Good Book Alert

A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

I got this book out of the library based on the number of times I saw it in the "pick up" shelves. If you don't get it for Christmas, you should put it on your list of good reads on a cold winter night.

It is about a woman who had to break barriers and rules to become the leading counter-intelligence person in France during WW2. A woman in a very man's world . All she ever got was basically a lump of coal from the government (British, then US), but she had the enduring love and admiration of the citizen soldiers of France who witnessed first hand her cunning and devious ways. She avoided accolades and embraced death and danger at every turn. Truly a hero for the ages.

There are so many layers to what happened back then that this clears many things up for me but also adds more areas of intrigue. Like the time about 8 years ago when my mother and I were visiting the American Cemetery on the way from Nice to Avignon. Our tour came in contact with a US vet who was making his annual pilgrimage to the memorial.

He ended up describing for us his experience of being shot down over southern France and making his way back to his unit by way of La Résistance, If I remember right, it took a year. It was a treasure for us all to hear his story. Previously, I assumed La Resistance was a tight network of farmers and villagers who relentlessly sabotaged the invading Armies. In reality, those who were connected with the "organization" were faced with death much of the time. The book was excellent in describing the paranoia, lack of cohesion and brutal retaliation for those in La Resistance. Now I wish I could go back and meet that  soldier again... I would have a lot more questions.

The book is a shocking account of all the hell of war, and about a lack or recognition for one who probably had more impact that most others in securing a earlier defeat for Hitler and his thugs. Of course, it is kind of a downer for the holiday season but well worth a reality check for who we are and where we have come from.

Mary Wingfield

Minnesota visitors to Montreal 29 August 2019. Mary is thetall one in the back?