Both books have plots based on post-World War II Germany. While Stones from the River was set in Germany, When We Meet Again was set mostly in Florida and in Atlanta.
Did you know that there were German prisoner-of-war camps in Florida during World War II? I had no idea! That's what attracted me to this very different book. I wanted to know more. The book gave me some information and inspired me to do some additional research on my own as I was reading. There's a POW camp museum not too far from where I live and I've added it to my list of places to visit in the state.
Years ago, in my book club in New Jersey, we read When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. That's a story about Japanese internment camps. Because I was teaching fifth grade, I was already familiar with Japanese internment during World War II. But at my book club discussion, this was the first time some of these really, really smart and educated people were learning about what the US did to the Japanese during the war. We ended up talking quite a bit about why we had never learned about Japanese interment when we were in school. We decided that it was probably for the same reasons that we grew up believing that Christopher Columbus was a hero. One of the older women in the book club remembered life in New Jersey during World War II. She remembered that several German families had been relocated to her neighborhood, most probably because they might have been suspected spies. We decided that while Germans weren't interned the way that the Japanese were, these forced relocations were for similar purposes. (I guess I really need to read The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene. That book sat on my classroom shelf for all the years I taught fifth grade and I never thought to pick it up. Had I, I most likely would have known about German prisoner of war camps. I'm off to add that book to my TBR list.)
When We Meet Again is a love story. A German prisoner in the POW camp outside of the Everglades falls in love with a local gal. And his love is reciprocated. Circumstances keep them apart after the war. (Who knew that German POWs who spent time in the US had to do another 2 years of hard labor in Great Britain before returning to Germany? Not me.)
When We Meet Again is about going through life with baggage. It's about running away from your past. It's about learning how to forgive. It's about looking forward. It's about relationships.
When We Meet Again is about art. A painting that looks like Emily's grandmother is delivered to Emily, anonymously, shortly after Emily's grandmother's death. Is the subject her grandmother? Who sent the painting? Who was the artist? What is the story behind the painting? That, in a nutshell, is the plot.
The story is told in alternating stories. We read Emily's story from the present day and we read the story of Peter, the POW, starting during the war and ending in the present day. It was an effective way to tell the story.
There were a few things I didn't like about the book. The writing was pretty bare bones. After experiencing the lyrical language of Stones in the River, this language was ordinary. In fact, it was so ordinary that I was surprised to see how many novels Kristin Harmel has written. Parts of the story were very, very predictable. At times I got impatient to get my predictions confirmed. Passage of time wasn't smooth either. At one point Emily mentions that she received the painting months ago. Yet in terms of what had happened in the story, it seemed as though she'd received the painting on the week before.
What did I like about this novel? I really enjoyed learning something new - about the prisoner of war camps in Florida. That was fascinating. I also really liked the way the author ended the novel. Yes, the ending was pretty predictable. But the way it was handled by Harmel was so well done. The way the ending was handled really made the book for me. That very rarely happens.
Now it's time to read a little something lighter.
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