Book Review - Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

 Ruta is one of those new age authors that I am coming to admire immensely. Her writing style isn’t overly dramatic but rather like a recitation of a person’s diary, factual and precise. While this may not be the ideal style that authors prefer but for Ruta, IT JUST WORKS! Part of the reason it works is because her plots mainly revolve around tragic historical events, and if written in a dramatic way may overtax the sensibilities of the reader. Her writing style helps readers to not become overly attached to the characters in the novel, as these are realistic people with flaws and not some selfless superheroes, but rather glue the readers attention to the course of action taken by them. I also like that Ruta writes about lesser know events, this really helps the reader see history with a different perspective. She is Lithuanian ethnically, and therefore has focused more on the Baltic point of view of the WW2.

Book Cover

Her previous title Between Shades of Grey told the story of Lina, a Lithuanian who survived Siberian Gulag Camps. In this story we meet Joanna who is Lina’s cousin, due to whose escape to Germany Lina’s family was punished. But I couldn’t make out the connection between these two until more than three quarters of the book was finished. This is a good thing because we see the character development of Joanna without being prejudiced against her.

The story is told through four different voices. Joanna, a Lithuanian Nurse who repatriated to East Prussia. Florian, a Prussian who deserts Germany in quest for revenge. Emilia, a Polish teen who is fighting for her survival. And Alfred, a German sailor who is a sociopath.

Operation Hannibal

Some scenes moved me more than the others. The death of Ingrid on the frozen sea, the backstory of Emilia and the chilling details of how she reimagines her rape to be some romance in her head in order to find solace. Florian also gets used by some high ranking people, and when he realises that he is just a pawn to be discarded when in troubled times decides to takes revenge by stealing the amber swan. The attachment of the boy Eli and the shoemaker also depicts how in the time of trouble the you seek your family despite blood relations. The pawning of children for getting passage on the board, shows the cruelty of human nature when it becomes acceptable to trade innocents in order to save your own neck. Alfredo was one hell of a psychopath. When in the end despite the sinking of the ship when he is on the raft with Emilia, he tries to kill her after realising she is Polish, I am deeply aghast. Initially I thought he was just a rejected person who is depressed and so is penning down mental letters to his crush who rejected him. But when I learn that Hannelore his crush is Jewish and he actually wanted her to get persecuted for that I hated him. Emilia’s death is beautiful as she is finally stops her wandering in death and reaches the happiest place for her, her own home. The presence of her mother and her daughter Halinka in her death dream shows that despite all of the difficulties she is finally at peace.

Wilhelm Gustloff  in its days of glory

The depiction of the sinking, reminds me of scenes from the Titanic.  Finally Joanna, Florian, Eli and Halinka are the only surviving members of the group on the ship. They emigrate to America and decide to put the war behind them in order to start a new life as an assorted family. Overall,  a 4.5/5 for me.

Book Review- The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

 

I read Cilka’s Journey before this book because it was written with a female perspective, while this book had a male protagonist. And my intuition proved to be right. I definitely enjoyed Cilka’s story more than Lale, not only because Cilka endured a lot more than Lale did, but also because being a woman I could relate to Cilka’s emotions more. But that does not take away the fact that this was a great novel as well.

Lale like most other persecuted groups in occupied Germany was led to believe that he was going to work for the Germans. The harrowing conditions of the train journey to Auschwitz were only the beginning. Soon he realized than he was in a concentration camp destined for persecution. But he did not lose hope and determined that he would survive and tell his story to the world no matter what. This determination of his did not waver even when he was on doors of death by various means. Cholera, the beating, or even in the end during the death march.  Soon he realised that in order to survive he needed to work a privileged job sans hard labour. Thus he eagerly took up job as the assistant Tattooist  when an Elderly French prisoner offered him. Soon he became the head tattooist and started getting extra rations and began sharing it with people.

Auschwitz Concentration Camp 

Another driving factor to his survival was his love for Gita. Gita wasn’t the most beautiful women, but she had this connection with Lale right from the moment he set eyes on her while tattooing her prisoner number. She worked in the offices and Lale set up occasional meeting with her. The guards who oversaw him as well as her were well bribed for these meetings by him so they didn’t really mind.

 

One incident that really pierced Lale’s heart was when all the Roma people living in his block were killed. The pain of seeing his friends and the children with whom he played everyday being killed, prevented him from making friends inside the camp ever again. He also stuck a bargain with the local Polish father-son duo to exchange valuables for things he needed.

