In Those Who Save Us , Jenna Blum illuminates the relationship between a mother and a daughter whose relationship is based on secrets and half truths. Trudie is the grown daughter of Anna, a woman who came to the United States from Germany during the Holocaust. When Anna is hospitalized and Trudie is forced to pack up her mother’s belongings, she finds a framed picture of herself as a child and her mother with a Nazi Soldier who she presumes is her father. This photo serves as the central image defining Trudie and Anna’s relationship– a photo that Trudie assumes to be one thing and that Anna refuses to discuss.

The book is told both in a series of flashbacks to Anna’s list in Nazi Germany and in accounts of Trudie’s life as a German history professor who, in hopes of understanding more about her mother and her own past, embarks on a project to collect the stories of Germans who lived during the Nazi regime. Trudie’s interviews with a number of German immigrants provide a foil to Anna’s story which we learn is one of falling in love with Jewish man and getting involved in the resistance movement.

Those Who Save Us has compelling stories, rich characters, and deeply enriching historical details. As the reader learns more about Anna’s life in Germany, our compassion for both Anna and Trudie grows. Relationships between mothers and daughters are often complex, yet Blum gives us a relationship strained by Anna’s traditional German values and expectations of who Trudie should be coupled with her own fear and shame of sharing her own story.

This is an excellent book, rich in plot, with skillful structure, and sympathetic characters. I highly recommend it.

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The title of Jane Hamilton’s novel, When Madeline Was Young, suggests a focus on the woman mentioned therein, the first Mrs. Maciver. The work, however, focuses on the Maciver family that only came to be after Madeline’s tragic accident. The narrator, Timothy “Mac” Maciver, introduces us to his parents Aaron and Julia Maciver who are brought together while Julia, a nurse, cares for Aaron’s first wife Madeline, after she suffers a traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident. The Maciver parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors all play heavily in this novel set primarily in 1960s Illinois , narrated by an adult Mac who now is married and has children of his own.

Hamilton gives us plenty of details about Mac’s childhood, including summers spent in the family vacation compound, holiday dinners at Mac’s parents home, the African-American housekeeper named Russia who cares for three generations of Macivers, and the life on the street where the family lives. A number of issues are illuminated in the light of the 1960s family—from the racial tensions regarding Russia’s place in the Maciver clan to disagreements about the Vietnam War which create a schism in the family when Mac’s cousin Buddy enlists in the Army and Mac doesn’t. Hamilton not only paints a portrait of an atypical family, but puts that family in a context of a changing world.

My biggest criticism of the book is the treatment of Madeline both by the characters and the author. After the traumatic brain injury leaves Madeline at the cognitive level of a seven year old, Mac’s parents relegate her to child status for the rest of her life. Raised as a sibling to Buddy and his sister Louise, Madeline shares her dolls with the neighborhood children and sleeps in a pink canopy bed. Thankfully, Buddy’s aunt Figgy articulates what the reader is thinking when she speaks about the births of Mac and Louise, “(T)hen wasn’t Julia sorry she’d infantilized Madeline? Not that Madeline had ever had the capacity to be a brain surgeon, but they might have treated her like an adult instead of insisting she play the part of the child.” The question of why Aaron and Julia treat Madeline as they do is not resolved by the characters or the author. Is it pity? Do they feel indebted to her for bringing them together? Does Julia, as Figgy suggests, like the martyr role? There are a number of possibilities considered by Mac but there is no resolution. The question seems as though it should be a central one but Hamilton reduces it to a supporting issue rather than those at the fore of the novel—like racism and the war.

Hamilton creates interesting characters, introduces us to a unique family situation, and creates a specific time and place as a backdrop for the action. What she doesn’t do is tell us enough about Madeline. What did Madeline think about her child status? How did she feel about the second Mrs. Maciver taking her place? How much did she remember about her life before the accident? The book left me with so many questions about Madeline. I wish Hamilton had shed more light on what things were like “When Madeline Was Young” but I did enjoy reading about the Maciver clan and do recommend the book with the caveat that it is not about Madeline, as the title suggests.