awesome people.
rcollins1701's review against another edition
4.0
France's national memory of being a nation full of Resistance fighters and a few villainous collaborators is about as accurate as America's national memory of being a nation full of abolitionists and a few villainous slave owners. Moorehead confronts that false narrative head-on while showcasing the extraordinary acts of human kindness in one rural French village. The stories of heroism here are all the more striking due to the nonchalance and humility with which the heroes describe their actions. The author posits a 'banality of good' to contrasts Arendts 'banality of evil.' A gripping, tragic, inspiring read.
cmcgowan76's review against another edition
3.0
The event itself would receive a resounding five stars, but the narrative (or lack thereof) receives only three. Village of Secrets by Caroline Moorehead tells the story of a small plateau call le Chamblom that hid Jews and other German deemed inappropriate people within their community. I had no idea prior to reading this novel that Vichy, France was a focused and dedicated Nazi headquartered area. Nor did I know that Hitler wanted to take France for his own. I did learn so much reading this novel.
The truly heroic efforts of the people to save other humans was astounding. From food to money to beds to schooling to passports to papers, the people of the le Chamblom plateau and surrounding provinces went above and beyond the call of duty. Relying on the unification of several religious parties, the people came together as a Christ-like entity and reached out to their fellow man. They particularly worked to save the children that had been separated from their parents already deported to camps like Auschwitz. In the end, many of those that helped we know very little about, but what we have creates a legacy of people that were truly selfless.
However, I couldn't tell you who very many of those people were and this is why the book only gets three stars. Moorehead included so many people that they become simply lost in the pages. The best I can offer is there was a man and a woman and another man and another woman and this one was a Darbyist, and this one a Catholic. I have no idea who did what and what connections they had in Vichy or ever who was the true Prefect during this time in France. I can remember a few names: Trocme, Theis, Magda, and two particular teens that really caught my attention: Hanne and Max, who later married, moved to New York and birthed a daughter. Moorehead include too much in this story - it was overwhelming and hard to follow; ten books about the people involved could stem from this one, and probably need to for anyone to really understand who did what to help the Jewish people.
However, I reside myself to the fact that in the end, it doesn't really matter who did what - what matters is they DID. And that has to be enough. I am prompted to learn more about Hanne and Max and hope there's something out there about these two young people that did so much to help the ones younger than them, and found love in the process...this is a story I want to read.
Definitely a book for history buffs and those that might speak French as Moorehead regularly does not translate the words and phrases she uses (and they aren't all obvious from context).
Happy reading...or in the case of this book, at least intense reading.
The truly heroic efforts of the people to save other humans was astounding. From food to money to beds to schooling to passports to papers, the people of the le Chamblom plateau and surrounding provinces went above and beyond the call of duty. Relying on the unification of several religious parties, the people came together as a Christ-like entity and reached out to their fellow man. They particularly worked to save the children that had been separated from their parents already deported to camps like Auschwitz. In the end, many of those that helped we know very little about, but what we have creates a legacy of people that were truly selfless.
However, I couldn't tell you who very many of those people were and this is why the book only gets three stars. Moorehead included so many people that they become simply lost in the pages. The best I can offer is there was a man and a woman and another man and another woman and this one was a Darbyist, and this one a Catholic. I have no idea who did what and what connections they had in Vichy or ever who was the true Prefect during this time in France. I can remember a few names: Trocme, Theis, Magda, and two particular teens that really caught my attention: Hanne and Max, who later married, moved to New York and birthed a daughter. Moorehead include too much in this story - it was overwhelming and hard to follow; ten books about the people involved could stem from this one, and probably need to for anyone to really understand who did what to help the Jewish people.
However, I reside myself to the fact that in the end, it doesn't really matter who did what - what matters is they DID. And that has to be enough. I am prompted to learn more about Hanne and Max and hope there's something out there about these two young people that did so much to help the ones younger than them, and found love in the process...this is a story I want to read.
Definitely a book for history buffs and those that might speak French as Moorehead regularly does not translate the words and phrases she uses (and they aren't all obvious from context).
Happy reading...or in the case of this book, at least intense reading.
jackiefranklee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.25