The Secret of Raven Point: A Novel Author: Visit Amazon's Jennifer Vanderbes Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1439167001 | Format: PDF
The Secret of Raven Point: A Novel Description
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Guest Review of The Secret of Raven Point
By Matthew Pearl
The plot alone of Jennifer Vanderbes's The Secret of Raven Point is a grabber, though it is just the beginning of the novel's strengths. Set during WWII, a young woman discovers that her enlisted brother has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Her desire to be part of the war effort and, at a deeper and more dangerous level, her will to find out what happened to her brother, leads her to volunteer as a nurse, giving us a rare perspective on the horrors and triumphs of war as she is sent to the Italian front. One of the usual challenges of placing fiction in a historical setting is how to maintain just the right touch, the interplay of a distant time and the private immediacy of characters we care about. This is what reels me into The Secret of Raven Point so thoroughly, making the big and important geopolitical events surrounding Vanderbes’s characters feel just as reachable and fresh as the very personal search on which the heroine Juliet embarks.
The elements that let you sink into the book are so well-balanced here. There's romance without being mawkish; there's real drama without being melodrama; and there's danger and suspense without ever feeling contrived. In many traditional depictions of World War II, we receive big panoramas of major battles; part of the interest Vanderbes skillfully creates comes by pushing the battles aside and leading us through the battle fatigues, the mental and physical injuries and the caretakers' traumas that make the hospital camps such fascinating subjects.
As a young woman sorting through the lives of the soldiers left behind as the war marches forward, Juliet never feels like an easy stand-in for the reader transported to WWII for the benefit of the story; she has a full force of life to her and that makes us invested in the secrets she chases. She adjusts and changes as the events of history do. One can think of this novel as having a parallel structure that is crafted by the heroine and the author; as Juliet peels back the layers of narrative around her brother's disappearance, Vanderbes builds the layers of the book. An equally fascinating aspect of the story revolves around Barnaby, a wounded soldier with whom Juliet forms a unique bond that could hold the key to her search. Again, he is not the typical figure of war. He is a complicated outcast who has felt the brunt of the accumulated cruelties of the battlefield and has been punished for it. Vanderbes is a great writer, at the level of words and the larger span of a compelling story, another reason The Secret of Raven Point is such a memorable novel that can be enjoyed in countless ways.
From Booklist
When her brother goes missing in Italy during WWII, young Juliet Dufresne signs up to be an army nurse. She and her brother have always been very close, and she cannot imagine her family life going on without him. Once in Italy, in addition to assisting in the constant surgeries performed at field hospitals, she helps psychiatrist Dr. Henry Willard, who is doing pioneering work on battle fatigue. When she finds out that patient Christopher Barnaby, a deserter up for court-martial, served in her brother’s unit, she becomes determined to bring Christopher out of his catatonic state so that he can tell her what happened to her brother. In her third novel, Vanderbes (Strangers at the Feast, 2010) graphically depicts the gruesome nature of battlefield injuries, both to the body and to the psyche, even as she shows Juliet’s courage and strength. The skillful Vanderbes’ aching depiction of Juliet’s struggle to maintain her humanity amid the army’s callous bureaucracy and the horrors of war works as both an homage to our armed forces and a moving personal story of emotional growth. --Joanne Wilkinson
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- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (February 4, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1439167001
- ISBN-13: 978-1439167007
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes has a grim setting with a world ravaged by war, desperation, bare survival and anguish during World War II. The main focus of the story is not about the evils of war but its impact on the physical and mental well-being of the men who played leading roles by fighting in the frontlines. It is a story that captures the horror, pain, heartbreak and trauma of a world that is at war.
The central character in the story is Juliet Dufresne whose carefree life has been interrupted by the events of the war. After her brother Tuck writes to her pleading for help, he was reported missing in action while fighting in the Italian campaign. A desperate Juliet volunteers herself as a nurse lying about her age. Serving in a hospital north of Rome, Juliet learns a lot more than what she bargained for. There are other characters who played prominent roles though the focus of the book is on Juliet. One such person is a soldier named Christopher Barnaby who has been broken and shattered to the extent that he contemplated suicide, followed it through and still survived. Fate seems to have a plan for him, though his first stop after the failed suicide bid was to face a court martial. And Juliet pins her hope of finding her brother on him as he may be one of the last person to see her brother.
Then there is the military psychiatrist, Dr. Henry Willard, who treats soldiers in the hope of giving them hope in the midst of the war. Another important character in the story is the chaplain who at times must decide what is more important – the spiritual or physical, as soldiers are dying around him. And finally, The Secret of Raven Point is the story of ordinary soldiers who must fight to live another day – some days some made it, but most days many don’t.
When Juliet receives a letter from her brother Tuck, pleading for help and then he goes missing while fighting overseas, Juliet lies about her age so she can volunteer as a nurse. Her hope is to be stationed by him so that she can find him, or at least find out what happened to him. While stationed just north of Rome, she comes in contact with a patient named Christopher Barnaby. Barnaby is awaiting trial for desertion and is suffering from self-inflicted injuries which has rendered him unconscious, but while undergoing a procedure, he briefly mentions Tuck which gives Juliet hope that her brother is still alive.
It’s a horrible thing to admit, but I do not like books about war. I often find them to be depressing and over-worked. But, I loved Strangers at the Feast, which was my first experience reading Vanderbes. That book had nothing to do with war, but I was so impressed with the writing that I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to read her work.
After just a few chapters, I realized that this was not your typical tale of lost love. This story centers around a brother and sister and although there are a few romantic encounters with people that Juliet meets, the book isn’t about them and instead, focuses on the love Juliet has for her brother. This was refreshing to me and not what I expected. Plus, Juliet is quite level-headed for such a young girl. She’s willful and determined and a little stubborn but essentially driven by her need to find Tuck.
As a nurse, she sees the horrors of war first hand. There are numerous amputees and men that are so damaged mentally, that they will never be able to return to the life they once knew. She befriends doctors and nurses and learns from them, but at the same time, becomes worn down from the routine of it all.
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