Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale

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Last night, I finished reading Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale. After I put down the novel, I wondered what it was that glued me to war novels so much. What was it that made me want to read and re-read novels that talked of pain and misery and atrocity and injustice and what not? It wasn't that the pain I lived through with the characters made me happy. Then, what was it? In Hannah's novel, I seemed to find the answer - 

Love.
It was the beginning and end of everything, the foundation and the ceiling and the air in between. It didn't matter that she was broken and ugly and sick. He loved her and she loved him. All her life she had waited - longed for - people to love her, but now she saw what really mattered. She had known love, been blessed by it. (The Nightingale, P-428)

The Nightingale is a novel not just about war. It is also about two sisters, Isabelle and Vianne, trying to find peace, trying to stitch back their lives together - lives that have been ripped apart by the monstrosity of hostility. It is a tale that affirms life. It is a saga that testifies to the values we stand by - values which exist on both sides. 

 Isabelle and Vianne are different personalities. The way they respond to situations reflect their demeanor. It is also a cause of misunderstanding between the two. Isabelle seems too volatile to Vianne, and Vianne is too lukewarm for Isabelle. It is the war that brings out a different side of each of them.  Dire times test them in excruciating ways. One longs for love, the other for peace. They both 'participate' in the war in different ways - one by helping save the Allied soldiers, and the other by rescuing the Jewish children. For them, war is a reality they live with every single day. As Vianne rightly says, "We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over." Women suffer the loss of friends, of family, of dignity and respect.  They 'wait' for all of this to get over so that they can start afresh. Vianne wonders whether she should forget everything, as if it was possible. But Antoine, her husband, reminds her that it is only in "remembering" that they will be able to renew life. 

Hannah explores the grounds of morality on which we judge people and ourselves through the characters of Herr Beck and Vianne. When the 'good' captain billets at Vianne's house, what begins is a shaky interrogation of what constitutes 'right' and 'wrong'. Everything is not black and white. Even the meting out of justice, as becomes evident with Beck's departure and Herr Richter's arrival. Who do we kill, and why? Who do we let live, and why? The book seeks to elicit a response from the reader.

In the end is the beginning. I will not reveal what,since I do not want to spoil it for those who have not read the book. But the beginning rests on the edifice of pain and loss and suffering. It seems to tell you to live, to love, to smile while you have time. It seems to tell you to remember too since forgetting is not the right way. In remembering, we realize what matters truly. The Nightingale will always sing a song where ever there is love. 

There are a few lines that have etched in my mind permanently. I do not know why. They keep coming back to me. They may not affect you the way they did me but still I will share them here as I end this post.

She was the first woman to queue up outside the shop this morning, and because of that, she got her full ration of butter. One hundred grams for the month. Two-thirds of a cup.
A treasure. (P- 105)


Linking to #MondayMusings on Everyday Gyaan

Stranger Than Fiction

"If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this : In love, we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are."

So begins the best-seller The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. The book is a fictional rendering of World War II and the German occupation of France by the Nazis. It tells the story of two sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, who have natures completely opposite to each other. The novel deals with issues of heroism, bravery, patriotism, treachery, the necessity of survival, and the irony of the morality we live by. This post, however, is not about the novel. This post is about that recurrent figure Isabelle relates to in the novel. That figure is straight from real life. That figure is a part of that shameful history we all inherit. That figure is of the British nurse Edith Cavell, whose life was much stranger than fiction.

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Hundred years ago, and this is not a tale, a nurse by the name of Edith Cavell in German-occupied Brussels, was executed by the German firing squad. The date was October 12, 1915. Her only crime was her compassionate humanity. She had aided soldiers from both sides during the First World War. It is said that she saved more than 200 Allied soldiers and sent them back to their country. The Germans considered this treason which was punishable by death. 

There was no alternative punishment for this crime as per German law. No other country could come to the rescue of the nurse who had saved so many lives. Edith, in her last moments, said that for her "...patriotism was not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." She also wanted to be remembered forever as a "nurse" who had done her "duty", and not as a martyr. But her execution enraged the Allies. Edith was a woman who wanted to spread the message of only love and humanity. Her death was a blow to humanity itself. The Americans joined the war too. 

Did Edith know no fear? She said that she had seen "death so often" that it doesn't feel "strange or fearful" to her. 

Isablle in The Nightingale, does feel fear. She wants to be "brave" like "Edith Cavell risking her life" but she is "scared". 

In case you are thinking that Isabelle's character is modeled after Edith, I must tell you one more thing. During the Second World War, another woman, as brave as Edith, would emerge. Her name was Adrienne de Jongh and she played a prominent part in aiding Allied soldiers against the Nazis. Isabelle's character is close to de Jongh. 

Life is a twisted tale. Much twisted than fiction. Much stranger than fiction.


Linking to Day 1 of the #BarAThon Challenge by Blog-A-Rhythm