I actually finished with this book last weekend but my laziness kept me from writing the blog entry until now. I’ve previously read Mary Doria Russell’s two previous novels, The Sparrow, and Children of God, so I picked up this one when I saw it on the rack. The Sparrow is one of my all time favorite science fiction novels. Children of God was a mish-mash though. A Thread of Grace falls into the latter category.
A Thread of Grace is historical fiction, set in northwestern Italy during the waning days of World War Two. Italy had surrendered to the allies, but a puppet government still ran northern Italy and the area was under German occupation. Italians sheltered Jews to a much greater extent than Germany wanted. This novel is the story of the sheltered Jews in one valley (Valdottavo).
As I’ve noted with other novels, I love the historical aspect of the tale. This episode of World War Two was something about which I was unaware. But the writing is not good. Well-researched but not good. First, way too many characters. I never built rapport with the characters because the novel jumps around them so much. Second, I would think a novel about how Italians sheltered Jews so they could survive would actually have more than one survive the book. Out of all the characters, only one makes it. Not only utterly depressing, it breaks the continuity of the story as there is very little of that thread connecting the characters and the scenes together. Third, most of the story lines for most of the characters go nowhere. I don’t know why scenes were written for their characters were written in the first person. For instance, several scenes for the German general in charge of the area were written in first person. Mostly his interaction with his underlings. But his only real connection to the story is that he’s taken hostage by Italian partisans at some point late in the book. This sort of hash is common.
On a more minor note, I disliked Russell’s attempt to give us a feel for the life of the Italian peasants by thickening their accents… in English. None of them were speaking English, so don’t thicken them by having using the stereotypical German accent in the English translation.
If you want to know about this period in World War Two, find a different book. Because the story and writing weren’t worth it.
Title: A thread of grace
Author: Mary Doria Russell
Publisher: Random House
Format: Hardcover
Length: 430 p.
Publication date: 2005
ISBN-10: 0-375-50184-3
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Underground movements — Fiction
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Jews — Rescue — Fiction
Subject: Holocaust, Jewish (1936-1945) — Fiction
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Italy — Fiction
Subject: Holocaust survivors — Fiction
Subject: Jews — Italy — Fiction
LC classification: PS3568.U7667T48 2005
