The Ventriloquists: Resistance Journalists Thumb Their Noses At The Nazis

Sometimes I receive free copies of a book from the publisher in two formats.  The publisher will have confidence in a book if it deals with World War II, the most popular historical era.  Yet if it's written by a debut author, they know it will need more promotion. So Park Row Books went the extra mile for the World War II  debut novel, The Ventriloquists  by Evan Roxanna Ramzipoor.   I got a digital ARC from Net Galley and a paperback ARC directly from the publisher by mail.  I wanted to review this book sooner, but I had so many earlier review commitments and suddenly it's almost the end of December. The Ventriloquists was released at the end of August.  I would like to thank the publisher for their generosity.


                               

First, let me count the reasons that I loved The Ventriloquists.

1) The focus on World War II Resistance journalists

I always notice books with central characters who are journalists.   I have reviewed a number of books on this blog dealing with  journalists. I will hyperlink my review of the most recent one at  To Live Out Loud, a novel by Paulette Mahurin about Émile  Zola and his advocacy for Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of treason in 19th century France.  I'm more likely to consider these books--especially if they are journalists who take great risks with their work.   Anti-Nazi journalists in Nazi occupied Belgium were  definitely in this category.

2) Exceptionally heroic women characters

Although the protagonist is the real historical journalist, Marc Aubrion, my favorite character in The Ventriloquists is the fictional Lada Tarcovich who was a whorehouse madam and a smuggler, but also a great deal more than that. She was a lesbian, a bold activist who knew how to get things done for the Resistance and the character who uttered my favorite remark: "When a shiny black boot comes to town, it always steps on words and women first."

Andree Grandjean was mentioned in the author's archival source, but as a barrister.  Ramzipoor made her a judge who risked her career to use her wealth and influence to help the Resistance.  (Please note that a Wikipedia list of the first woman lawyers and judges of Europe states that the first woman judge in Belgium was appointed in 1948 after WWII. Readers can decide for themselves whether they regard Judge Grandjean as an intolerable historical inconsistency or a minor faux pas.)
 
Finally, there was the fictional Helene who we meet first in the current day framing narrative as an old woman, but in occupied Nazi Belgium she was twelve and engaged in some very daring escapades on behalf of the Resistance.

3) Satire as a Significant Act of Protest

Some acquaintances who don't know me very well think I don't have a sense of humor, but I love satire. My only issue is it can't be goring my ox.   Very few people appreciate jokes at their own expense or that target the groups and causes that they identify with, and I am not one of them.  I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde who satired  aristocrats and the wealthy. Fabian Socialist George Bernard Shaw could also be a great satirist.  I read through his complete works as a teenager, so I know some of his more obscure plays with real bite.  Monty Python has my abiding affection as do the late night satiric comedy shows in the U.S. 

Marc Aubrion conceived of the idea of lampooning the Belgian newspaper Le Soir which had become Nazi propaganda.  His Resistance group planned to distribute Le Faux Soir through the same outlets where Le Soir was sold. They knew the Nazis would find out quickly, but it would give Belgians hope.  That is no small thing in dark times.  Le Faux Soir actually existed.  Some copies survived in private collections.

4. Great Dialogue

I have to admit that I won't read a novel if its main appeal is witty dialogue.  Such exchanges aren't a substitute for characterization.  I also want fiction to have a plot with events that interest me and some genuine thematic heft.

Having said that, snark is a wonderful ornament in the context of an unfolding drama.   Snarky heroes seem more courageous to me than the grim tight lipped ones.  They are also far more entertaining.  The suave poetic banter of  playwright Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac during his fight scenes is what makes him stand out.   I feel that the witty moments of Marc Aubrion and Lada Tarcovich are gifts to the reader.

My Summary Judgment

I've seen criticisms that the book is too long or that the narrative was too scattered.  One Goodreads reader was confused about who was narrating at some points.  I didn't have these problems.  I thought the length was necessary for character development, and that the identity of the narrator was clear to me from context. I am also accustomed to novels that alternate narratives taking place in different periods which have become quite common in historical fiction.

I found The Ventroloquists original because the role of journalists in the WWII Resistance was previously unknown to me.  I was glad to learn about Le Faux Soir, and appreciated how much courage it took to take the necessary risks.  I'm glad this book was written and I think that more readers should be aware of this aspect of WWII. 

                            

 

                     

A Bookshop in Berlin: A Blog Tour and Review

When a major publisher offers me a newly translated World War II memoir for a blog tour review, I sit up and take notice.  I was also inclined to read it because the author was a Jewish bookstore owner.  A title like A Bookshop in Berlin implies that it delivers a first hand perspective on the Nazi persecution of Jewish owned stores before the Holocaust began. This sounded like it could be a riveting perspective.   So I accepted a free copy of this memoir by Françoise Frenkel.

                            

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  

Françoise Frenkel was born in Poland in 1889. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, she opened the first French-language bookshop in Berlin with her husband. Frenkel's bookshop miraculously survived Kristallnacht, when hundreds of synagogues and Jewish businesses were destroyed. But in the summer of 1939, with war looming, Frenkel fled to Paris. She sought refuge across occupied France for the next several years until finally, on her third attempt, escaping across the border to Switzerland, where she wrote a memoir documenting her refugee experience. Her memoir, originally published in 1945 as Rien où poser sa tête (No Place to Lay One’s Head), was rediscovered in an attic in southern France in 2010 and republished in the original French as well as in a dozen other languages. This is its first publication in the United States. Frenkel died in Nice in 1975. 

                                                       

REVIEW

When I started this book, I wanted to know why a woman who was born Frymeta became Françoise. As I read further,  I theorized that she felt more at home in a nation that was probably more welcoming to her than Poland may have been.  Readers won't find out about her childhood experiences in Poland.  We  also learn very little about her family, but they must have been successful financially.  Frenkel had the opportunity to leave Poland and pursue an education in Paris.  Those Paris years shaped her identity and her life goals.  

I found Frenkel's omission of her husband from her memoir more startling than putting Poland behind her.   The preface by Patrick Modiano reveals that she and her husband opened the bookshop together.  His name was Simon Raichenstein, he was born in Russia and died in Auschwitz.  I wanted to know more about him.  I feel that he deserves to be remembered. We have no way of knowing whether she didn't mention him because it was too painful to mourn his loss in public through the pages of a memoir, or her relationship with him wasn't really significant to her.  We don't know how they met or why she married him.

There is no way to determine what role Simon Raichenstein might have played in the decision to open a French language bookstore in Berlin in 1921.  Presumably, he was supportive since he helped her run the store.   We do know from this memoir that many people advised against it including the Consul General at the French Consulate in Berlin.  He thought that anti-French sentiment in Germany was so strong in the aftermath of WWI that the bookstore would fall victim to an arson attack.   Some readers might question Frenkel's judgement at that point, but it turned out that the French language bookstore enjoyed great success during the Weimar Republic.

Frenkel's persistence, resourcefulness and courage in the face of Nazi persecution make her admirable.   I also found out about the Italian occupation of Provence during WWII as a result of this book.   This was a research opportunity for me. I would love to know more.   Perhaps the re-publication of Frenkel's memoir will encourage more publishers to release French books about WWII in English.  This would be a tremendous benefit to those who read in English who are historically inclined.