Joyeux Noël (film review)

Joyeux Noël is a 2005 film about the World War I Christmas truce along the Western Front in December 1914 (links are from Wikipedia). Per Wikipedia, "Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts."

This film presents a fictionalized version of one such incident, involving two opera stars (a German tenor and a Danish soprano) who re-unite at the front, and Scottish, French, and German troops stationed in the same area. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards in 2006.

This year I have read several books and watched a movie for the World War I reading challenge at War Through the Generations. My husband discovered this movie while we were researching the Christmas truce, which I had read about at that site. We watched the movie on Christmas Eve.



Did the movie give a realistic depiction of trench warfare in World War I? There is probably no way to truly convey the horror that these men lived through, but I think this movie did an adequate job. I was certainly horrified. The fear and uncertainty that they all faced daily was shown well. Is the story of the re-united lovers realistic? I doubt it. And the story was too melodramatic.

Regardless of the melodrama, I enjoyed the movie and was genuinely moved by the story. I liked the acting in the film; I cared about the characters who were portrayed. Diane Kruger, who also acted in Unknown with Liam Neeson and Inglourious Basterds, was Anna Sørensen, the Danish soprano. Ian Richardson has a brief role as an Anglican bishop at the end of the film.

The review at Reelviews notes that World War I is underrepresented in movies. I agree. After joining the World War I reading challenge (which allowed viewing and reviewing films also), I researched movies about specific wars and found many more on World War II.

P is for Pardonable Lies

The Maisie Dobbs series, written by Jacqueline Winspear, is set in England in the years following World War I. The focus is primarily on how much the Great War affected the lives of everyone in Europe. I enjoy reading about World War II in fiction. Recently, I have found that reading about the events of World War I and the intervening years between the two wars is also beneficial to gaining more understanding of the reasons for World War II.

I recently read one of the books in the series, Pardonable Lies. From the description of the book at the author's website:

In the third novel of this unique and masterly crime series, a deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton, KC, to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but also to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. Determined to prove Ralph Lawton either dead or alive, Maisie is plunged into a case that tests her spiritual strength, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche.

I am in a quandary as I write this review. I did enjoy reading the book. I definitely plan to continue reading the series. But I have enough issues with the mystery plot and the way the book is written to find it hard to recommend this series.

Pros:
I liked Maisie as a character and she is growing on me with each book I read. Her development from the lower classes (a maid) to a more elevated position in society is an example of how the class system was changed after World War I, although I would think it was unusual.

I find the portrayal of London, rural England, and other parts of Europe during the years following World War I to be interesting and well done. Maisie was a nurse during the war and suffered losses and experienced traumas that continue to haunt her. Almost everyone that Maisie encounters has been affected by the war. I learn new facts about World War I and Europe during that period with every book in the series. I believe that the author has done exhaustive research into the times.

In those areas, I want to keep coming back for more.

Cons:
In my recent review of Birds of a Feather, I listed my reasons for finding the mystery plot unsatisfying.

• Maisie has psychic gifts. Although she strives (at least in the books I have read) not to use them, she does use feelings and prickles on the back of her neck to guide her to the solution. 
• The author withholds clues that Maisie has discovered. Some of my favorite mystery authors do that, but I found it very annoying in these books. 

And in Pardonable Lies, there are a lot of coincidences, way more than I am comfortable with. There are too many plot threads, some related to Maisie's cases, some related to her personal relationships.

My recommendation:
If you ignore the mystery aspects, and view this strictly as a historical novel, it is a good book.

If you are reading this for the mystery, maybe not. Depends on your tastes. Many mystery readers are not bothered by the issues I found to be negatives in a mystery, and it is a very popular series. I think it is definitely a series worth trying. I am usually in favor of reading a series in order, but I have found that to be less important in this series.

This post is my submission for the Crime Fiction Alphabet for 2012 for the letter P.   Please visit the post at Mysteries in Paradise to check out other entries for this letter.

I also read this as part of my commitment for the World War I Reading Challenge at War Through the Generations.

Birds of a Feather: Jacqueline Winspear

From the description of the book at the author's website:

An eventful year has passed for Maisie Dobbs. Since starting a one-woman private investigation agency in 1929 London, she now has a professional office in Fitzroy Square and an assistant, the happy-go-lucky Billy Beale. She has proven herself as a psychologist and investigator, and has even won over Detective Inspector Stratton of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad—an admirable achievement for a woman who worked her way from servant to scholar to sleuth, and who also served as a battlefield nurse in the Great War.

It's now the early Spring of 1930. Stratton is investigating a murder case in Coulsden, while Maisie has been summoned to Dulwich to find a runaway heiress.

This is the second book in the Maisie Dobbs series. I was initially interested in this series because the first book in the series, titled Maisie Dobbs, was getting a lot of good publicity. When it came out it got a very good reception from most critics, and received the Agatha and Macavity awards for best first novel.

