Gerda Hartwich Robinson

This book states it is "a true and intimate picture of a child's life changed by war." Unfortunately, this assessment didn't ring true for me. Yes, the author was a small child in Germany during WWII, but the vast majority of the traumas she writes about had little to do with war: an emotionally abusive father, a mother who, while physically present, had shirked much of the responsibility of caring for her children and who later died young, and a rape. While I'm not downplaying that these factors led to a sad and unhappy childhood for the author, the war had little to do with them. But for her issues with sirens, none of the issues she deals with were because of the war, but were the result of her neglectful parents.

I generally did not find myself sympathetic to the author. She repeatedly talked about how angry she was that she didn't have a good childhood. After a while this got old--especially in light of the fact that she mentions the Nazi flag hanging at her house. Yes, her father was awful. But it was significantly better than what Jewish children in Germany were suffering at the same time. The author alluded to the Holocaust only twice, for half a page or less each time, once to say she didn't know about what happened until she came to America (which I personally find hard to believe), and again where she mentions being uncomfortable around Jewish customers because of the Holocaust. Can't say I had any sympathy for her yet again.

At other times the author wrote about how she would break off a relationship with a man rather than be hurt by him breaking up with her, but then she'd pray that very same night for a nice husband. I wanted to ask her: hypocrite much?

In the end this book was nothing special. I did like how the author went into great detail about how psychiatric help was able to help her cope with the anxiety, panic attacks, and physical pain she suffered from as a result of her childhood traumas. That was the only thing that made this book worthwhile, but I'm sure there are plenty of books out that do better justice to that subject.

I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for my honest review.… (altro)