Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Marianne Wheelaghan~The Blue Suitcase~

Read: On Kindle
Paid: £1.98
Reason I choose it: This was recommended to me by amazon after I'd finished reading Rosie's War which I enjoyed so I was curious to know what life was actually like in Germany in WW2.

The Story starts with Marianne sitting in an almost empty house waiting for the estate agents to come when she starts dusting and loses the duster on top of the wardrobe. She gets a chair to get the duster only to discovers a blue suitcase on top of the wardrobe. She then reads and translates everything for us to read as well as adding a little something of her own in order to make it into the story that it is.

Antonio is 12 year old and wants to enter a writing competition the following year so she decides to keep a diary in order to practise her creative writing which actually began at the right time as you see from day one how families and opinions were so divided. Toni's eldest brother Hansi backed the Communist party so was quite worse off for it and Hubert at 13 years old idolised Hitler so went against his parents wishes to walk miles to meet him as well as collect a badge that was handed out to all those that turned up. He eventually joined the Hitler Youth Party in order to wear a Brownshirt. His parents believed in neither party to begin with but eventually the father decided it was just best to go with the flow and follow Hitlers party but they still did not benefit for their beliefs.

Hansi ends up in a concentration camp in Germany, eventually he's released to end up having to fight in the war and is captured by the Russains only to end up in a Concentration Camp there. Hubert fights in the war but you never really get to know more about him once there except that he ends up hating Hitler. You also get the effects of how the Polish and Russains were almost as nasty as Hitler.

Her mum is a doctor in a hospital and its devasting to read how her life turns out, the dad has a good job which he is forced to leave....

Toni being the youngest child ends up being lost in all that is going on so she isn't experienced or well informed about life so eventually believes Hitlers way is the right way without really understanding why....

My opinion
Its hard to say that this is an amazing book due to the contents of it being so sad and at times quite difficult to read as I felt sick but couldn't put the book down for wanting to know what happens and how things turn out. I've never really known anything about World War 2 except the odd mention of the Holocaust and the devastion and the torture people went through in the camps. In reality it was no better for the people that actually lived in Germany and probably ended up in similar situation as the Jews as they targerted innocent people constantly, whether sick, old, gossips, gay etc... I have of course taught a little about WW2 at work but thats quite sugar coated as you only learn about the rationed food, children being sent away and the blitz.

The only thing I would have liked a little more of is the ending to find out exactly what happened to the surviving members of the family but I guess Marianne won't know since she discovered the suitcase after her mother had passed away.

I would really recommend this book as I would say its better then Anne Franks Diary and Rosie's War as I couldn't take to either person. You may want to read an extract here

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  1. Sounds amazing, haven't heard of this book before.

    I am not sure I could read it tho, it might be too upsetting, then again I am sucker for sad stories!

  2. How about you read it as it isn't too expensive but if you find it to upsetting not to read it at all as I can imagine with being from Germany it could be quite hard. I don't think the story is completely true as the author may have added bits from what I read on her website.

  3. sounds like a good but sad book will have to check into it and see

  4. Becca I hope you find it to be a good book if you do get a chance to read it.

  5. Hello BurstsofBubbles,

    I just wanted to thank you for this lovely, honest review of my book The Blue Suitcase – I would have written sooner but have only just come across your blog. For me it's lovely when someone takes the time to read my book, but to them go to the trouble of writing a review about it is especially nice. So, once again, a big thank you :) I love your blog, by the way, it's so friendly and engaging - and you do so much! When do you sleep?
    I',m not sure you're checking comments, so I'll also send an email of thanks. All good wishes Marianne


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