I will start this review by saying this is one of my absolute
favorite books. Is there fault to be found with it? Probably. First of all,
it's incredibly sad, so if that isn't your thing, don't read it. Seriously. It
will be one of those books you never forget. Second of all, there is no second
of all because this book will change your life.
The book includes parallel stories, one during Nazi-occupied
Paris and one in present-day Paris, which eventually connect. The modern story,
about an American journalist in Paris researching the Vel' d'Hiv, a roundup of
Jews in Paris where thousands of men, women, and children were inhumanely
imprisoned and then sent to their deaths under the direction of the French
police. I found the modern story to be the less interesting of the two stories,
probably because I could relate more to the second. Because I am French, I
suppose, but also because I am in high school and I have a little brother.
The second story is about Sarah and is told from her
perspective. Sarah is one of the children captured during the Vel' d'Hiv
roundup, and her young brother is left behind. Being able to see the event
through the perspective of a ten-year-old girl gives fresh meaning and humanity
to the true horror of what happened. While this is detailed in many fiction and
non-fiction novels about the Holocaust, there is something about Sarah's
perspective that is emotionally raw, because she simply did not see it coming
and does not understand what is happening. The dramatic irony of reading as you
know more about her future than she does truly makes you feel sick to your
stomach. Her feelings of guilt, anger, and sadness, none of which are her
fault, come through in a real way from the perspective of a child.
I did feel that the book got a little less interesting to me
once Sarah's story was resolved, because I was less interested in the
present-day journalist and her actions. I liked that parallel motifs
throughout, tying together Sarah's story with the present day. But I had
trouble relating to Julia, the present-day protagonist, only because her
struggles seemed so small in comparison to Sarah's story. Your husband making
jokes about you, for example, must feel awful and is truly deserving of
empathy. But in the setting of Sarah's heart-wrenching and truly maddening
story, it is hard not to view Julia's problems as paltry.
I have read Sarah's Key before, but I think this is an
important time to read it again. We have all seen the pictures of children in
Syria being hurt by bombings, but it's easy to move on from them without
connecting them to real emotions. This book helped me to think from those
children's perspectives and remember how scared, alone, and unfair they must
feel. I think as the rhetoric of the American presidential election grew more
hateful and more dismissive of whole groups of people, it's important to be
reminded of the humanity of each person, no matter how small, and to see how
easily politics can change so that evil is done and no one is empowered to stop
it.
Sarah's Key will leave you feeling uneasy and
upset, but, as Julia points out about uncovering the story of the Vel' d'Hiv,
maybe we owe it to those who suffered to hear, know, and acknowledge their
stories.
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