Two sisters, banished by their father, struggle to survive in Vichey, France. Join us for Jim McKeown's review of The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah.
Hard on the heels of the thrilling novel by Anthony Doerr of World War II and a pair of youngsters caught up in the Nazi invasion of France, I began Kristin Hannah’s latest novel, The Nightingale, which involves the same subject. Anthony Doerr’s novel, All the Light We Cannot See would be a hard act to follow. Kristin Hannah has written a slew of novels and has an impressive list of awards.
The Nightingale tells the story of two sisters. When their mother died, their father sent them to boarding school. Vianne, the elder of the two, becomes pregnant and soon marries the father of her daughter, Sophie. Vianne’s father does not approve of the husband or the marriage, so he sends her to the south of France. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Isabelle, is charming, beautiful, precocious, and very much the rebel. She runs away numerous times, and finally is expelled from the school. She returns to Paris. Then, the Nazis invade France. Papa orders her to Carriveau to join Vianne in what he believes to be relative safety.
Vianne’s husband leaves for the front, and is soon a P.O.W. Shortages begin, and then the Germans arrive and occupy the town. Vianne’s house is requisitioned by a German Captain. She must allow him to live in her home, or Captain Beck will seize the house and expel her and Sophie. Then Isabelle shows up. All this occurs in the first 40 pages or so, so the meat of the plot lies sprawled before the reader.
While exciting, something about the writing seemed a bit off in places. I detected shades of a romance novel, which is Hannah’s primary genre. However, I did not ever want to abandon the novel heavy on dialogue. I found myself wishing for more introspection, more description. Isabelle makes a desperate attempt to escape Paris. Hannah writes, “Hours passed. The automobile made its slow, agonizing way south. Isabelle was grateful for the dust. It coated the window and obscured the terrible, depressing scene. // People. Everywhere. In front of them, behind them, beside them, so thick was the crowd that the automobile could only inch forward in fits and starts. It was like driving through a swarm of bees that pulled apart for a second and then swarmed again. The sun was punishingly hot. It turned the smelly automobile interior into an oven and beat down on the women outside who were shuffling toward…what? No one knew what exactly was happening to them or where safety lay ahead. // The car lurched forward and stopped hard. Isabelle hit the seat in front of her. The children immediately began to cry for their mother. // ‘Merde.’ Monsieur Humbert Muttered. // ‘M’sieur Humbert,’ Patricia said primly. ‘The Children.’ // An old woman pounded on the car’s bonnet as she shuffled past. // ‘That’s it, then, Madame Humbert.’ he said. ‘We are out of petrol’.”
Despite all the minor drawbacks, it is an exciting novel with lots of twists and turns. Kristin Hannah’s latest novel, The Nightingale will certainly hold a reader’s attention all the way to the end. 4-1/2 stars.
Likely Stories is a production of KWBU. I’m Jim McKeown. Join me again next time for Likely Stories, and HAPPY READING!
