Paris at War – The Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin

I listened to roughly three quarters of the audiobook production before having to switch to the hardcover version due to library due dates, but any audiobook performed by the exceptional Barbara Rosenblat ranks high on my list. Her distinctive, expressive voice adds so much to my enjoyment of any book. Brava, Barbara!

The Mistress of the Ritz is a lightly fictionalized account of the lives of Blanche and Claude Auzello. Blanche Ross, as she presented herself, was a young American actress who arrived at the exclusive Ritz Hotel in Paris, in the early 1920s, accompanying her friend Pearl White, the far more famous silent screen actress who starred in the successful serial "The Perils of Pauline". On her very first evening there Blanche met Claude Auzello, the assistant manager, and a decorated hero of the First World War. They fell passionately in love and quickly married, though their personal characteristics and cultural differences led them to quarrel incessantly from the start.

Despite that, Blanche and Claude stayed together, with Claude providing impeccable service to the hotel's illustrious guests, including Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and many others. Blanche's dynamic, friendly personality, and her beauty contributed to the hotel's ambiance and Claude's success. 

When World War II broke out and the Nazis occupied Paris, they moved into the Ritz along with seizing and terrorizing the rest of the city. Claude pleaded with Blanche to return to America but she refused to leave him. They were under the constant scrutiny of the German invaders but Claude, by now the manager, ran the hotel at the same standards as ever, despite the circumstances, satisfying the occupiers' every whim.

Blanche and Claude engage in certain other activities but their combative relationship causes them to distrust one another. Blanche forms a close friendship with Lily, a mysterious woman surrounded by rumors, and Claude, whose past affair caused much of the tension between him and Blanche, appears to be indulging in additional extra-marital liaisons. Eventually it will all come clear.

The Ritz itself feels like a character in the book – the author describes its history, appearance, and role in the life of the city of Paris so thoroughly – that when you are done listening, or reading, you too feel as though you have experienced it.

The other aspects of description of Blanche's and Claude's appearances, their personalities, and their experiences truly bring them to life, and the dialogue between them and their inner thoughts are entirely believable.

Long after the war ends, Lily provides an epilogue to Blanche and Claude's story, a very unexpected coda. I recommend not researching the real life Blanche and Claude until completing your read, but do be sure to read the author's note which follows.

Windows to the Heart – The Glass Chateau by Stephen P. Kiernan

An outstanding work of historical fiction, set in France following the end of World War II, and centering around Asher, a character inspired by the modernist artist Marc Chagall (1887-1885), who worked in many mediums, but whose stained glass windows are some of his most widely-recognized works.

Asher is a French Jew whose wife and toddler daughter were killed in front of him by the Nazis. He joined the Resistance and became an assassin. When the war ends, he finds himself at loose ends, mourning his family, his home, and lost business as a fine craftsman of custom-made boots. He wanders the French countryside, a devastation of destroyed villages, roads, bridges, farms, cathedrals, and buildings of every other variety. Everyone is starving, and what we would today call PTSD affects nearly every person. Crime and violence are widespread as the surviving French people try to recover and rebuild.

Eventually he finds his way to the Château Guerin, a stained glass workshop and manor house, run by Brigitte, whose family has operated the business for generations, and her husband Marc, devout Catholics, along with a crew of workers. Asher is famished, and they feed him, then offer him lodging and work. All of the workers have come to the château in a state of despair from their wartime experiences. As he is surrounded by practicing Catholics, the workshop's commissions are replacements for the destroyed windows of churches and cathedrals, and anti-Semitism is widespread, Asher keeps his religion a secret from the others.

Brigette and Marc's other mission is to create a healing experience for the workers, which they do by providing them with food, security, and work. Over time, Asher finds a sense of purpose in his work, learns glassmaking, and is able to nourish his artistic spirit. He also connects, even as he deeply mourns his wife and daughter, with a local woman who supplies the château and village with fruit and vegetables from her vast garden.

Asher becomes more and more of a contributor to the château's work as time passes. Though he lives under the strain of his secret, and continues to grieve, he is still able to heal and grow. This is a beautiful and moving story about the capacity of the human spirit for forgiveness, community, the creation of art, and the enjoyment of beauty, wherever and however it can be found.

France at War: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I thought this book got off to a slow start, but I decided to stick with it as I am reading a lot of books (fiction and non, with a WWII setting). I thought it was well-researched and getting an inside view of the conditions faced by the French during the Occupation, it was enlightening, as well as horrifying. 

It put a personal spin on the individual deprivations, moral dilemmas and fear faced by everyday people in a terrible situation, and the fictionalized story of the Nightingale sketched out more of the detail that would have involved members of the Resistance. 

Plot-wise, though, there were few surprises. I wanted to see, however, if I was right in my expectations of how it would all turn out, and I was, overwhelmingly. Despite that, it's a good and fast read, once the story truly gets going, if a bit formulaic. Hannah is not an author I would deliberately seek out, but I might try her again, depending on the setting and subject matter.