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Anna
I thought the same thing. I assumed that they left war ravaged France for a new life but no where is it mentioned.
The least the author could have done was somewhere written that they "were on their way to the US..."
The least the author could have done was somewhere written that they "were on their way to the US..."
Jean
I read this by Kristin Hannah and I also read The Great Alone. Both books are overly long but have a rushed ending. In The Great Alone, I had decided the author just got tired of writing the book and cut corners. I felt the same for this book. There's a pretty significant character who disappears without a thought. We don't find out how or when this character died. Literally every other character gets either a death mention or appears in the last chapter. Not this one. And as you mention, suddenly, the narrator is in Bend, Oregon. You can kind of fill in the blanks and think maybe they just want to leave war-torn Europe. But you know, emigrating was actually kind of hard back then? And still is? My mother was a child during WWII and told me stories about it. Generally you have to have somebody who brought you here. (Like, for example, you were a war bride.) Particularly at the end of WWII when Europe is not yet rebuilt, shortages still abounded, half the world was trying to get here. That person who brought the narrator here is worth a mention. You know, like a paragraph or two. But in the author's head it's like "And then, I don't know, let's pretend they miracled their way to Oregon. Somehow. I'm tired. I want to write something else." OK, thank you for letting me get that off my chest. :-)
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