This book and the two others in the series that I have read so far are both mysteries and historical novels, The novels are set in Europe in the time period following World War I and revolve around life following the war and the effects it had on the people. Maisie's development from a servant in a rich household to an educated young woman with a career, and the relationships she has with friends and relatives are just as important as the mystery. Because I like the setting and I want to read about the time period and the events and social history of that time, this is an important element for me.


I read Birds of a Feather recently, and I did like the historical setting. The book is very successful at bringing alive the problems people are left to deal with after the Great War.  Most people have lost relatives and friends. Men have come home from war with injuries that plague them for the rest of their years. Times are hard for most people, and there is a lot of unemployment.

The mystery in this book starts with an investigation of a runaway daughter. The father who wants her found and returned is the owner of specialty grocery stores and is doing quite well financially. He and his employees have experienced many losses from the war, and he aids in the support of any families that lost loved ones in his employ. Maisie begins to suspect that the young woman's disappearance is related to at least one recent death, and investigates the relationship between these events.

I found the solution of the mystery to be less satisfying than the overall story. I did not like the emphasis on Maisie's feelings or intuition. I can buy that some people have that gift, and it really doesn't have to ruin the story, but it isn't my favorite approach in mystery novels. I also did not like that Maisie discovers clues early in the story but the crucial information is withheld from the reader.

Although Maisie is a fully realized character, and we know much of the joys, concerns, fears, and pains of her life, the supporting characters are two-dimensional. For example, I did not get any feeling of the relationship developing with the two young men who are romantically interested in her. To be fair, a lot of reviewers like the character development in these books, so it may depend on your taste in books and how information is imparted to the reader.

This has been a hard book for me to review because I really did enjoy it but I noticed a lot of flaws. To me, the big question when I review a book is whether I enjoyed the book and want to read more by the author. I did find the book enjoyable, but if the setting wasn't in a period I love, I would probably not continue the series. I guess the pluses outweigh the minuses for me. I gave the book 4 stars on Goodreads.

I suspect a lot of mystery readers are more forgiving than I and would like this book, so I recommend it to those readers who like this type of book. Whether non-mystery readers would enjoy it so much with the element of crime solving included, I am not so sure.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Challenge
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge
World War I Reading Challenge

2012 WWI Reading Challenge: Books Read

In late March I joined the World War I Reading Challenge at War Through the Generations. My goal is to read at least 4 books that have World War I as a major theme. Either fiction or non-fiction can be included and you can even include one or two movies to reach the goal.

My joining post is HERE.  I am tracking my list of books and films below.

1. The Fighting 69th (a film)
2. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
3. Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear
4. Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
5. Joyeux Noel (a film)

A Duty to the Dead: Charles Todd

For me, the main attraction of this book is the picture it gives us of life during World War I in England. The main character, Bess Crawford, is a nurse on the Britannic, a hospital ship, when it sinks. She survives, but an injury forces her return to England on leave. Each new book that I read about World War I or World War II leads me to new knowledge about those time periods and events.  I had no knowledge of hospital ships and know little about women's roles in those conflicts.  I did not know that the Britannic was a sister ship to the Titanic and that she also sank.

Bess has experienced nursing many men injured in the fighting and watching men die of horrible wounds. She is not a part of the fighting but she has been close enough to see the horrors that the soldiers have to experience. The author uses Bess's experiences to contrast with those at home who cannot sympathize with what the men have experienced in war.

After recovering from an injury incurred during the sinking of the ship, Bess is allowed to go home on leave, and plans to follow up on a request by a soldier to deliver a message to his family.  She had grown close to the soldier, and she ends up getting involved with his family. Her dedication in her nursing career gets her more and more deeply involved.

Did I like this book? My opinion is in the lukewarm range. The mystery itself was not compelling, but I did enjoy the story. It was more psychological suspense than whodunit. The actual crime committed is not clear until deep into the story. The writing was too slow for me, but I persevered and was rewarded. Several reviews described it as an old-fashioned mystery, and I suppose that fits with the time and setting. I found it somewhat unbelievable that the protagonist is able to successfully investigate the mysteries she is confronted with and that her family would (reluctantly) support her in this. But I don't usually require that mysteries be totally realistic and believable. Most interesting novels are not realistic, but take us to a place we haven't been.

Charles Todd is the pseudonym for a mother and son writing team. They have written three other books for this series (one to be published in June 2012) and also have written an earlier series about Ian Rutledge, a Scotland Yard Inspector suffering from shell shock following World War I. The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is similar, although Maisie comes from the lower classes and that series takes place after World War I. I have read the first book in all of these series and I plan to read more of them.  So far I like the Maisie Dobbs series best.

This is an in-depth review of  A Duty to the Dead, with more background on the authors. A little warning: It has more detail about the plot than I like to know before reading a book.
At Open Letters Monthly.

Reading this book has inspired me to learn more about nurses in World War I and hospital ships in general.

• This review at HistoricalNovels.info lists other fiction set in this period and resources for more information on the Britannic.
• The website for the Women in World History Curriculum has reviews of many historical mysteries featuring women. Here is a review for A Duty to the Dead.

