25 & Trying

Sarah’s Key

In my attempts to branch out and read something a bit less heavy every other book, I decided to pick up Tatiana De Rosnay’s book Sarah’s Key, one of those novels that seems to stalk you on the front tables at Barnes and Noble. The book is one of those reads that you can get through if you’re quick in one day.

It took me 24 hours (with plenty of breaks) to get through it, and it didn’t even feel like it was moving quickly. I actually enjoyed the experience. Interestingly enough, this book did terrible when it first came out. Then Target picked it up – and it exploded. The NY Times did a feature on it – and called it a bit of a sleepy novel.

Drawing portraits of a young girl in Paris during World War Two and a middle-aged woman in Paris in present-day, the author discusses some topics that are slightly too heavy for the light-reading prose that the book employs.

The character herself is slightly whiny, and I didn’t enjoy her perspective the entire way through. She is in a weirdly troubling marriage that I didn’t feel that sorry about. I wanted to like her. She was interested in dissecting the history around her family in Paris, and trying to fit in as an American married to a Frenchman.

In addition, the historical description mirrored in the character Sarah’s story is very descriptive. She talks about the tragic instance of Vel d’Hiv, where Jews were rounded up and taken outside of Paris to be deported to far away concentration camps. This was the first time that I had read in detail about the roundup, but it was definitely riveting. I simply wanted the rest of the prose to reflect that historical passion.

No doubt, Sarah’s Key has been a successful work. It takes a rare lens at the Holocaust, and really makes the reader feel the pain of the people that were there. There are holes — more literary than historical, but they are there. It was a quick read, but I wanted more – I was left feeling satisfied, but not blown away.