Faulkes best novel yet!!
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An interesting perspective on the Second World War, the bravery of Charlotte Gray characterises the gritty resolve of the English during this desperate time for Europe. Very revealling insight into the attitude and opion of the French at the time.
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Powerful
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Let me start out by saying that I haven't read Birdsong, the boook everyone that reads this book feels obliged to refer to. But I don't think this is a disadvantage, because a book should be allowed to stand on its own - and this, I hear, isn't really a sequel. But what a powerful book it is. It takes you INTO the characters and you understand them and the things they do. There is nothing I can say to make you fully appreciate the work Faulks has done here. All I can do is advice you: Read it. You won't regret it.
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Please don't rave for the sake of it !
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Birdsong was an interesting and powerful read, but certainly not worthy of the increasingly rapturous comments people feel the need to compose since its publication. The same is true of 'Charlotte Gray'. Yes, it is a novel which I would encourage any fan of Faulkes to read, and in certain parts is indeed a skillful, intense, and perceptive piece of literature. Yet in other chapters the plot is contrived, descriptions are over-worked to produce characters who are cliched and appalingly self-aware, and events are predictable to the extreme. Anyone who claims to be 'moved' or 'disturbed' by the contents of 'Charlotte Gray' seem somewhat extravagent in their reviews. Let's keep things in perspective please ladies and gentlemen; this is work of fiction, not your personal experience of the horrors of the Second World War.
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disappointing really
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I have to say that I found this book neither compelling nor harrowing. I also found myself criticizing some of the prose - I sometimes feel that Faulks uses some descriptions for the hell of it. I didn't click with this one. I found the last 30 odd pages quite moving though.
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Flawed but still very powerful
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Faulkes's detail of the period and political background of wartime France is illuminating and disturbing. The account of the last months of the two young Jewish brothers, Andre and Jacob, and their appalling fate is one of the most harrowing pieces of writing I've ever read. Annoyingly, Faulkes paralells Charlotte's odyssey of love and relationships with the plight of Levade and the two boys, which, by comparison, seems trite and indulgent. However, set against the overall power of this novel and the haunting images with which it has left me, it is an irksome but forgivable fault. I highly recommend reading this book.
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