History, One Character at a Time: Fiction

One of the beauties of historical fiction is having a lens to see shattering events through the eyes of a small number of characters.  For many, troop movements, names of battles and the immense number of casualties is beyond comprehension.  The human toll of war is lost in the numbers. Successful authors of high quality historical fiction devote more time to research than writing. As a reader, the novels are a first step to re-examining a time in history.  But it is critical to remember these books are fiction. Here are five titles to add to your reading list.

Hungary was occupied much later in WWII at a time when the Nazis were desperate for labor to continue their march. As such, the men taken by the Nazis, both Jews and non-Jews, were often subjected to back-breaking slave labor conditions, felling trees, digging roadways and other activities designed to increase the Nazi reach. In the historical novel, The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer’s follows two families from the cultural and educational heights of the late 1930’s in Paris and Budapest through the devastation and aftermath of the war. While the story itself is clearly fiction, the underlying setting is carefully researched and paints a detailed portrait of the vise-like shrinking of normalcy in daily life as the Nazi influence and power spread.

It is easy to forget how big the world is and how remote many areas were during World War II.  Nathacha Appanah’s The Last Brother is set on Mauritius, a British colony in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The reader first encounters Raj as an older man, looking back at his life. Raj was born on the island, home to a sugar factory and subsistence economy, beset by the vagaries of nature.  During a horrific storm, Raj’s brothers are swept away. The tender ministrations of his mother cannot offset his father’s temper and brutality.

One day a ship delivers to a fenced camp on the coast hundreds of white-skinned people, some with yellow hair and blue eyes, completely different in appearance from the local population.  Through the fence, Raj makes a friend and finds a brother. The island’s population knows little about these imprisoned people, where they came from or why they are being held. This is a heart-wrenching story of family, friendship and loss, set in 1944 when a ship actually did bring European Jews trying to escape to Palestine to an interment camp. This small but powerful book tells a story that resonates far beyond its time or place.

Philip Roth’s Nemesis is a story of life in Roth’s home front, Newark, New Jersey. Roth tells story through the eyes of Bucky who is denied entry into the Army due to poor eyesight. Working as a phys ed teacher, he spends the blistering summer of 1944 supervising a playground. Though deemed unfit to serve with his peers, Bucky vows to keep his charges active and safe from another enemy – polio. Roth paints a vivid picture of daily life during the war. His portrayal of Bucky, full of self-doubt and inadequacies is what we’ve come to expect from Roth.

Looking up historical fiction on World War II, the overwhelming number of stories take place in or during  the war in Europe. There are many possible explanations – the fundamental differences in the style of warfare in the Pacific, less contact with the civilian populations, greater cultural affinity with Europe, language, only to name a few.  It was refreshing to read Jennifer Cody Epstein’s The Gods of Heavenly Punishment.  Beginning shortly before WWII the book traces characters, both American and Japanese, for a period of almost twenty years.

Prior to the war there was a small American ex-pat community in Tokyo.  Composed of businessmen, architects and financiers, they mingled with select contemporaries, socializing in an odd juxtaposition of classic Japanese norms and modern American/European behaviors. The outbreak of the war changes all that.

In the U.S., a new mode of warfare was required to deal with the Japanese. This war was conducted on the sea and in the air. Specialized distance precision flying and weaponry was needed. And an elite cadre of flyers was needed as well. Epstein’s novel tells of this period through the eyes of Americans and Japanese. Most remarkable was the historical research about the U.S. war efforts, unknown to few but those enmeshed in the study of the preparation for the firebombing of Tokyo. History classes teach Americans about the atomic bombs that hit Hiroshima and  Nagasaki.  Less is known about the bombing of Tokyo by Doolittle’s Raiders in August of 1942. This raid shifted the American perception of the U.S. ability to successfully engage against the Japanese. All the history Epstein provides is in the context of characters. The reader learns what they learn as it happens. Having led several discussions on this book, there was a universal appreciation for Epstein’s research and the storytelling that brought it to life.

The popular buzz for Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See was loud and strong even before it won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize. Like Orringer, Doerr has written a big book in size and scope. Cleverly establishing distinct characters, Doerr moves them in parallel through time. The two major protagonists begin as young children, one in Paris, the other in Germany at the ramp up to World War II.  Each child has a special talent.

Marie Laure’s father used his fine skills as a lock master and woodworker to build miniatures of their Paris neighborhood so that her blindness would not limit her access to the world. Marie Laure used this model to memorize each storm drain and doorway, enabling her to navigate the area on her own.  She trained herself to identify and distinguish among many complex items. Marie Laure’s keen perception extends to those around her, especially her great-uncle, a damaged survivor of WWI, with whom she and her father go to live after fleeing Paris.

Werner lives with his younger sister, Jutta, in an orphanage near Essen, Germany. Teen boys head off to the mines, just like their fathers, many suffering the same ending as Werner’s father. Werner is fascinated by the radio, making repairs so he and Jutta can listen to amazing stories from around Europe. His unusual understanding of circuitry brings him notice with community leaders and eventually the leaders of Hitler Youth. Despite his tremendous aversion to the Nazis, Werner recognizes he will be safer making use of his radio skills than being sent into the mines. With his small size but superior intellect, Werner is an outsider in his elite training program. It is this separation that allows Werner to stand apart during the horrible indoctrination. All the Light We Cannot See is the story of these two lives coming together.

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