There was lots of discussion about this month's book with less digression than most meetings. We all liked the different perspective on WW II, from a Jewish Hungarian rather than what we read in history books. We were interested to hear WW I referred to as "The Great War" (easy to forget they didn't know WW I would be followed by WW II).
When Andras started his life in Paris a couple of us found that our willing suspension of disbelief was stretched a bit thin with Andras' connections in Paris - him meeting Klara through Madame Gerard after hand-delivering and posting a letter to her from Hungary, and the connection between Klara and Novak, the same man he met on the train to Paris and later worked for. In such a large city as Paris, we found these coincidences to be a bit incredulous, but nonetheless we still enjoyed the story.
In terms of Andras and Klara, we could all understand why it took so long for her to tell him the truth about her history. She had to be sure she could trust him and she was justifiably afraid she might endanger herself by revealing her secret. Back in Hungary, we commented on the differences between the Levi family and the Hasz family but found it interesting how the war leveled the playing field so that even the privileged were subjected to labor camps and imprisonment.
We also commented on how slowly news traveled during the time this story took place, versus the instantaneous communication we enjoy today via the internet. Its hard to imagine waiting 3 weeks for a reply to a letter. How difficult it must have been for people to know the truth during the time this story took place, since most news sources would not print the truth so it was only by word of mouth.
We all came away from this book feeling very lucky to be living in America where we enjoy so many freedoms that we sometimes take for granted. Even on a bad day when it feels that things are not going well, at least we are not fearing for our lives or those of our loved ones. The amount of uncertainty surrounding the lives of the characters in the story was staggering, it must have been a very stressful time to be alive.
Our venue this month was Mazza Cafe, a wonderful middle-eastern eatery with many delectable dishes. The dinners were presented so well on the plates that took pictures of all of them!
