... Love and
Resistance in Pre-War Germany
Amazon UK £3.05 £8.27
Amazon US $3.80 $10.95
Amazon CA $14.33
Love and Resistance in WW2 Germany series
Biograpical Fictional / Romance / Family Saga-Drama
WWII
Germany
Marion Kummerow has written an intriguing trilogy of novels
based on the real lives of her grandparents during the Nazi regime in Germany. Unrelenting:
Love and Resistance in Pre-War Germany is the first of the series, and it's
remarkable as a family story, but not quite as remarkable as a novel. She
weaves the chapters together nicely as Hilde and Q live their separate lives
and then meet and become a couple in Berlin, the novel culminating the night
before their marriage.
Kummerow conveys the suspense of living in Berlin at this
important time, showing us real people's lives in the midst of historic events.
Her German perspective gives a new view for British and American readers,
showing what the developing storm was like for those who lived in it. The
couple work, develop their romance, and deal with everyday family troubles as
well as frightening denunciation and espionage. Of particular interest is Q’s
scientific enterprise—he altruistically wants to serve all mankind, but he
perhaps naively believes that communists and therefore “Russia” (the Soviet
Union) best embodies that universal ideal. One character patronizingly scoffs
at Q’s idealism, so perhaps that line will develop over the trilogy . . .
The weakness comes mainly in Kummerow's language. The German
native writes quite competently in English but with numerous quirks that show
she is not completely immersed in the nuances of English idioms. For example, Q
jokes with a friend, "Welcome in my modest exile," and something
gives a character "some pause for concern." In the same way some
modern phrasings like "That sucks" and "bigger and badder"
appear, as does "biodiversity" (possible origin in 1968?) and
television cameras at the 1936 Olympics. The overall style is more told than
shown, though Kummerow convincingly conveys the tentative interplay of feelings
and actions in young people falling in love.
Another pass by a proofreader and/or a technical editor
would help polish this strong story. However, I left Unrelenting
wondering what will happen next, and that's just what a first-in-trilogy should do for a reader!
© Cindy Rinaman Marsch
Author and Editor
There were television cameras at the 1936 Olympics. They didn't transmit their signals very widely, but they were there. The Nazi Olympics initiated several innovations which became features of the modern games (such as the transport of the flame from Greece)
ReplyDeleteI don't think there were many TV sets either, did't most people buy their sets here in the UK in order to view the Coronation in 1953? I remember our big box with its tiny screen and it taking ages to warm up. I think I was about four, so that would have been 1957. (Goodness!)
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