Reading Response #2 to Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

       I really enjoyed the perspective change that Tatiana de Rosnay used in this book, Sarah's Key.  She switched back and forth between a writer in Paris during the present time period, and a little girl in Paris during the Jewish roundup in 1492.  The characters' plot mountains are very similar.  They both had climaxes at the same time which made the story extremely exciting.  This book is dealing with many important issues that are still problems today.
       In the present time character's story, she was dealing with racism and abortion.  Although she had lived in Paris for 25 years, all of her friends and French family still referred to her as the American.  Whenever she did something wrong they would say something like, "You silly American."  This made her feel very excluded and bad about herself.  She just wanted to be seen as a true Parisian because that is how she saw herself.  She wanted to fit in so bad, but no one would include her in their definition of a true French woman.  This lady was also dealing with pregnancy issues.  Her husband was very selfish and wanted a baby so badly from his wife, preferably a son.  Though she had numerous and sometimes fatal difficulties.  She finally managed to give birth to a beautiful, healthy girl.  Though he soon begged her for a second child which she failed to deliver.  This woman could just not do it no matter how badly she wanted to.  Though she finally managed to get pregnant again, but this time he decided he was too old to have a baby and would divorce her if she did not get an abortion.  I think this must have crushed her.  All she wanted to do was to make her husband happy though she failed to do so.  This insight helped her decide that she needed to make herself happy for once so she decided to have the baby.  I think the author created this character and her problems to help make the story more relatable.
       The little girl from the 1940s had less relatable, but very devastating problems.  She was Jewish, during the Jewish roundup.  Things were not looking good for her and she had no idea what was going on because her parents thought they were protecting her by keeping information from her.  She decided to lock her brother in the cupboard to keep him safe because she thought that her family would return to their home in a few hours.  She had no idea what was going on.  In the next month she lost her entire family, her trust for adults and her innocence.  The girl went through a rapid character change, just like the present day woman.  I think the author had their story lines connect to reduce confusion about what was going on.  I truly loved this book, reading it was an incredibly emotional journey and I would recommend it to anyone who likes WWII books.