5. The Last Green Valley

Mark Sullivan. 2021.

I am really torn about a recommendation for this book.  Let's start with the plus side.

This was surely a point of view bias check for me.  Wow!  I feel like I am pretty well read in the area of WWII, in terms of actual history, memoir, and historical fiction.  But this book was a real awakening as to how little I had ever thought about the eastern front.  Everything I have read was about what was going on in Western Europe and the Americas, even Africa, but I don't think I have ever thought about what was happening to civilians caught on the moving front line between Russia and Germany.  This story  about a Ukrainian family of German decent living in territory controlled by Stalin while the Nazi's were invading was completely new to me.  

There were many times when something happened that caused me to actually suck in a breath of air because I was shocked.  A lot of shocking things happen, disturbing things, which of course make complete sense once I read them and, after poking around a bit, I confirmed that it is widely known and accepted that these things happened.  It made for compelling reading, too.

I can't call this a romance novel, but at its core, it is a love story and there is something really moving about this aspect of the book.  It is just part of the backdrop of the story that is unusual and felt, well, lovely.  In the midst of extended family dysfunction, the loss of children, war, hunger, and so many other hardships, there is something powerful about the bond between Emil and Adele.

On the downside, the descriptions of violence, as well as injuries and deaths, are graphic, so much so that at times I found them a distraction from the story since my brain would be mulling those over or ruminating on those scenes instead of following what happened afterwards. 

The other part, which I know some folks will love, is the Christian themes that run through the narrative.  The family is religious and feels as though their faith carried them through their ordeals.  There was something about the way this was incorporated into the story that just felt odd to me. I have reflected on it and can't figure out why I didn't like it.  I had a similar response as I did to Unbroken.  Maybe it is that this piece seemed trite in some way or because I never felt like the author did much exploration of their spirituality piece, other than to keep talking about how their Christian faith was a solace or salve in hard times.  

Finally, on the downside, while the story itself was riveting, the writing itself was not as good as the author's more popular Beneath The Scarlet Sky, which is a book I really loved and highly recommend.  

Overall, because of the content of the story, I am ultimately recommending this, particularly for folks who, like me, are not familiar with the experiences in this part of the world at this time.

Recommend.

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