Love Across History

Kasey Cox

Two small events collided in my life this past week to give me a push back to one of my favorite genres – historical fiction. While I am fully aware of the criticism that true history fans launch at this genre I love – my dad used to roll his eyes and call it “hysterical fiction” – the novels that have most touched me are those penned by contemporary authors whose writing style is as lyrical as their characterizations are intimate. There are indeed talented writers, living today, who have been able to bring the large, sweeping events of history home to the reader’s heart. For me, this impact is one of the most important purposes and gifts of story: in viewing the lives of individual people – real or imagined – with whom we can identify, we can better understand movements in history, better process philosophies or ideas that might otherwise seem too difficult or too large to swallow.

First of all, I went to see “Atonement”. I have to admit, I am rather scornful of most movies made from books. Films made from books seem to have an inverse relationship – the better the book, the more beautiful the writing, usually the less I like the film that comes after. There are certainly exceptions: I am relieved to report that “Atonement” is one of them. Based on Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel of the same name, “Atonement” focuses on the events of one fateful day in 1935 at an English manor house. The rest of the novel shows the consequences of that day in the lives of the central characters – two sisters who become nurses in London to help with the war effort, but for very different reasons; and a young man who grew up on their family estate, who chooses to become a soldier instead of staying in prison under false accusations. The story is just as much about these characters’ relationships as it is about the period of history in which their lives play out, and yet their fates are inexorably tied to the larger battles around them.

I came away from the film wanting to spend more time in this era, feeling touched and rendered thoughtful about the era. Coincidentally, someone asked me if Elizabeth Berg’s latest novel was out in paperback yet. Perfect timing. Berg’s book, entitled “Dream When You’re Feeling Blue”, tells the story of the Heaney family of Chicago, an Irish-Catholic family of three beautiful sisters and three younger brothers, and their lives from 1943 to 1945. It evokes making do with coffee rations, sugar rations, mystery meat, and shoe coupons to feed and clothe a family of six …. not being able to get a new bike because as much metal as possible is going toward building tanks, planes, and guns …. giving up an office job where a girl can wear pretty clothes, to take a job crouching in an airplane nose all day, tightening bolts, having hands that never come clean, putting up with catcalls from co-workers, but making better money and doggedly, intensely fixing your thoughts on the young men who will fly in this plane, young men like your boyfriend, your sister’s fiancé, the young man you danced with at the USO last Saturday night …. This sympathetic novel took me to the home front of the Greatest Generation in their coming-of-age years, with chiffon dresses and big band music, but writing letters every night, not knowing if the dreaded telegram would arrive before the letter returned home stamped “undeliverable.”

Reading these two amazing books reminded me of similar books I’ve devoured. If you share my interest in historical fiction, these titles and authors will transport you to World War 2 in France, Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, and parts of Eastern Europe. These are deep, engrossing stories for you to get lost in, and perhaps learn something from. The characters will stay with you for a long time. Some were translated from lovely writing to beautiful cinematography; others either haven’t been snapped up by Hollywood yet, or shouldn’t have been. “Five Quarters of the Orange”, by Joanne Harris (author of “Chocolat”); “Resistance”, by Anita Shreve; “Charlotte Gray” by Sebastian Faulks; “The Good German”, by Joseph Kanon (in my humble opinion, don’t see the film of this – ugh!!); and “The English Patient”, by Michael Ondaatje. Though these novels are variations on a theme, each has its own mind-opening and often heartbreaking story to share.

In the summer, we often want “beach reads”, fluffier stuff for vacations by the water, lighter fare for breaks in between running the kids to the pool or working in the garden. But this time of year is the perfect time to sink into a deeper story and be transported to another era. Let the love and love lost in times past speak to you this Valentine’s Day