Review - The House at Riverton

Kate Morton

I have just discovered Kate Morton.  Her first book is 10 years old, so she has been around for a while. But all of a sudden people started recommending her books to me.

My sister-in-law told me to read The Forgotten Garden.

I received The House at Riverton at my book swap.

And then I saw on Facebook that she was coming to a book store near me in October!  I wasn’t able to go see her, but I am going to buy her new book she was promoting, TheClockmaker’s Daughter.

With Kate Morton hitting me from all sides, I was excited to start reading The House at Riverton.  At the very beginning I wasn’t sure why everyone was so excited about this author, but the book was engaging so I kept reading. 

And somewhere in the middle of it, I knew why.

The House at Riverton 

Grace is 98 years old when a movie producer comes to her asking questions about her past life.  She is transported back in time to a different era as she remembers her time in service at the great Riverton House.

The novel flips back to when Grace was 14 just starting out as a housemaid at Riverton.  And through her eyes we learn about the world of upstairs and downstairs.  The family that occupies Riverton slowly come into focus.

Grace stores up the secrets of her masters while also uncovering secrets about her own past that her mother refused to tell her.

Not only is The House at Riverton an engaging story it expertly weaves past and present together making you feel like you understand both exactly.

As you see life through Grace’s eyes you feel like you understand exactly how it is to be 98 years old.  What your mind is processing, what your joints feel, and how you hold on to your knowledge even when the young and inexperienced might need it.  You know better.  They won’t understand your wisdom.  (How does a young Kate Morton get inside a 98-year-old woman’s head?)

But as the book jumps back to 1914 you are able to understand the culture of that time.  I was struck at how the life of the servants were such an important fit to society.  It seems unimaginable in this day and age that anyone would be that loyal to serving a family, but as you see the story unfold, you see why. 

In our society today where we overshare every minute detail of our lives, it makes no sense how anyone would keep a huge secret for decades of their life.  And, why should we?  Isn’t it better to tell and let others know the truth?

However, Morton lets us think through Grace’s mind, back in that time.  She was bound to that family, she was bound to Hannah, she was not ever going to tell. 

Downton Abbey

After reading The House at Riverton I am inspired to read more about the Edwardian era of English history.  Kate Morton provides some extra reading options in the back of the book, and I intend to check those out!  And, I’m going to actually watch Downton Abbey (I know – why have I not done that yet??)

Read if… 

you loved Downton Abbey

Or if you have already discovered Kate Morton

Next on my Kate Morton list is her new book TheClockmaker’s Daughter.

If you are looking for another book dealing with secrets see my review on Into the Water – it is a thriller, so it is a very different way of looking at secrets.

Happy Reading!

Hannah

WWII Novel Must Read - The Women in the Castle

WWII Novel Must Read – The Women in the Castle

WWII Historical Fiction

If you have read any (or many) books dealing with WWII and the Holocaust, you have likely read from the victim’s perspective. My introduction to this time period was reading The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom, and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry when I was in upper elementary school.  Over the years I have read many other books from the French resistance, to the invasion of Poland; about people surviving the Siege of Leningrad, and about people who experienced concentration camps.

German perspective      

Jessica Shattuck’s The Women in the Castle looks at the time directly after the end of the war to explore how Germans could be complicit in this evil as well as resist it.  What made some Germans see the Nazi ideals as evil and how did some see them as progress for their country?

            It is easy to vilify the Nazis because they were, well, villains.  But it is often hard to separate that from the average, uneducated German citizen.  Jessica Shattuck proves that you aren’t either Nazi or hero, sometimes the Germans were captive of their own situation as well. To some Germans it seemed reasonable, if not admirable, to follow the Nazi’s ideals.  Things aren’t black or white but a very complicated gray.

 Women of WWII

            The Women in the Castle follows three widows of Nazi resisters.  Their husbands were involved in the July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler.  In the unstable years following the war they live together with their children in an old castle trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and grapple with their decisions.  Marianne is the backbone of the group, a practical woman and a force to be reckoned with. Benita is the naive beauty who finds herself lost between understanding the world around her and knowing how to survive in it.  Ania is the quiet provider with an even quieter past.

Jessica Shattuck

            Jessica Shattuck has grappled with what it means to be part German for her whole life.  Her mother was born at the gruesome end of the war to parents who were Nazis.  The shame and inner turmoil of these decisions haunted her mother and Jessica in turn.  Her grandmother dealt with and came to terms with what had happened, even allowing Jessica to interview her to understand her perspective. The Women in the Castle is an outpouring of the complicated feelings and lives of the German people from a very personal place.

This is a crucial side to the story.  We must understand it in order to not find ourselves on the wrong side of history one day. 

Read this if…

·      you are an avid WWII reader.  You will find a refreshing look at the other side of the coin

·      you struggle with what makes something good or evil.  You will have a lot to think about.

·      you are dealing with friendships that are forming or absolving. You will see how bonds that form friendships are complicated and often rooted in survival

Keep an eye out for my list of greatest WWII novels – it will be coming soon!

Find The Women in the Castle on Amazon here

Hannah