Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT PLOT AND PROSE
Review: This book caught me from the first page. Magnificent writing with a simple but wonderful story. Even a week after finishing, I am remembering the book and wishing I still had pages to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Her Best-or even close
Review: I loved "The Pilot's Wife" and "The Weight of Water", but this book was just downright sloppy. It was like a bad Danielle Steel book. What happened to Ms. Shreve's wonderful prose? The ending was rushed as well. With a little effort, research and heart this might have been a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: A subtle, pleasing novel
Review: This is an intimate portrait of the Resistence in a small village near the southern border of Belgium and the wartime romance between a young housewife and the wounded American pilot she's secretly harboring in her house. The scenario plays out more plausibly than any Danielle Steele confection. Time and again, what is most astonishing about any story set in WW2 is how remarkable things happened because of ordinary people. Shreve has a generous regard for these everyday citizens and how truly they become heroic. She also gives practical insight into those who are swept into cooperating with Nazi tyranny.
Rating:
Summary: do not waste your time
Review: Everyone says to write about what you know. The problem here is not that a present-day American author can't write about another country in another time. It has been done, and the situation described in the story could have happened. The problem is just poor writing. The plot was was as conveniently contrived as a bad made-for-TV movie. The characters never really came to life. Instead of listening to people, I was reading the author's painful constructions of words. The style and sentence structure throughout are absolutely abominable. Anyone who thinks this is the best World War II novel they have read should try something with more substance by authors who have mastered the craft. Try Herman Wouk, John Hersey, Leon Uris. This is a very slight cut above supermarket-checkout lane paperbacks. Even this particular author has done better in some of her other books. I would have considered this a first rough draft. And for people just getting into reading, I'd like to say the more different books you read, the better you get at being able to tell good writing from bad. This is dreck.
Rating:
Summary: A love story in the midst of turmoil
Review: Anita Shreve is an artist who takes some time to develop her characters and it is evident in this book. Resistance is the story of Theodore (Ted) Brice, an American fighter pilot who is shot down over a village in Belgium. When the plane is found by the people of the village, they immediately spring into action to rescue the crew. By showing this, Shreve has cleverly created the background for the story. You are introduced to Claire, who is to become a pivotal player in the story. You are introduced to a young boy, Jean, who is responsible for finding and saving the pilot. I found myself questioning how a boy would be able to find the pilot and nobody in the village knew of it. I did like the fact that he was able to communicate with Ted and to reassure him, despite the language barrier. You could almost see that an affair was going to happen between Ted and Claire. Shreve's writing hinted at it when she introduced us to Claire and described (briefly) her marriage to Henri and how she was sure not to get pregnant during the war. That theory seemed to have disappeared by the time she started sleeping with Ted. I got a good feel for the way things were during the war--especially with the Reprisals for the deaths of the 3 soldiers, but I think I would have liked some more details on the happenings, such as a slight timeline or something. Overall, I think the book was well written and is worth recommending.
Rating:
Summary: Atmospheric and sensual
Review: Like all Anita Shreve's novels, this challenging subject and setting has a stream of sensuality running through it. There is also the usual Shreve element of a passionate love betrayed or lost. I was absolutely drawn into the plot from page one and found it a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A good historical account, an average story.
Review: Ted Brice, an American pilot, goes down in the middle of a Belgian village. While many of his men either do not live or are shipped off to other countries by the Germans, Ted, despite his injured leg, makes it to the cover of a nearby wood where he is found by a young Belgian boy who proceeds to rescue him. The resistance hide Brice in the home of Henri and Claire, a childless couple who regularly house victims until they are well enough to be sent to France where they are safe. In this particular case, however, as soon as Henri is reliably gone for an indefinite amount of time (with his resistance work), Brice and Claire become lovers and proceed to have an intense love affair that lasts until they are caught. The historical content of this novel is superior - Shreve obviously has done a great deal of research to make the story very similar to the lives of many real Belgians during the World War II period. The love story, however, seems unnatural and out of place. The relationship between Henri and Claire, although certainly not full of passion, does not seem unhappy enough to necessitate her participating in an extra-marital affair so anxiously. It seems that the love story part was just thrown in there to make it steamy - I found it rather annoying, personally. Not a bad book, just not the best and certainly not Shreve's best!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading
Review: I loved this book, and good thing I read this one before The Pilot's Wife. I liked how the Shreve told each person's story that led to a critical point. When you learned the other's character's story, the book becomes full circle and better understood. You were able to relate and learn about the characters as the story progressed. Shreve kept you interested in the story and fate of the characters until the very end.
Rating:
Summary: Deceptively Simple
Review: I like Anita Shreve's books very much, and this one echoes some themes that also come up in The Pilot's Wife and Fortune's Rocks--the nature of trust and betrayal come up in all these books. One of the reviewers who wrote about Resistance said that he/she thought it would have been a stronger book if it had dealt more with the horrors of the concentration camps. I don't think this is necessarily true. I found the juxtaposition of "normal life" and the horrors of war extremely moving. The last chapter, set in the present, was also very moving and reenforced the humanity of all the characters.
Rating:
Summary: Educational and Captivating
Review: Prior to reading "Resistance" by Anita Shreve, I did not know much about the Nazi Resistance in Belgium. It was interesting to read about a different side of the war, one that is often neglected - the homefront. In Belgium, resistance fighters took refugees who were escaping Nazi persecution due to religion or nationality, or depending, which side of the war they were fighting for. I found this book to be very enlightening, educational and overall excellent. It was exciting to see a romance blossom amidst the horrible war going on. In classic Shreve style, she twists the plot left and right, keeping you on the edge of your seat and your finger ready to turn the page at each moment.
|
