Thewanderingjew

When the book begins, a woman named Lily is speaking about Blanche Auzello and is mourning her death. Blanche was loved by this woman, Lily, and she refers to her with deep respect. What follows after is a description of the Nazi occupation of Paris and a tale attempting to describe the effort of Lily and Blanche to fight them. The Germans marched into Paris with hardly a whimper. The Vichy government had instructed the soldiers to stand down, and now, Paris is occupied by German soldiers who are taking over homes and hotels to house them. Although, at first, they are very polite and courteous to the French, fear lurks behind the windows of every citizen. They have no idea what is in store for them. Some will resist and some will collaborate, some will simply try to survive.

Claude, the manager of the Ritz, and his wife, Blanche Auzello, have been out of town. They return to a very different Paris than the one they left. They, too, are not their usual well dressed personas, but rather, they are bedraggled and filthy from their harrowing journey home. As the Auzellos resume their life in the Ritz, they watch as the Nazis take more and more liberties with the French, and they are helpless to stop the increasing crackdowns on those of the Jewish faith. As the Nazis take over the Ritz, and become more and more brutal, Claude makes a decision to serve them, against his better judgment, because in that way, perhaps, he can do his part. It is almost impossible, anyway, to resist without fearing for one’s life. Claude can, however, protect his wife and his staff, providing for their needs through his contacts. He will do what he must, no matter how it may humiliate him in the eyes of the Germans, to keep them all safe. This will be his small effort to stand up to the Nazis, to be what he thinks of as a “Frenchman”. He is ashamed of the way the French have allowed Hitler to march in with so little opposition, and this is his personal attempt at resistance. He won’t allow them to own the Ritz. He will remain in charge.

According to the story written by Benjamin, the Auzellos married after a brief courtship and really did not know each other well. As the years passed, they discovered they were disappointed in each other in little ways, but they truly loved each other, regardless. There was tension between them, however, because of her drinking and his infidelity. He believed it was the right of a Frenchman to have a mistress and that she was expected to be the obedient wife. She wanted to experience the world and had been an aspiring actress. She had no intention of remaining at home as the good little wife. Their trains were not going to meet! Because his work was so demanding, and Blanche wanted to be more involved in his life, they maintained an apartment at the Ritz.

Both had secrets from each other, secrets from the world, and many secrets from the Nazis. Blanche Auzello cavorts with her friend Lily, a young resistance fighter, drinking and engaging in activities to oppose the Germans while fraternizing with them. Claude maintains his relationship with a mistress on the side and also discovers a way to do his part as he purchases food and produce for the hotel. Each keeps their resistance activities from the other in order to protect each from getting hurt in case of capture. The political situation is fraught with apprehension, but unfortunately, the story is not. It often becomes tedious and repetitious as the time frame moves back and forth between Claude and Blanche’s initial relationship in the 1920’s, and the time years later, in the 1940’s, during World War II.

It wasn’t until the last quarter of the book that the story gained momentum, and I truly became engaged. I believe that the author wanted the reader to feel like the story could have happened the way she wrote it, but it never fully reached that point, and instead, it felt like it was simply conjured up out of her imagination. Based on a time and place that was real, the author created most of the story out of whole cloth. Although there is little known about the Auzellos, their lives or their resistance efforts during the war, the names of many of the characters mentioned are real people; the Auzellos, Hemingway, Coco Chanel and Marlene Dietrich, among others, really existed, and because they were very much involved in Paris and the Ritz in the time frame of the novel, the book does grows interesting. When the book reveals the personalities of these real characters, including the Germans housed in the Ritz, coupled with the arrests, the torture, the inhumane treatment of other humans, and the attempt to annihilate an entire religious group, the tale becomes more authentic. However, most of it does not have the depth needed, perhaps because of the lack of facts. It is told from the perspective of those living under the thumb of the Germans as well as those who joined the varied resistance groups or simply resisted in any way they could; it often seemed to lose that focus and descend simply into a romance novel making it lack reality.  Many of the secrets revealed at the end are easy to guess, but the final ending may be a surprise to many. It was to me, having never heard of the Auzellos prior to reading this book. For that reason alone, the book is worth the read.