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Amandine (2010)

by Marlena De Blasi(Favorite Author)

3.42 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0345507347 (ISBN13: 9780345507341)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Ballantine Books

review 1: I thought this book started out nicely and was fairly interesting. However, while the second half of this book is realistic (with war time issues) it fails to give us the same details as provided in the first half as time speeds up and the characters cross the countryside over a 10 month period of time- without much detail or interaction with the reader. I felt that I lost connection with Amandine and Solange as they crossed the countryside. I wanted to know how they felt at being so completely uprooted and were facing a suddenly very different life. The author didn't provide this information and the story quickly wrapped up after this with an unsatisfactory ending. I felt that Amandine went from age 9 to 14 with us being given very little knowledge of who she was bec... moreoming and how she handled the changes during these years. The disconnect was a disappointment. Too bad, as I really liked the beginning of the story.
review 2: I almost stopped reading this one in the first few chapters, but I persevered and came to like it more. The characters were great and I enjoyed the look inside the inner workings of a convent. My problem was the slow storyline and the pretentious French vocabulary. (I'm fine with a certain amount, but this was way overboard. I mean, okay, it's set in France, just translate it! ) It was interesting to read about the responses of ordinary French people to WWII, though. I would have given the book three stars, but the cliffhanger supposed-to-be-thought-provoking ending just killed it, even though it did force me to think about what would really constitute a "happy ending" for Amandine. less

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