Zakhor. Al Tichkah.

  It's done. And this is now one of my favourite books. It's gripping, exciting, and emotional. This book was also one of the best written books that I have read. It deals with such a strong and emotional subject but Mrs. De Rosnay makes it easy to read about, without belittling the subject matter. I also loved going back and forth through time periods and was sad when it stopped. It gave me a look inside more than one character which doesn't usually happen. I also learned a lot from this book about the Vel D'hiv, which before reading I wasn't really aware of. I had heard of it once before in history class but it was briefly mentioned; this book gave me a real insight to what happened. It showed how the Jewish families felt and treated, how the people of France reacted, and how present day we try to remember. The emotions in this book were so strong, and deep that at some points I wanted to cry for Sarah. I was immersed in this book from the moment I started reading it and I couldn't put it down. Everything about this book made it delightful to read, even though the mood of the story sorrowful. This book is what it promises to be, and is something that will stay on my mind for a long time. I am recommending it to everyone one of my friends because I thought it was so good. It is a very touching and heartfelt story that kept me wanting more. I'm sad that it's over, but I know I will Zakhor. Al Tichkah; Remember. Never forget. 

Sarah's key the MOVIE!

  The book has been adapted into a movie in France! this is very exciting because hopefully I will be able to watch it, with subtitles of course. It was released this year and is still being released around the world today. The movie was also featured in a Gala at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) earlier this year. So hopefully soon the movie will be available in Canada. One thing I noticed though was that the movie in France is call Her Name is Sarah not Sarah's key. So this makes me wonder if for North America she changed the name of the book? Or if there is just many different versions of the title? Either way I must see this movie.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzDZ9e3mGRE

Judging a Book by its Cover

The book has had a variety of different covers such as:

                                    

All the covers I find intriguing and I would most likely read the book based on all of these covers. But my favourite is the one with the two children running. It shows innocents that Sarah had, and the in the background reminds me of my trip to Paris. To me it almost looks like the back courtyard of Versailles. I was able to visit Versailles in March and a picture I have of the palace is similar to the background. the two children also allow a vision of Sarah and Michael together and how they used to have fun, and be so innocent. This cover is my favourite out of the many that there are.

 

Quotes for Thought

 Through out reading the book I came across some lines and quotes that I really liked. So hear are just a few of them:

"The eyes of a women in the face of a ten-year-old girl." (162)

"He had closed his eyes." (163)

"Zakhor. Al Tichkah. Remember. Never forget." (261)

"I had looked at him straight in the eyes. Sorry for not knowing. Sorry for being forty-five years old and not knowing." (192) 

"Why so much pain, so much suffering, thought the girl. "It's because they hate us," Rachel had told her with a deep hoarse voice. "They hate Jews." Such hate, thought the girl. Why such hate? She had never hated anyone in her life, except perhaps a teacher, once." (page 87)

"Were they in fact machines, not human beings? She looked closely at them. They seemed of flesh and bone. They were men. She couldn't understand." (79)

All these quotes stuck in my mind through out the book. They are all powerful and full of meaning, and show what Sarah went through and the pain of the time. These were the most memorable quotes for me.  

The Key

   The book is called Sarah's Key, and the actual key is a symbol in the book. To me the key is a symbol for how we as people like to try to lock our fears away. We try to ignore them and hide from them; and we think that if we try to lock them up then they won’t bother us. In the book Sarah locks her brother in the closet because she is scared. She has fear of what is going to happen to her family and especially her little brother who she cares for greatly. By locking her brother in the hiding place and her taking the key she thinks that now he is safe, and her fear of what will happen to him is going to go away. When she later learns that they will not be returning home the key is a constant reminder of what she did; she instantly becomes afraid and worried about her brother Michael every time she sees it. The key does not allow her to have power over her fear by locking them away. There is always a reminder of what you are trying to hide, and it's is not until you come to reality and face the fear you are hiding that you are able to unlock it. Sarah has a key, a key to her secrets, and just like everyone in the world she carries it around with her until she is able to face her worst fear come true. The key in the book shows us that we cannot just try to hide our fears but we have to try to unlock them.
 Another way to look at what the key symbolizes is to think of it as hope. Sarah carries around the key with her everywhere she goes and this is a little piece of hope that her brother is safe and may be alive. She used the key in hope that her brother would be safe and one day she will find him. We all have a little piece of hope in our lives that we turn to when we need it. Sarah never let go of the key just like how she never lost hope or ambition to get back to her brother. The key is her only hope that her brother is alive and she hangs on to it until the day she dies. The key is also then symbolic for hope.
Overall there can be many interpretations about what the key symbolizes but these are just my views.

