Charlotte Gray ( Vintage, 1999, ISBN 978-0099394310) follows on the footsteps of Birdsong and could be termed loosely as a sequel. Faulkes is a superb story teller and allows the reader to experience the real feelings and emotions of such extraordinary times.
Characters
Charlotte is the main character, a young girl wanting to escape from her father and mother without really knowing why in the beginning. We see her travel not only far from home but also emotionally as she discovers her strengths and makes friends. On her journey she appears so fragile and she shares the unspoken hint of childhood abuse by her psychiatrist father which led to teenage depression.Charlotte is honest about her feelings for her mother which don't amount to much either. Yet on the other hand the brave Scottish lass signs up as a 'courier' to try and find her lover who has been lost on a flying mission.
It is Charlottes' interesting and magnetic personality that attracts Peter Gregory. Peter is a fighter pilot struggling with his continued success at keeping off the death statistic list for his profession and the deep, heartfelt guilt for friends he has lost. The love he feels for Charlotte frightens him so much that he takes on a mission which puts him at risk. But it is only then that he realises and accepts his feelings for her. Peter knows that this will test him and his love for Charlotte yet he feels unworthy. His mission fails, he is dreadfully injured and nursed back to health in France. Meanwhile Charlotte has been told to expect the worst but she refuses to believe that she has lost the love she has been looking for so soon. So her journey into France, a country, culture and language known to her through her childhood and soon becomes entangled in war at all levels.
The old French Jew, Levade is a particularly colourful character who takes on Charlotte when she stays in France after her mission is finished to find Peter. Although it is Levades son with whom Charlotte eventually succumbs to - you can feel the tensions during her conversations with his father who is a painter and has lost his muse. One feels he may have found a new one in Charlotte, yet he never paints her. He is brutal in his questioning and his philosophy on life, yet Charlotte responds only how she can, honestly and without apology.
Plot
This tale however is as much about the lost love affair of France with itself, the internal fighting and the barbaric ways people start to treat each other when power is involved. And with this comes the treatment of the Jews during that time. It is hard to read these accounts like these, yet Faulkes describes them well. The story goes on to describe how two young French Jewish boys are separated from their parents. Charlotte helps to hide them but cannot save them from their fate. It is hard to believe that only 70 years ago, such dreadful atrocities were committed on other people whose only difference was their heritage. A race that has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. Impossible to understand and explain but one that should not be forgotten.
About the Author
Sebastian Faulkes was born in Berkshire. His father fought in the Second World War. He had always wanted to write novels as a young boy and began is his career as a feature writer. His first well-known novel was The Girl at the Lion D’Or in 1989.