This counts as one of my books for the following challenges:
Mt. TBR Challenge
Read Your Own Books Challenge
Cruisin' Thru the Cozies Challenge
1st in a Series Challenge
Merely Mystery Reading Challenge
Mystery & Suspense Reading Challenge
World War I Reading Challenge

This book has been been on my TBR pile for about a year. But I was motivated to read it at this time by the 2012 reading challenge at War Through the Generations. I cannot say enough good things about this site. Not only does it encourage reading about history and war, providing lists of resources for both non-fiction and fiction books, it allows participation.

The Fighting 69th: a film review

The Fighting 69th (1940 - Warner Brothers - 90 minutes). Starring James Cagney, Patrick O'Brien, and George Brent.

I watched this film as a part of my commitment for the World War I reading challenge at War Through the Generations. It is part of a DVD set (James Cagney: The Signature Collection) and it is the first I have watched from the set.

This movie is a film about events in World War I produced by Warner Brothers in 1940, at a time that the second World War was escalating in Europe. I found this movie to be a confusing mix of propaganda, humor, and depictions of the grim realities of war. Since it features a real regiment, with some characters who really fought in the war, it does give us a picture of that time.

The movie starts with a group of new recruits (to the 69th Infantry Regiment) arriving at a base; it  takes us through the training process, establishing relationships between various members of the Squadron.  Jerry Plunkett (Cagney) is just one of the recruits; he is a misfit who has a chip on his shoulder and just wants to get into battle as soon as possible. Once they reach the front, he finds the realities of battle overwhelming.  Several of the characters in the movie were real people, including Father Francis P. Duffy, Major "Wild Bill" Donovan, and  Sergeant Joyce Kilmer (the poet). Father Duffy, a major character in the movie, was a highly decorated cleric in the U.S. Army.

I approached this movie with expectations of liking it... a lot. James Cagney is one of my favorite actors, although I lean toward the movies where he dances.  I knew a movie produced in 1940 would probably be a propaganda piece, and I was prepared for that slant. I was not prepared for the religious overtones. The movie was just too heavy-handed in that area for me.  As my husband said, it is a movie of its time.

For the most part, the acting was just OK, although James Cagney did well in his role, despite playing a very unappealing character. From what I know of World War I, it seems that the scenes in the trenches are fairly realistic and portray the horror of the that war.  I had never heard of the Irish heritage unit, the 69th Infantry Regiment.

From the article on Wikipedia:

The outbreak of World War I saw a resurrection of the old spirit of the 69th. Doubled in size by new War Department regulations, its ranks were filled with Irish-Americans and New Yorkers detailed from other regiments, and it was sent over to France in October 1917 as part of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division of the American Expeditionary Force. All National Guard regiments received new "100 series" regimental numbers at that time. The 69th was renumbered the 165th Infantry Regiment, but retained its Irish symbolism and spirit...

This site has detailed information about the regiment, from the Civil War up to today: http://www.nyfighting69th.com/

Two More Challenges: New Authors and WWI

Two more reading challenges have grabbed me. I can't resist. They won't be easy to finish with what I already have planned ... but I plan to try:

 

For the new author challenge.

1. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. Since this is an author challenge, there is no restriction on choosing your novels. They can definitely be from other challenges. However, the authors must be new to you and, preferably from novels.  Anthologies are a great way to try someone new, but only a third of your new authors can be from anthologies.
3. You can pick to do either 15, 25 or 50 new authors.  It all depends on how fast you read and how adventurous you want to be. 

I am setting my goal at 15 new authors.

I have at least 50 books by authors I have not read before. I always try to read books that I already own by as many new authors as possible before I go to a large book sale in late September, so I can buy more books by those authors if I like them. So it would be no problem to complete the challenge if I did not also have a lot of books by other authors I have read that are also beckoning to me, and other challenges going on.

I am tracking my list of books by authors new to me HERE.

A World War I reading challenge

1. This challenge is hosted by War Through the Generations. The challenge runs from January 1, 2012, through December 31, 2012.
2. This year you have options when reading your fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, etc. with the WWI as the primary or secondary theme. Books can take place before, during, or after the war, so long as the conflicts that led to the war or the war itself are important to the story. Books from other challenges count so long as they meet the above criteria.

Dip: Read 1-3 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Wade: Read 4-10 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Swim: Read 11 or more books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme.
Additionally, we’ve decided that since there are so many great movies out there about WWI, you can substitute or add a movie or two to your list this year and have it count toward your totals.

I am setting my goal at Wade: 4-10 books about WWI. (because of the option to include movies)

My favorite topic of the moment is World War II, but as you read more about World War II, you often end up going back to World War I to understand the history of Europe and the rest of the world leading up to World War I. Just this month I read Winter by Len Deighton, which covers the history of a family in Germany from 1900 - 1945 and the parts related to World War I were very interesting.

I have two series by Charles Todd, one in progress and one that I have not started yet, that fit the criteria. I have one unwatched movie set in World War I (The Fighting 69th (1940) starring James Cagney) and another I would love to see again (Paths of Glory (1957) starring Kirk Douglas). So I am sure I can complete at least 4 books or movies by the end of the year.

I am tracking my list of books or films related to World War I HERE.