His Romanian Guard was one broken character, who had left his family to join the Nazis and was one hell of a misogynist. I both hated and pitied him cause he was trying to be friends with Lale but his selfish nature prevented him from forming any sort of friendship with anyone. One time Lale was discovered with stolen valuables by the Nazis and beaten almost to death for it, but Cilka with her influence saved him.

The most disturbing character for me was the Doctor. He used to give poisonous toffees to children, selecting them for getting executed, and did horrible experiments on people just for fun. The time when he cut Lale’s assistants balls angered me a lot.

When the Russians were on their way to Auschwitz the male prisoners were moved elsewhere, Lale managed to escape and was then caught by the Russians. There due to his skill with languages he was recruited by them forcibly, to find local  Polish women for having sex with. His job was to go into town each morning and offer women money and jewellery for their services in the evening. Each day he was accompanied by a guard in a jeep, but one day he was sent alone. So he took chance and escaped the Russians. Then he came back home to Czechoslovakia to find that only his sister had survived the ordeal, and she was now married to a Russian man named Sokolov. He then began his search for Gita in Prague.

Gita had been sent on a death march along with other women prisoners from Birkenau. But she along with some polish women managed to escape the Germans and take shelter with local people. She then made her way back to Prague and was waiting for Lale. Their meeting in the end was truly a scene from the movies and really emotional. They got married, started a business, went bankrupt, Lale went to jail, he escaped on bail, they escaped to Australia, started another business there, had a son after trying for years. But in all these years of troubles they never cried to God for help, rather they were just happy to enjoy the life God had granted them.

Gita and Lale with their son

 Overall a 4/5 for me. This was an enjoyable read. But I am still glad I read Cilka’s story first which got me on hook to read this one.

Book Review- The Pilgrimage by Paulo Cohelo

 

On a whim of fancy I bought a paperback copy of this novel, and never have I regretted buying something so much. I kept delaying reading this one, as I wanted a backup plan in case I got fed up of reading eBooks and wasn’t able to buy hard copies due to some reason.. And low and behold that doomsday was the Covid pandemic. This is one of those books which I will never reread again. Even finishing it once was such a struggle for me, and I never managed to read more than 3 chapters of it in a day. Even though the Alchemist leaned a bit towards supernatural, it was a book with a good flow and an engaging story of someone on a treasure hunt. The Pilgrimage shows every sign of being the authors maiden book. The problem with this is that the core elements of this book are extremely unambiguous. Even after reading the whole book I was left questioning what the concept of RAM, or the Tradition truly was! Even though the story gives a good message of focusing on what you want to do with the reward, rather than on getting the reward itself, I was confused what the author did with his reward i.e. the sword in the story. The only things that kept me reading was the journey and the incidents. Being an avid hiker, I have always been fascinated with long distance hiking. And Camino de Santiago in Spain is one of the most famous hikes out there. Every year thousands of pilgrims as well as travelers walk this pathway from France to Spain  in search of something, whether it be moral satisfaction or adventure. The story about how this pilgrimage trail was formed, how its popularity fell in the middle ages and how finally it became important again interested me. The various small incidents in quaint villages with insignificant people fascinated me. It was this wanderlust than kept me going. This is a shorter than average review than I normally write, mostly because I liked so less about this book. Overall a 2.8/5 for me. This is a typical example of a book with excellent background setting and narration, but poor core story.

Route of Camino de Santiago

Book Review - In Bed with the Devil by Lorraine Heath

After being embarrassed about my voracious interest in Historical Romances and keeping anyone from finding it out, I finally decided that I didn't care what people thought about my reading preferences. Even though I have read hundred of novels I never leave my reviews because of this embarrassment. But with this new year I have decided to write a review for every book I read. Hope you enjoy the first one.

 In bed with the Devil was not Lorraine Heath's first book I read but the first one I fell in love with. This book is the first installment of her Scoundrels of St. James series which tells us the stories of 5 former members of the Feagan's gang (Luke, Jack, Frannie, Jim, Bill), a group of child thieves mentored by Feagan to steal and survive in the streets.

Book Cover

Lucian Langdon, Earl of Claybourne alias Luke was fourteen and on trial for murder when the then Earl of Claybourne proclaimed him to be his lost grandson. Seeking an opportunity to escape he pretends to be the lost grandson and is thus raised as the heir presumptive. But he always carries this guilt that he is an impostor and taking something which is not truly his. The then Earl also takes in Luke's friends and teaches them skills which will help them in life.

