[REVIEW] The Women In The Castle

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tl;dr Review:

An unflinching look at Germany’s post-WWII recovery and its impact on three different women’s lives.

Full Review:

I both enjoyed this book and also couldn’t wait to finish it. I began reading it shortly after Christmas and immediately after my husband, baby sister, parents and I returned from a cruise. Needless to say, I was in an extremely good mood coming off of all of this and this book is not exactly uplifting.

The Women In The Castle by Jessica Shattuck follows three women, starting with Marianne von Lingenfels, who made a promise to take care of the widows and families of the men who were killed for participating in the thwarted assassination attempt against Hitler. She’s not only dealing with rebuilding her own life, but with the emotional turmoil of finding and helping these other women.

In enters Ania and Benita, two of the wives Marianne manages to locate, who have their own difficult choices to grapple with and are battling their own demons.

The book switches between the three women’s stories and shows a nuanced look at exactly how different people can react when faced with the horror and life-altering chaos of war. It also spoke to how it was possible not only for someone like Hitler to exist but to rise to the utmost level of power.

What stuck with me the most afterward was how applicable some of the commentaries were towards the current U.S President and his actions.

Quotes such as this hit way too close to home:

“For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Hitler was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal to people’s most selfish, self-pitying emotions and ignorance was an embarrassment for their country. They had watched him make a masterwork of scapegoating Jews for Germany’s fall from power and persuade his followers that enlightenment, humanity, and tolerance were weaknesses – ‘Jewish’ ideas that led to defeat.”

Now watch when I sub in today’s world:

“For so long Marianne and Albrecht and many of their friends had known Trump was a lunatic, a leader whose lowbrow appeal to people’s most selfish, self-pitying emotions and ignorance was an embarrassment for their country. They had watched him make a masterwork of scapegoating immigrants for America‘s fall from power and persuade his followers that enlightenment, humanity, and tolerance were weaknesses – ‘politically correct‘ ideas that led to defeat.”

I literally changed 5 words and now it could easily be written in one of today’s newspapers.

History tends to repeat itself and reading books like The Women In The Castle reminds me again of why we need to resist falling victim to Hitler-like antics.

I give this book 4 out of 5 thumbs up.