Libby Cone

This book was intriguing from a historical point of view; it explores an area I’ve not seen done much in historical fiction. As the only part of British soil occupied by the Nazis, the Channel Islands give us a microcosm of how occupation might have been if Britain had been taken. The author utilizes first hand sources and empathetic storytelling to give us a window into a dangerous, spellbinding world.

I liked how the author was balanced in her portrayal of the Channel Islanders. Both the collaborators and the resistors were given page time, giving us a view into both sides of the Nazi occupation. The hard reality of war comes to vivid life as well: food shortages, round-ups, life on the run, and the slave labor of the Nazi era. Enough that the reader is sucked in immediately and lives the story along with the characters.

I liked the characters generally, though I felt there was a weird balance of the POVs that did the book a disservice. Marlene and Peter, our two fictional “leads”, are the heart of the book. Through their eyes and hearts, the reader feels like they’re experiencing the story rather than just reading it. They read like two people who get swept up into the epic that is warfare and resistance, tugging the reader along by the heartstrings.

However, there is too much emphasis and page time given to the POVs of our historically real figures like Lucy, Suzanne, and Albert. Lucy and Suzanne play a big part in the story, taking Marlene in and being driving forces behind Resistance. They could be considered leads in the story as well. So their POVs have merit.

However, they take up so much page time, along with other real figures, that Marlene and Peter read as secondary characters at times. Other POVs like Albert and Mary Erica were just superfluous, in my opinion. They were important figures and played a intriguing part in the history of the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands. But for this book, they were extraneous and unneeded. Marlene and Peter’s story got lost in the shuffle of history at times which is a shame.

The author pays attention to her history and research, which is much appreciated by this WWII history buff. I liked her incorporation of first hand sources and POVs of real historical figures. Yet, those very same POVs drown out our fictional figures, which are the heart of the story and how the reader invests themselves into the story (at least for me). So an intriguing read for the history, but needs work for the fictional stuff.… (més)

I quite enjoyed Libby Cone’s first book War on the Margins, and when she e-mailed me about reviewing her new book Flesh and Grass I was immediately interested. Generally when I read historical fiction I read fiction based around the two world wars but I thought why not get out of my comfort zone a little.

Unfortunately I didn’t find Flesh and Grass as good as War on the Margins. I found it a little slower, and I didn’t really feel like I ever got into it. There were elements I liked, I thought the emotions were done really well, and you could really understand how smells were attached to emotions for Cornelis. Historically it was interesting too, but I didn’t really get much from it about what it was like to be in completely new place. While events which would bring strong emotions were well described the general day-to-day feelings brought on by moving to a new place were barely touched upon.

I must admit that Libby Cone does have the tendency to write like a historian rather than an author. The topics are interesting but turning them into a story adds little, and it seemed to add less here than in War on the Margins.… (més)

Wow .... just wow. You know that feeling when your partner hands you a gift and it's in a really little package and you know it is going to be an expensive and amazing gift? Well this book is like that. An amazing gift in a small package.

A fictional group of immigrants from The Netherlands land in America in the hopes of building a community that allows them to live and worship as they wish. Despite this description, the book is not what I would categorize 'Christian Fiction'. It is, more realistically, historical fiction that Libby Cone states is "a work of fiction loosely based on the story of the Plockhoy settlement." (if you are interested in more info on the Plockhoy settlement, Google it. If you want a more concise synopsis of this book, click here)

Pieter Boom takes his wife and son, Cornelis, to begin a new and better life in the New World in 1662. First twist: Cornelis is blind. He is also the narrator of the story. Consequently his descriptions are based mostly on smell. (The odorous descriptions of all the good food is why I blame Ms. Cone for the total destruction of my diet) The descriptive passages in the book are so vivid that I could smell the baking bread, the beer, the spices, the sun on the grass. Being blind also means that people tend to speak freely around Cornelis so he is privy to the goings on in the community and able to keep his family updated on the news of the day.

Second twist: life in America is not all it's cracked up to be. It starts off great but soon war intrudes on the idyllic life of the new community. It becomes apparent that tribulations are not endemic to where people live, instead they are endemic to living. And if the smells of food did damage to my diet, so did the smells of destruction - no meat for me for awhile.

I picked this 167 page gem off of my TBR pile this morning and before I knew it, I was closing the book on the last page. The narrative is easy to read although the language is true to the 1600's. There are lots of big words and the syntax is often unfamiliar but, somehow, the story doesn't get bogged down or lost in the vocabulary. This one is going to stick with me - in a good way.… (més)

Libby Cone is brilliant at depicting the struggles and adversities the Jews of Jersey had to endure during the Nazi regime’s takeover during World War II. She introduces many little known facts and historical references within War on the Margins. I was deeply touched by the plight of those whose lives were devastated and/or those who were killed. The intelligent, compelling and sober book is a must read for World War II and Shoah/Holocaust history buffs, and for those who want to gain a more in-depth insight into the mechanics of the events and daily struggles that occurred on the Channel Islands.

I want to thank Libby Cone for sending me a copy of War on the Margins. I am grateful to have read it, and appreciate her sending me her compelling book. Thank you.… (més)