Characters

Now that the book is done I have a complete list of characters and their relationships. So here is an overview of the characters:


                                                         Sarah Starzynski
                                          Main character, 10 year old Jewish girl.
Family and Friends:                                                                                                
Michel Starzynski- Sarah's younger brother                     
 Wladyslaw Starzynski- Sarah's father                               
 Rywka Starsynski- Sarah's mother                                   
Rachel- Sarah's friend who she meets in the Jewish prison camp                                                                                                                                                                                              
Family Post War:
Jules and Genevieve Dufaure- Sarah's adoptive parents, who hide her during the war.
Gaspard and Nicolas Dufaure- Sarah's adoptive cousins, Jules and Genevieve's grandsons
Nathalie Dufaure- Gaspard's daughter            
William Rainsferd- Sarah's son                                                           
                                                          Julia Jarmond
                    Main character, middle aged American journalist living in Paris   
Bertrand Tezac- Julia's french husband
Zoe- Julia's 11 year old daughter
Charla- Julia's sister
Edouard Tezac- Bertrand's father and Julia's father- in-law
Mame- Bertrand's great grandmother
Colette Tezac- Bertrand's mother, Julia's mother-in-law
Laure and Cecile Tezac- Bertrand's sisters, Julia's sister-in-laws
Antoine- Family friend and Bertrand's business partner
Joshua- Julia's boss
Bamber- Julia's friend and co-worker
Herve and Christophe- Julia's long time friends, both gay.
Guillaume- Herve and Christophe's friend, who soon becomes Julia's friend. His family was apart of the Vel D'hiv
William Rainsferd- Julia's new found friend, son of Sarah Starzynski
Sarah - Julia's youngest daughter, named after Sarah Starzynski



                                             

The End

  The book is done and I am sad it's over. I just wanted to keep reading and I kept putting off reading the ending because I didn't want it to end. I was quite happy that Julia moved to the States and that she could not live in Sarah's old house. I know after learning about the past history I wouldn't be able to live there, and I'm glad that Julia felt the same way. I was also very happy when Mr. William Rainsferd called her and asked to see her again. Him and Julia didn't really have closure together and if they didn't meet up Julia would be wondering about him forever. She had to know that she didn't ruin his life, and that he knows what she did was so Sarah was never forgotten. At the end of the book it is also set in NYC in 2005 so Julia has had her baby and she is now a toddler. Like at the beginning of the book this little girl does not have a name, she is referred to as "the baby", but I had my suspicions that her name would be Sarah. And I was right she named her after Sarah Starzynski. She felt that it was the right thing to do seeing as she had spent her pregnancy searching about Sarah, and it was a way for her to remember her always. Julia says "My Sarah. An echo to the other one, to the other Sarah, to the little girl with the yellow star who had changed my life." (p293) I'm glad that Julia is now able to go on in her life and that Sarah will always play a role in her life. I just wish that the book kept on going, because I loved the way it was written and it was hard to stop reading. This is now one of my favourite books and I am so glad I choose to read it.