Luke has always adored Frannie and knows that one day he would marry her. But she loves him as a brother and is reluctant to fit herself in aristocratic circles. Luke then inadvertently one midnight finds Lady Catherine Mabry in his library wanting a favor from him, to help her kill someone. She wants the cruel husband of her best friend Lady Winifred, Duchess of Avendale killed so that he could no longer torture her or their son Whit. But fearing that Luke might not agree and alert the Duke she doesn't tell him about the identity of the person she wants dead. They strike a bargain, he would kill only when Lady Catherine has taught Frannie, a commoner the ways of Aristocracy. Luke has always been intrigued by Catherine since the first time he saw her at a ball when she boldly held his gaze. 

Each Midnight they go to Dodger's Drawing Room, a gambling establishment where Frannie works and lives so that Catherine could teach her. Soon Luke and Catherine strike a acquaintance and then an easygoing friendship as they each realize that he is not a devil and she not arrogant and proud. They both are attracted to each other but Luke always feels that he is betraying Frannie. Catherine begins to love Luke but does not want to come between him and Frannie and so she hides her love.

I love the authors writing style which is short and direct rather than prosy. She does not focus or describing unnecessary background settings but rather focuses on showing the characters nature through their actions and not their words. I immensely adore both the Hero and Heroine. The Hero sees a lot of character developemnt from a (supposed) blackguard to the kind, caring person (that he always was). The Heroine is practical, outspoken, willful and not afraid to do what she believes is right. The plot flows like butter with every scene having meaning and nothing seeming over-exaggerated or undermined. The lovemaking scenes were few and meaningful unlike some authors who pop in truckloads of romping sessions just for the sake of it.

I cannot describe in so few a words how much I loved this book. It was as good as, if not better that my all time favorite Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypass. This series gives me a hope that I would find that satisfaction that I got while reading Wallflower series by Lisa Kleypass. Overall, I'll give it a 4.7/5
and not a full score because sometimes I got irritated that the Hero couldn't gauge the nature of his feelings for the Heroine sooner.

Book Review - Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris

I was in this phase that I was really into WW2 fiction. But I had enrolled my friend Tanvi into reading a book with me. As I wanted her to not get bored, I chose this book as it had a female protagonist as well as plot about the lesser known Soviet labour camps. This is not a long book, roughly 330 pages, but it packed 13 years wonderfully into that limited space. I knew from the foreword that this had some disturbing events, but the extent to which those events went were unimaginable.

 Cecilia Klein was a 16-year-old Czechoslovakian Jew. She and her sister along with millions of Jewish girls were sent to Auschwitz II i.e. Birkenau Concentration Camp on pretext of working. Her Parents were also transported to concentration camp. There she caught the eye of a German high-ranking Officer, Schwarzhuber and was forced to become his sex slave in order to survive. She was made the overseer of Block 25, where women being sent to the gas chambers spent their last night. These positions of relative privilege helped her survive the camp, but also mentally traumatised her. At one point she even had to send her own mother to her death and had to watch her sister Magda die of typhus. She had very few friends in camp because she was seen as a Nazi collaborator. But she was very true to her friends Gita, Lale, Dana and Ivanka.

Cilka with her father and sister

Cilka in Auschwitz 

When Auschwitz was liberated by Russians, Cilka was very happy that she would finally be able to go home. But this happiness did not last for long, as she was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labour for helping the Nazi’s. Her fault was sleeping with the Nazi’s. This reasoning was so fucked up, I mean obviously a young girl cannot prevent her captors from raping her. But as I read the book and came to know that some people were sent to the labour camps for stealing a bread or for marrying someone belonging to a different nationality, I understood that Stalin was no different from Hitler. He too like Hitler wanted the prisoners to do maximum work before they died. They were just dispensable items to him who were to be used and the thrown away. While the Nazi’s selected people to die based on their religion, Stalin chose people who were educated and could be revolutionaries in the Soviet occupied territories, who were outliers and could bring about a change in the Russian society, or those who were prisoners of war and fought against Russia.

Though the conditions in the Vorkuta Labour Camp were better than those in Auschwitz, it was still a propaganda to control people. Here too Cilka tried her best to survive and got a better position as a hospital nurse. She befriended Josie, Natalya and Olga. Elena was an enemy who later turned into an ally. But she also had a blackmailer called Hannah who threatened to expose her job in Auschwitz to the other women in their block. Cilka formed a sort of trustship with her supervisor Dr. Yelena Georgiyevna and was able to later tell her about her life in Auschwitz. The most horrifying event came at the night, when men stormed into the women blocks and raped. Boris who is Cilka’s protector develops a one-sided attraction to her and she pretends to like him in return. This side of Cilka’s character to pretend attraction to men whom she didn’t like be it Schwarzhuber or Boris bothered me a bit, but as I understood the alternative was being manhandled I forgave her for her acts.  

