After basking in my genius-ness for a few days I have now safely landed planet earth again and managed to finish another book. This one not a detective or even ghost story one but more general fiction. Unfortunately having read this one I now may just have to go and increase the book count and find a few more... all will be revealed at the end of the review.
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Charlotte Gray - Sebastian Faulks
In a way this one was a slow starter. I could tell from the start that Faulks was going to take his time in telling me who these people were that I was going to be reading about. I was also going to find out quite a bit about what made them tick before they were sent on their merry way to do what they had to. I liked that part of it. There was no rush to get the story going and you get now the characters, have an idea of who they are and what their outlook is on life. This approach shows the clear difference with someone like Dean Koontz - not only are they different genres (nothing spooky or supernatural in Charlotte Gray) but the approach to their characters is different as well. It's almost as if Koontz paint with broad brush strokes whereas Faulks fills in the details of his characters to almost photographic quality. I like Koontz' easily recognisable characters but you can tell that these characters are more developed, fleshed out, stronger, and therefore make a more lasting impression.
In essence the book is the story of a young woman, Charlotte who is recruited by some semi-shady government agency to become an agent in France. Just before she goes over she meets Peter Gregory who seems to have the luck of the Irish and some other nations to boot. He is one of the few pilots out of his initial band of friends that is still alive and he almost seems to go out of his way to find danger and see how far he can push his luck. Charlotte and Gregory become involved although they both seem unsure of why and how, or even if it is a good idea. He sees something in her fierce strong eyes that he fears and yet admires. She senses his feelings of discontent with his lot and his need to keep tempting fate. Peter is soon to go on a mission to France and Charlotte is training to become and agent for G-section (some kind of MI5 during war time).
Charlotte's first assignment is carried out whilst the Second World War is raging on the continent and France is having some issues deciding which side of the fence to fall down on so, to pass he time and keep their close neighbours/enemies sweet, have signed away half their country to the Nazi German invaders. Charlotte is recruited because she speaks French very well. She also seems to have some patriotic desire to do what is right for her country and a curiosity to see what is let of the France that she knew when she stayed that many years ago. She is supposed to go over and act as a chaperon to an English pilot. As soon as he gets to where he needs to be she is to return to England. She gets dropped in France in the Summer of 1942 and does not go back to England until the Winter of 1943.
Charlotte decides to stay behind because she thinks that she can be of help to the people in the village that she has settled. I guess she feels that she can do more where she is than by going back. Another factor is that Peter goes missing and she wants to see if she can find him. In a way it seems she does not make too much of an effort to do so. At one point she goes to where she thinks he was supposed to land and asks his contact if he has heard from him -the contact does not confirm this and Charlotte returns back to her little village.
To me it seems more the fact that Charlotte is being drawn into the lives of the people she meets that makes her stay than any sense of loyalty to the agency that sent her or even Peter. She soaks up the life she has created for herself and enjoys being on her own in a strange place. She has not contact with anyone from England (only once or twice does she get in touch with them via the wireless and even then via others). She seems perfectly willing to immerse herself in French Village life. There is not really that much resistance work to do for her where she is. I get the feeling that in this isolation it is more herself that she is working on and with. It seems that the isolation gives her the time to look at her own life. It makes her reflect what has happened in hers, how it has shaped her, affected her and those she loves. Everyone she meets and every place she goes shapes her and changes her outlook on life. She gets involved fully in the lives of many of the people in the village. She becomes a maid for the town eccentric, becomes friends with two Jewish boys and helps the local resistance group on a weapons drop.
On the sidelines is the story of Peter Gregory trying to make his way out of France. He really only pops up a few times. We get a status update on how he is, that he has realised he really loves Charlotte and how eager he is to get back to her. As far as he is concerned she finished her mission ages ago and is back in England waiting for him or maybe even on her next mission, or has perhaps even forgotten him already.
There is a happy ending of sorts to the book but there is a fair amount of tragedy as well. There are some that do not make it to the end of the book. There are vivid descriptions of the rounding up of Jewish people -old, young, women and children into camps and the uncertainty that they faced there. None of them really knew, or if the suspected they certainly did not want to believe the stories that came back from Poland. the fact that some if this is told through the eyes of the two young Jewish boys makes it so much more potent and emotional. Their complete innocence contracted with the ruthless efficiency of the German extermination machinery is beautifully moving to read... hard to read as well as you almost know as soon as they get taken that things will not end well.
Another thing that becomes clear is the effect of French apathy to the situation they manoeuvred themselves into. The majority seems to be perfectly happy to just play along and not make too many waves. Charlotte and others are convinced that surely people would spring into action and not agree to their country effectively being run by the Germans but there seems no urgency in the French bureaucracy until we get closer to the end of the book and the War.
There is a sense of some dark secret between her an her father but you never really get to the bottom of it when she is still in France. This issue does not get resolved until she gets back. It is like she is then finally able to understand her father and his experiences better and to see what happened between them in a new light. It's like her experiences in France mean that she is now grown up and mature enough to understand and appreciate some of what her father had to endure during the First World War.
In conclusion, it is a great book about the trials and lives of people in a country in a state of war and how it tries to come to terms with the situation it finds itself in. The characters are very well developed, very "alive" and very recognisable. Their emotional life is rich, the fabric of the book is rich in people's experiences and the events that unfold. I think it probably gives you a very good idea of what makes people join the resistance and fight for a cause they believe in.
NB: Apparently this one is the last book in the "French Trilogy" - it includes Birdsong and The Girl at the Lion d'Or and I will most definitely be hunting around for these two!!!
Title: Charlotte Gray
Author: Sebastian Faulks
496 pages
Vintage
ISBN nr 0 09 939431 6
Books to be read: 72
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