The Nightingale
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Let me preface this review with full disclosure: I’m a bit of a Kristin Hannah hater. I was baffled by the buzz surrounding The Women; I thought it was a story worth telling, but she failed to provide character depth and let predictable romantic tropes overshadow otherwise compelling storylines. When I was on my Hannah-hater campaign trail, everyone looked at me like I was nuts and told me that I simply had to read Nightingale.
Unfortunately, I’ve gotta stand ten toes down. Kristin Hannah has the writing chops to deliver deeply moving messages, but she undermines them with incredibly unrealistic plotlines. She’s clearly drawn towards the chaotic environment of war, and she has the voice within her to convey the associated tragedies, but she silences that voice with lazy plot points.
The Nightingale is a work of historical fiction that takes place in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. Vianne and Isabelle, two sisters with very different personalities and motivations, are forced to grapple with the invasion and decide where their convictions begin and end. They deal with some serious moral conundrums. For example, Vianne has a young, impressionable daughter; when should she prioritize their survival and when should she take an ethical stance as an example to her child? We oftentimes reflect on WWII with a black-and-white lens because the atrocities are so obviously bad, but Hannah’s story shows small, insidious moments that really made me question what I’d do when also tasked with protecting my own kid.
Hot take- I actually felt less moved by Isabelle because she was so defiantly reckless that it was almost selfish. I get the impression that we are supposed to see her as an admirable heroine, but I viewed her rashness as being in service to herself–reflective of her desire to be a bold, imposing figure in the world rather than a wish to genuinely help.
Isabelle aside, I appreciate the perk of the history lessons that accompany Hannah’s books. While I know plenty of general facts about World War II, reading Nightingale taught me some of the smaller details. For example, I never thought about the fact that the Eiffel Tower is still standing. Shortly before the invasion, the French government put fake paintings in the Louvre because they assumed that the Nazis would steal/ruin the authentic ones. The book forced me to understand the war in terms of a gradual occupation escalating in intensity, which also (presumably) shaped how the Nazis chose to both reject and retain aspects of French culture. I’d also never thought about how the slow pace of information dissemination without social media allowed German propaganda to eclipse the truth. One form of rebellion was simply distributing pamphlets with facts and heads-up about imminent actions. The example within the book showed a brief warning that foreign-born Jews would be deported to camps that night, which allowed some characters to save their neighbors.
Because of the slow pace of the novel and the parallel storylines of the sisters, I felt like I really got to know the characters and their plights. But Kristin Hannah is gonna Kristin Hannah, and the big moments that she carefully constructs are rendered cheesy and impractical, so they’re not as moving as they should be. I’m also annoyed by her insistence on closing every single loop. Every. Single. Loop. This was also the case with The Women. As readers, we do have imaginations that we are capable of using. Okay, I’m done hating on her, but good luck getting me to read anything else she’s written lol. The Nightingale receives 2 out of 5 flames.
