On October 25th we met at Rockstone to discuss my book
"The Girl In The Blue Coat" which is set in World War II Amsterdam.
Since many of us had just been to Amsterdam I thought it would be fun to
read. Discussion was difficult due to the noise level of the restaurant
caused mostly by 5 wine swilling females nearby. We decided we
need another venue. We had a large group consisting of Doug, Donna, Madeleine,
Betsy, Carol, Sarah, Kathy,Nancy, Sue, Janet and me.
This was a young adult coming of age story of young people in Holland
written by a reporter for the Washington Post who is neither Dutch nor
Jewish. So although it was not great literature she manages to weave a nice
mystery about a Jewish girl who has disappeared from her hiding place.
The heroine is Hanneke who transforms from a selfish self serving girl to a caring
young woman who helps the Amsterdam Student Underground with smuggling,
obtaining ration cards and placing children into hiding from the Nazis.
One point of interest we discussed was war photography which was forbidden
and done at great risk. The other thing we discussed was homosexuality which
was not accepted in that era and was actually dangerous. These young
people had to grow up in dangerous times where nothing was normal.
It was just a small story within a big war.
Nothing will ever equal Anne Frank's Diary but there are many stories
that can still be told about the never to be forgotten atrocities of that war.
Next book chosen by Janet was "The Life We Bury" by Allen Eskens.
A tentative date of December 13th was chosen.
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