The conditions of the babies born in the camp as well as their separation from their mothers at the age of two was appalling. This according to me was being done so that the kids when they grew up should have no connection with their roots and also so that they should not know the horrific face of the Soviet policies. Cilka is very brave as well, which is proved during her time in the ambulance duty.

Cilka for a long time tries not to fall in love as she knows that the camp holds no future for love. But she nonetheless falls for Aleksandr, a Czech prisoner in the camp. The interactions between him and Cilka when he is recuperating at the hospital are sweet. The last scene on the train when they both reunite in the train to Prague made me very happy. It’s great that Cilka married the love of her life and lived happily for the rest of it. Overall a good and interesting book which deserves a 4.8/5.

 

                                                                Cilka with her husband 

 

Book Review - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

This book was in my TBR shelf for a long time before I finally picked it up. This was the second autobiography that I have read. The reason I picked this book was because it was tagged in 'Travel' and 'Adventure' categories on Goodreads. But after reading the first few pages I understood that this was going to be something I hadn't expected. I was so intrigued right from the beginning. 

The author with the Book Cover

Ever since the author was a child she was responsible for tending to herself. Her parents were neglectful and believed that children should be able to take care of themselves. The parents were kind of Nomads, Excitement Addicts, Hippies and had misplaced priorities. For them life was a big adventure and material things didn't matter much. Her mom was an artist. She had a weak will and didn't want to work for a living even after having a teaching degree because that was boring. She was kind of self-centered to be honest and also dint stood up to her husband's wrongdoings. The Dad had a drinking problem, he was like an unhinged genius and made big plans, but his alcoholism never let these plans work. These people were preferred to be vagabonds and had a non-standard set of morals and ideals. 

As the story progresses and the author grows up she and her siblings start understanding that their family is not normal. A series of bad incident's squashes the author's hopes of ever having a normal parents. Eventually she and her siblings hatch out an escape plan to leave their parents and make a new life in NYC. They each find their own callings and become successful. They get married and start their own families. But they also start accepting the way their parents are. Because they have understood the fact that the only person you can change in this world is your own self, and you have to love and accept others just as they are. 

 

The authors style of writing and narration of events is very catchy. The book is devoid of chapters but rather divided into the four phases of the author's life, which helps with the flow of the book. Overall I'll give it a 4.9/5 as I never once got bored while reading it and was satisfied by the end conclusion.

Book Review- Wild:From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

I usually don't read memoirs. But three things made me read this one.
1. I love the concept of longish hikes and this involves the PCT(about which I have seen many documentaries).
2. It has a film adaptation and I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie.
3. It was about a badass young lady going solo.

A scene from the movie

Unlike many people who deemed the author dimwitted and cocky for setting out unprepared for the PCT, and ruining her perfectly happy marriage for silly reasons. I kind of understood why she look those decisions. Myself having encountered a low period in life when you take rash decisions and don't care about your future, I was able to relate with Cheryl. From having an abusive father, gaining a stable family and again seeing her family crumbling down with her mother's death, made Cheryl felt like losing everything she had gained. 

She in this mental state indulges in adultery and feels that this distorted person she has become does not belong with her husband. She does drugs, aborts her baby and decides to hike the PCT(after just reading about it from a guidebook).

She decides to hike for about 100 days on the PCT with the journey ending on her birthday. And post that relocating to Portland, Oregon to start life afresh. Being a novice she makes many mistakes including packing too much, filling her gas cannister with the wrong fuel and choosing a pair of boots a size too small. She also vastly underestimates her budget which makes her resort to penny pinching throughout her hike. She meets fellow hikers and develops a sort of kinship with them, though they are people who wouldn't be her friends in her previous life. I especially loved Cheryl's description of the books she read on the trail and those of the landscapes she came across. Being a reader and traveler myself I loved those bits.

But Cheryl also came across as dumb and self-absorbed many times. Also she got many privileges being a solo female on the trail. So I don't like those character aspects of her that she is trying to portray  herself as a strong, independent woman, but still craves those perks for being a woman.

Overall this book was a 3.9/5.
I read ths book slowly chapterwise as a part of my nighttime routine. And I felt that this helped me immerse fully into it as opposed to my usual way of reading in sprint mode.