Reviewer June Maffin:Living on an island in British Columbia, Canada, Dr. Maffin is a neophyte organic gardener, eclectic reader, ordained minister (Anglican/Episcopal priest) and creative spirituality writer/photographer with a deep zest for life. Previously, she has been grief counselor, broadcaster, teacher, journalist, television host, chaplain and spiritual director with an earned doctorate in Pastoral Care (medical ethics i.e. euthanasia focus). Presently an educator, freelance editor, blogger, and published author of three books, her most recent (Soulistry-Artistry of the Soul: Creative Ways to Nurture your Spirituality) has been published in e-book as well as paperback format and a preview can be viewed on YouTube videos. Founder of Soulistry™ she continues to lead a variety of workshops and retreats connecting spirituality with creativity and delights in a spirituality of play. You can find out more about June by clicking on her Web Site.
Author: Sigrid
MacRae
ISBN: 9780670015832
Publisher: Viking Penguin Publishers
The story begins with
the gift of a carved, locked wooden box by eighty-five year old
American-born Aimee to her daughter with the words “Your father’s
letters.” Many years after Aimee dies, Sigrid opens the box
and encounters the tragic love story of her parents through the
intimate letters and diaries locked inside the box.
When
Aimee was very young, her socialite and wealthy Connecticut mother
died and her father was unable to provide a loving, supportive
environment as a single parent to Aimee. Soon after the end of
WW1, she went to Europe and met a young well-educated, titled Baltic
German, Baron Heinrich von Hoyningen-Huene.
When the
Russian Revolution began and the Bolsheviks came to power, Heinrich’s
aristocrat family was forced to leave their home and life
dramatically changed for them all. Heinrich was penniless.
But the love he and Aimee shared was immediate and passionate.
They married and remained in Europe even though Heinrich’s hopes of
a diplomatic career were unrealized. Eventually, he
joined the Nazi Party, hoping to bring ‘change-from-within,’ but
when WW 11 broke out, he was drafted into the Nazi army, leaving
Aimee alone with five young children.
On his last
furlough, Aimee became pregnant again and another child was on the
way.
When Heinrich was killed on the Russian front, Aimee
struggled to survive on their farm north of Berlin. She gave
birth to her sixth child (the author of this book); fed her now six
young children; and cared for the ever-increasing number of people
who came to depend on her hospitality, encouraging letters and thanks
to a Trust Fund, her financial support. Aware of Russian
brutality and fearful for her eldest son who had been conscripted by
the Nazis, Aimee made the agonizing decision to leave the farm and
the family became refugees, hoping to encounter Allied forces.
The
story is powerful. The author knows how to write beautiful
prose - particularly towards the end of the book.
What is missing, however, is a skilled and constructive editor,
someone who would encourage the author to be consistent in her
writing style - at times, “A World Elsewhere” reads as a
biography. At other times, it reads as a novel; an editor who
would encourage her to create a more appropriate title (almost ten
(!) chapters pass by before “wartime Germany” is part of the
story); one who would discourage placement of the complex family
history at the beginning of the book and place it in an Appendix at
the back of the book; one who would suggest inclusion of a family
tree and a map showing places that were significant to the story; and
an editor who would have the author reveal her relationship to Aimee
in an Epilogue to the book rather than in the Prologue.
Had these been done, this beautifully written, gripping and dramatic story which offers a poignant and rare insight into the life of an American woman caught in the chaos of Germany during WW11 would have been a more cohesive read.