Sarah's Ending

At the end of the book we learn that while living in the USA Sarah died. We are first told it was because of a car accident, but this to me did not seem right. Why would Mrs. De Rosnay just end her life with a car crash? Sarah had gone through so much and with all that has happened through the book with Julia working so hard to find her, a car crash just didn't seem right. I may be thinking this way also because I so desperately wanted Sarah to be alive and for her to meet Julia. So hearing she died in the first place was heart wrenching for me, my favourite character gone and with little explanation. Luckily later on thanks to William Rainsferd we learn that her death was no accident. She had become depressed, and was hiding who she really was. Not even her family after the war knew all of her secretes. No one not even her new cousins, or children, she kept it all bottled up. This caused her to eventually snap, and kill herself, even though her soul had been dead for a long time. Julia, even though she never met her, was able to have more closure knowing this mystery of Sarah had been solved.
  This was a very sad part in the book, and even though it is not exactly what i wanted as a reader, I knew for Julia to have closure something like this had to happen. Sarah had to move on, even though it wasn't on earth, she had to be with her family. For her to die was the only way herself Sarah I think could ever have closure.

The Abortion Issue

  Julia is pregnant! It's wonderful news considering her past history with miscarriages, and her age. But Bertrand doesn't want to have this baby! This makes me not like him even more then I did before. He was always arrogant and thinking he was superior. He also was not supportive of Julia and her work on the Vel d'hiv and Sarah. To me for a relationship to work you both have to support each other and Betrand did not seem to ever support Julia. And then we find out he had an affaire, of course that’s when I decided I truly disliked him. Julia was forgiving enough to stay with him, but I'm not sure if I would be able to do that, or even trust him again. But then when he says he doesn't want to keep the baby, that’s when I really hated him. He wants her to get an abortion! Something that is a miracle to Julia is a tragedy to Bertrand, and he tells her she must give it up. This is the abortion issue, and personally I do not think she should have the abortion. She portrays emotions of happiness, and excitement when she finds out about this miracle, why should she have to give it up because he says so?  It is Julia's decision and Bertrand is just being selfish. He says the reason he does not want to have the baby is because he doesn't have to be an old father. To me this is the worst excuse for not having a baby that you could ever think of. The child won’t care how old their parents are all they will care about is the love they receive and age doesn't stop you from loving. Bertrand is just having a mid life crisis and he needs to be supportive and allow Julia to do what she wants. 

  But then again with him being so negative and selfish, maybe it is better for Julia to get a divorce to get rid of the negativity in her life. She could have to baby and do as she pleased, without a burden of Bertrand to bear.

No More Time Traveling

  So near the end of the book it stops switching from Sarah in 1942 back to Julia in 2002, and this made me sad. I loved going back and forth, and Sarah's plot was my favourite! I'm so sad it stopped because even though she got away I still wanted to know what she was up to and what she was thinking. But now there is just Julia and her plot, but this does mean that her plot and Sarah's plot have become more intertwined. And that is probably why she stopped going back and forth; because Sarah and Julia's plot had become one. Julia is so immersed with Sarah that we are able to see what Sarah did and how she must have felt through Julia. So this is my thought on why Mrs. De Rosnay stopped the time traveling. But I still miss reading between the two, and being placed back in time in 1942. Sarah's plot was just so intriguing and kept me on my feet reading and I'm just sad her side of the story stopped.

Eyesight in Sarah's key and King Lear

 To answer Ms. Romyn’s question about comparing the use of sight in Sarah's key and King Lear, I definitely think that there are some similarities. Previously I mentioned the quote "He closed his eyes"(pg163). Her father in law Edouard and all other Parisians during 1942 had closed their eyes on what their own country was doing to the Jewish people. They were not seeing what was right in front of them. This is like in King Lear, when Lear himself was not able to see the sins that he had committed. "I am a man more sinned against than sinning". (3.2 58-59) Also how he had cause disruption out of his own selfishness by banishing Cordelia. Gloucester also had his eyes closed, he was not able to that Edmund was setting him up, and it is not until he has no eyes at all that he is able to see truth. He can see the truth about Edgar and Edmund and what he has done. In Sarah's Key they all kept their eyes closed and Julia opens them for the family and makes them see the truth.